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The present study investigates how participants' locus of control and their family and friends' validation of their pain influences participants' chronic pain experiences. Four thousand, 25 adults were recruited through the Chronic Pain In America survey. Results show that individuals who endorse an internal locus of control and experience family and friends' validation of their chronic pain reported better chronic pain outcomes and less negative life impact due to chronic pain. The current results indicate the locus of control and family and friends' validation of chronic pain experience plays an important role in chronic pain and the impact of chronic pain across the life course.
Learn More >Despite the known involvement of depression in chronic pain, the association between persistence with and adherence to antidepressant medication and onset of chronic pain in patients with depression remains unclear.
Learn More >More patients are turning to medical marijuana as an alternative treatment, yet there are apparent knowledge gaps on the risk benefit of medical marijuana for a variety of indications. This study aimed to determine the priorities for medical marijuana research from the perspective of multiple stakeholders including patients, clinicians, and industry representatives.
Learn More >Allergic rhinitis symptoms can be reduced by behaviorally conditioning antihistamine. It is unclear whether these findings extend to histamine-induced itch, or work when participants are informed about the conditioning procedure (open-label conditioning). The current study aims to investigate the efficacy of (open-label) antipruritic behavioral conditioning for histamine-induced itch.
Learn More >Vaso-occlusive pain leads to high acute care utilization among patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). Data suggest that clinical pathways (CPWs) reduce variation in the management of vaso-occlusive pain and improve clinical outcomes.
Learn More >A descriptive analysis of secondary data.
Learn More >Myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) affects most patients with chronic shoulder pain. Dry needling (DN) is a common treatment for MPS, but its temporal pattern and sensory effects remain unknown.
Learn More >The experience of pain relief arises from physiological and psychological factors, and attributes such as the commercial features of analgesic treatments have been shown to influence placebo analgesia by affecting treatment expectations. Therefore, treatment valuation from price information should influence the placebo analgesic effect. This hypothesis was tested in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in which healthy subjects were enrolled in a two-day experiment. On day 1, the participants (n=19) had treatment experiences with two different placebo creams during a conditioning session without receiving information on treatment price. On day 2, placebo analgesia was tested after providing price information (high vs. low) while fMRI was performed. The results showed that the higher-priced placebo treatment lead to enhanced pain relief. Placebo analgesia in response to the higher priced treatment was associated with activity in the ventral striatum, ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ventral tegmental area. The behavioral results indicate that the experience of pain was influenced by treatment valuation from price. Our findings reveal that the context of values in pain control is associated with activity in expectation- and reward-related circuitry. Perspective: Treatment with higher price was associated with enhanced placebo analgesia, and this effect was influenced by activities in expectation and reward processing brain areas. The context of value such as medical cost influences cognitive evaluation processes to modulate pain. Our study may help evaluate a patient's preference toward high-priced drugs.
Learn More >Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective for pediatric chronic pain, but little is understood about which youth are most likely to benefit. The current study aimed to identify individual characteristics for which CBT yielded the greatest (and least) clinical benefit among adolescents with chronic pain participating in a multi-center randomized controlled trial (RCT) of internet-delivered CBT (WebMAP2). A total of 273 adolescents ages 11-17 with chronic pain (Mage=14.7; 75.1% female) were randomly assigned to internet-delivered CBT or internet-delivered pain education and evaluated at pre-treatment, post-treatment, and two longer-term follow-up periods (6 and 12 months). Multi-level growth models tested several adolescent- and parent-level moderators of change in pain-related disability including (1) adolescent age, sex, pain characteristics, distress, and sleep quality and (2) parent education level, distress, and protective parenting behaviors. Young adolescents (ages 11-14 vs. older adolescents ages 15-17) and those whose parents experienced lower levels (vs. higher levels) of emotional distress responded better to internet CBT treatment, showing greater improvements in disability up to 12 months post-treatment. This study expands knowledge on who benefits most from internet-delivered psychological treatment for youth with chronic pain in the context of a large multicenter RCT, suggesting several avenues for maximizing treatment efficacy and durability in this population. Perspective: This study identified adolescent- and parent-level predictors of treatment response to Internet-based CBT for pediatric chronic pain up to 12 months later. Younger adolescents and those whose parents had lower levels of distress may particularly benefit from this intervention. Older adolescents and those whose parents exhibit higher distress may require alternative treatment approaches.
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