Pain Management Today
In Patients With Chronic Pain, Consider Asking About a History of Trauma
Investigators from Johns Hopkins assessed patients with chronic pain to determine whether a history of trauma exposure influences pain outcomes, and whether specific types of trauma may be more impactful.
Evaluating the Efficacy of Massage Therapy for Pain: What You Need to Know
There is low- to moderate-evidence in the literature supporting that massage therapy leads to improvement in painful conditions.
Chronic Pain Management in Older Veterans: Beyond Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Investigators compared cognitive behavioral therapy with emotional awareness and expression therapy in a group of US veterans to determine which approach is more effective in the treatment of chronic pain.
Pain After Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Surgery: ‘Beware the Smoker’
Investigators at the University of Tennessee assessed patients with surgically-repaired rotator cuffs to determine how factors such as obesity, smoking, and alcohol use affect outcomes.
Chronic Postsurgical Pain Common After Ambulatory Surgeries
Chronic postsurgical pain affects a significant proportion of patients undergoing ambulatory surgeries, with nearly 1 in 5 experiencing persistent pain 3 months after their procedure. Effective pain management in the immediate postoperative period may be crucial.
When Music Hurts: An Assessment of Performance-related Pain in Musicians
Musculoskeletal complaints are highly prevalent among musicians, and according to this study, professional musicians are at greater risk than music students.
Chronic Lower Back Pain: Physician Empathy Counts
These investigators found that patients with chronic lower back pain have better pain relief, less disability, and higher health-related quality of life when they rate their physicians as very empathic.
In Patients With Chronic Pain, Magnetoencephalography Reveals Key Brain Changes Post-CBT
These investigators examined improvements in some irregular neural patterns in the right inferior frontal gyrus and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex related to chronic pain following CBT.
It Hurts: Chronic Pain and the Architecture of Sleep
These researchers found that daytime pain sensitivity was associated with reduced REM sleep percentage in women with TMD and insomnia. Understanding the mechanisms behind the link between sleep and pain could lead to more effective sleep treatments for patients with pain disorders.
Postamputation and Chronic Neuropathic Pain After Combat Trauma
This systematic review of studies of combat injury was conducted to establish the prevalence of chronic neuropathic and postamputation pain following combat trauma. The prevalence of residual limb pain was 61%, phantom limb pain was 57%, and phantom limb sensation was 73%.