Project description:Integrating satisfaction measures with pain-related variables can highlight global change and improvement from the patients' perspective. This study examined patient satisfaction in an interdisciplinary chronic pain management program. Nine hundred and twenty-seven (n = 927) participants completed pre- and post-treatment measures of pain, depression, catastrophizing, anxiety, stages of change, and pain acceptance. Multiple regression was used to examine these variables at admission and discharge as predictors of patient satisfaction. Pain-related variables explained 50.6% of the variance (R2 = .506, F 22,639 = 29.79, P < .001) for general satisfaction, and 38.9% of the variance (R2 = 0.389, F 22,639 = 18.49, P < .001) for goal accomplishment. Significant predictors of general satisfaction included depression (β = -0.188, P < .001) and the maintenance stage of change (β = 0.272, P < .001). The latter was also a significant predictor of goal accomplishment (β = 0.300, P < .001). Discharge pain-related measures are more influential than admission measures for predicting patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction is significantly related to establishing a self-management approach to pain.
Project description:After reviewing how psychological treatment for chronic pain comes to have its current form, and summarizing treatment effectiveness, we explore several areas of development. We describe third wave therapies, such as mindfulness; we discuss what the research literature aggregated can tell us about what trials are more useful to conduct; and we outline some areas of promise and some failures to deliver on promise. The article is drawn together using the framework of the normal psychology of pain, identifying some of its most important implications for improving life for people with chronic pain.
Project description:ObjectiveA qualitative study of patients' experiences and the impacts of peer support groups that patients maintained after UK NHS group pain management programs (PMPs).DesignLong-term impacts of group PMPs remain unclear, with indications that positive effects can fade. We evaluated a model of continued peer support, co-produced by patients and clinicians, to maintain the therapeutic impact of PMP groups. A protocol was implemented that encouraged patients to continue to meet in their established PMP group for patient-led peer support (without clinical input) after PMPs finished. Peer support aimed to consolidate self-management, and advance social life recovery. We examined the impacts that groups had on attendees, and why some dropped out.MethodsSemi-structured interviews with 38 patients and 7 clinicians, analyzed thematically.ResultsFriendship bonds and mutual understandings of effective ways of coping with pain encouraged participants to maintain recovery following PMPs. After PMP professional involvement has ended, these meetings enabled patients to develop greater agency from the shared sense of helping bring about new achievements or averting setbacks. Peer support extended the understanding of what is possible when living with pain. However, continuing meetings were not right for all. Reasons for not attending included lack of connection with peers.ConclusionsCo-produced peer support groups after PMPs can be a low-cost, effective social intervention, providing emotional, practical and social benefits, with improved self-management skills, stronger social connections and some reduced use of health services. Project resources for developing peer support meetings after PMPs are freely available online.
Project description:Pain persisting for at least 6 months is defined as chronic. Chronic facial pain conditions often take on lives of their own deleteriously changing the lives of the sufferer. Although much is known about facial pain, it is clear that those physicians who treat these conditions should continue elucidating the mechanisms and defining successful treatment strategies for these life-changing conditions. This article will review many of the classic causes of chronic facial pain due to the trigeminal nerve and its branches that are amenable to surgical therapies. Testing of facial sensibility is described and its utility introduced. We will also introduce some of the current hypotheses of atypical facial pain and headaches secondary to chronic nerve compressions and will suggest possible treatment strategies.
Project description:IntroductionChronic low back pain (CLBP) is associated with negative consequences in high and low/middle-income countries. Pain beliefs are important psychosocial factors that affect the occurrence and progression of CLBP and may be influenced by the sociocultural context and interactions with healthcare professionals (HCPs). The pain beliefs of Ghanaian patients with CLBP are unknown and the factors influencing pain beliefs in African contexts are unclear.ObjectivesTo explore the pain beliefs of Ghanaian patients with CLBP, how they influence CLBP management/coping and to identify the mechanisms influencing them.DesignQualitative study using individual semistructured face-to-face interviews, situated within Straussian grounded theory principles and critical realist philosophy.ParticipantsThirty patients with CLBP accessing physiotherapy at two teaching hospitals in Ghana.ResultsParticipants suggested dominant biomedical/mechanical beliefs (related to CLBP causes, posture and activity, and the belief of an endpoint/cure for CLBP). Maladaptive beliefs and practices, in particular fear-avoidance beliefs, and dependence on passive management and coping, were common among participants. These beliefs and practices were mostly influenced by HCPs and sociocultural expectations/norms. Although spirituality, pacing activity and prescribed exercises were commonly mentioned by participants, other active strategies and positive beliefs were expressed by a few participants and influenced by patients' themselves. Limited physiotherapy involvement, knowledge and awareness were also reported by participants, and this appeared to be influenced by the limited physiotherapy visibility in Ghana.ConclusionParticipants' narratives suggested the dominant influence of HCPs and the sociocultural environment on their biomedical/mechanical beliefs. These facilitated maladaptive beliefs and adoption of passive coping and management practices. Therefore, incorporation of more positive beliefs and holistic/active strategies by Ghanaian patients and HCPs may be beneficial. Furthermore, patient empowerment and health literacy opportunities to address unhelpful CLBP/sociocultural beliefs and equip patients with management options for CLBP could be beneficial.
Project description:IntroductionThe Perioperative Pain Management Bundle was introduced in 10 Serbian PAIN OUT network hospitals to improve the quality of postoperative pain management. The Bundle consists of 4 elements: informing patients about postoperative pain treatment options; administering a full daily dose of 1-2 non-opioid analgesics; administering regional blocks and/or surgical wound infiltration; and assessing pain after surgery. In this study, we aimed to assess the cost-effectiveness of the Bundle during the initial 24 h after surgery.Materials and methodsThe assessment of cost-effectiveness was carried out by comparing patients before and after Bundle implementation and by comparing patients who received all Bundle elements to those with no Bundle element. Costs of postoperative pain management included costs of the analgesic medications, costs of labor for administering these medications, and related disposable materials. A multidimensional Pain Composite Score (PCS), the effectiveness measurement, was obtained by averaging variables from the International Pain Outcomes questionnaire evaluating pain intensity, interference of pain with activities and emotions, and side effects of analgesic medications. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was calculated as the incremental change in costs divided by the incremental change in PCS and plotted on the cost-effectiveness plane along with the economic preference analysis.ResultsThe ICER value calculated when comparing patients before and after Bundle implementation was 181.89 RSD (1.55 EUR) with plotted ICERs located in the northeast and southeast quadrants of the cost-effectiveness plane. However, when comparing patients with no Bundle elements and those with all four Bundle elements, the calculated ICER was -800.63 RSD (-6.82 EUR) with plotted ICERs located in the southeast quadrant of the cost-effectiveness plane. ICER values differ across surgical disciplines.ConclusionThe proposed perioperative pain management Bundle is cost-effective. The cost-effectiveness varies depending on the number of implemented Bundle elements and fluctuates across surgical disciplines.
Project description:More than four years after the release of a landmark report by the Institute of Medicine focused attention on pain in America, there are encouraging signs that the nation may be poised to undergo the "cultural transformation" advocated by the report.
Project description:Chronic pain of uncertain etiology often presents a challenge to both patients and their health care providers. It is a complex condition influenced by structural and physiological changes in the peripheral and central nervous systems, and it directly influences, and is modulated by, psychological well-being and personality style, mood, sleep, activity level and social circumstances. Consequently, in order to effectively treat the pain, all of these need to be evaluated and addressed. An effective management strategy takes a multidisciplinary biopsychosocial approach, with review of all current medications and identification and careful withdrawal of those that may actually be contributing to ongoing pain. The management approach is primarily nonpharmacological, with carefully considered addition of medication, beginning with pain-modulating treatments, if necessary. In this article, we present a primary care approach to the assessment and management of a patient with chronic pain where the cause cannot be identified.
Project description:IntroductionOpioid analgesics are widely used as effective analgesics for the treatment of moderate-to-severe pain. However, the analgesic efficacy of opioids is well known to vary widely among individuals, and effective pain treatment is hampered by vast individual differences. Although these differences in opioid requirements have been attributed to various factors, genetic factors are becoming increasingly relevant to the development of genome science.AimThis review covers the association between opioid analgesic requirements and particularly gene polymorphisms.Future perspectivesPersonalized pain treatment has begun using prediction formulas based on associated gene polymorphisms. Improvements in personalized pain treatment are expected as scientific knowledge further expands in the future.
Project description:Chronic pain, defined as pain existing for >4-6 weeks, affects >60% of patients with autosomal-dominant polycystic disease (ADPKD). It can have various causes, indirectly or directly related to the increase in kidney and liver volume in these patients. Chronic pain in ADPKD patients is often severe, impacting physical activity and social relationships, and frequently difficult to manage. This review provides an overview of pathophysiological mechanisms that can lead to pain and discusses the sensory innervation of the kidneys and the upper abdominal organs, including the liver. In addition, the results of a systematic literature search of ADPKD-specific treatment options are presented. Based on pathophysiological knowledge and evidence derived from the literature an argumentative stepwise approach for effective management of chronic pain in ADPKD is proposed.