UNLABELLED Following the findings of perceived poor sleep and of chronic pain among former heroin addicts, current methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) patients, and its possible relation to methadone dose, we studied these patients' objective sleep parameters. Former heroin addicts maintained on "Low" (n=19, <80 mg/d) or "High" (n=25, >150 mg/d) methadone doses, underwent one-night polysomnog...

UNLABELLED Twenty eight subjects with refractory, moderate to severe peripheral neuropathic pain participated in an open label prospective trial examining perceived analgesic effect, patient satisfaction, and safety of topical amitriptyline 2%/ketamine 1% cream. Outcome measures included an 11-point numerical rating scale for pain intensity (NRS-PI), a 5-point satisfaction scale, blood chemistr...

OBJECTIVES Some chronic pain states are associated with a distortion of the perceived size or shape of the painful area, and multisensory illusions that disrupt these dimensions can modulate pain in healthy controls and people with painful disorders. Illusory hand resizing has recently been found to relieve pain in hand OA, raising the possibility that the illusion corrects some underlying perc...

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To demonstrate the effects of a program, directed at homecare nurses, of structured educational interventions on the management of pain and opioid-related side effects in homecare patients with cancer. DESIGN A longitudinal multilevel, randomized, controlled clinical trial. SETTING Midwestern region in the United States. SAMPLE 202 nurses caring for patients with cancer...

This study evaluated a theoretically and empirically based model of the progression of acute neck and back pain to chronic pain and disability, developed from the literature in chronic pain, cognition, and stress and trauma. Clinical information and standardized psychosocial measures of cumulative traumatic events exposure (TLEQ), depressed mood (CES-D), pain (DDS), physical disability (PDI), a...

Pain is a highly subjective experience. Self-report is the gold standard for pain assessment in clinical practice, but it may not be available or reliable in some populations. Neuroimaging data, such as electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), have the potential to be used to provide physiology-based and quantitative nociceptive pain assessment tools that c...

Objectives. Some chronic pain states are associated with a distortion of the perceived size or shape of the painful area, and multisensory illusions that disrupt these dimensions can modulate pain in healthy controls and people with painful disorders. Illusory hand resizing has recently been found to relieve pain in hand OA, raising the possibility that the illusion corrects some underlying per...

From an evolutionary-psychological perspective, it has been argued that a sense of burdensomeness toward kin may erode self-preservational motives, which in turn, fosters suicidality. We reasoned that if this were so, perceived burdensomeness should specifically characterize those who complete suicide, even as compared to those who attempt suicide, whereas other dimensions (e.g., hopelessness, ...

OBJECTIVE People living with sickle cell disease (SCD) experience severe episodic and chronic pain and frequently report poor interpersonal treatment within health-care settings. In this particularly relevant context, we examined the relationship between perceived discrimination and both clinical and laboratory pain. METHODS Seventy-one individuals with SCD provided self-reports of experience...

The study was performed to investigate the relationship between perceived muscle tension and electromyographic hyperactivity and to what extent electromyographic (EMG) hyperactivity relates to personality traits in fibromyalgics. Thirty-six females with fibromyalgia performed isokinetic maximal forward flexions of the shoulder combined with surface EMG recordings of the trapezius and infraspina...