Introduction: The process of co-creation can enable more effective, agile and integrated healthcare solutions achieving outcomes that effectively translate to healthcare delivery. Collaborative knowledge generation is particularly important in fields such as pediatric chronic pain where there is a complex interplay between biological, social, environmental, emotional, familial and school factors. The co-creation initiative described here was designed to amplify the voices of youth with chronic pain and their families and a variety of key stakeholders and generate novel approaches to the management of chronic pediatric pain in the setting of the South Australian Pediatric Chronic Pain Service.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: We aimed to summarise and critically appraise the available evidence for the effect of age on responsiveness to non-invasive brain stimulation (NBS) paradigms delivered to the primary motor cortex.
Methods: Four databases (Medline, Embase, PsycINFO and Scopus) were searched from inception to February 7, 2023. Studies investigating age group comparisons and associations between age and neuroplasticity induction from NBS paradigms were included.
Introduction: People with persistent pain experience problems modifying their cognition and behaviours when task or environmental demands change - abilities otherwise known as . However, limitations and inconsistent results of previous studies raise concerns over the quality of that evidence. We aimed to determine whether people with and without persistent pain differ on two assessments that are commonly used to assess cognitive flexibility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To identify and synthesize patient-related barriers to and enablers of the implementation of high-value physiotherapy (HVP) for chronic pain. Furthermore, to review what patient-related interventions have been used to facilitate the implementation of HVP for chronic pain, as well as their efficacy.
Methods: We systematically searched the APA PsycInfo, Embase, CINAHL, Medline, Scopus, and PEDro databases for peer-reviewed studies (published in English) of adults with chronic pain.
Background: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic pain condition that usually occurs in a limb following trauma or surgery. It is characterised by persisting pain that is disproportionate in magnitude or duration to the typical course of pain after similar injury. There is currently no consensus regarding the optimal management of CRPS, although a broad range of interventions have been described and are commonly used.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Physical exercise therapy is effective for some people with chronic nonspecific neck pain but not for others. Differences in exercise-induced pain-modulatory responses are likely driven by brain changes. We investigated structural brain differences at baseline and changes after an exercise intervention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition that causes severe loss of motor, sensory and autonomic functions. Additionally, many individuals experience chronic neuropathic pain that is often refractory to interventions. While treatment options to improve outcomes for individuals with SCI remain limited, significant research efforts in the field of electrical stimulation have made promising advancements.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOver the last decade, the content, delivery and media of pain education have been adjusted in line with scientific discovery in pain and educational sciences, and in line with consumer perspectives. This paper describes a decade-long process of exploring consumer perspectives on pain science education concepts to inform clinician-derived educational updates (undertaken by the authors). Data were collected as part of a quality audit via a series of online surveys in which consent (non-specific) was obtained from consumers for their data to be used in published research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Interhemispheric inhibition is an important cortical mechanism to support motor control. Altered interhemispheric inhibition has been the target of neuromodulation interventions. This systematic review investigated the evidence for altered interhemispheric inhibition in adults with unilateral neurological conditions: stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cerebral palsy, complex regional pain syndrome, traumatic brain injury, and cerebral palsy METHODS: We pre-registered the protocol and followed PRISMA guidelines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Cognitive flexibility has been previously described as the ability to adjust cognitive and behavioral strategies in response to changing contextual demands. Cognitive flexibility is typically assessed via self-report questionnaires and performance on neuropsychological tests in research and clinical practice. A common assumption among researchers and clinicians is that self-report and neuropsychological tests of cognitive flexibility assess the same or similar constructs, but the extent of the relationship between these two assessment approaches in clinical cohorts remains unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFComplex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a distressing and disabling pain condition. Many people with CRPS and the health professionals who treat them seek information about the condition via the Internet. The credibility, accuracy and comprehensiveness of online CRPS information remains unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCognitive flexibility can be thought of as the ability to effectively adapt one's cognitive and behavioural strategies in response to changing task or environmental demands. To substantiate the common inference that self-report and neuropsychological tests of cognitive flexibility provide 'different windows into the same room', we undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine whether self-report and neuropsychological tests of cognitive flexibility are related in healthy adults. Ten databases and relevant grey literature were searched from inception.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of the current study was to determine whether auditory prepulse inhibition (PPI) and/or prepulse facilitation (PPF) were altered in people with fibromyalgia (FM) when compared with controls. Eyeblink responses were recorded from 29 females with FM and 27 controls, while they listened to 3 blocks of auditory stimuli that delivered pulses with either PPI or PPF. Using a linear mixed model, our main findings were that there was a GROUP*CONDITION interaction (F = 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is a popular neurocognitive task used to assess cognitive flexibility, and aspects of executive functioning more broadly, in research and clinical practice. Despite its widespread use and the development of an updated WCST manual in 1993, confusion remains in the literature about how to score the WCST, and importantly, how to interpret the outcome variables as indicators of cognitive flexibility. This critical review provides an overview of the changes in the WCST, how existing scoring methods of the task differ, the key terminology and how these relate to the assessment of cognitive flexibility, and issues with the use of the WCST across the literature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain connectivity studies have reported that functional networks change with older age. We aim to (1) investigate whether electroencephalography (EEG) data can be used to distinguish between individual functional networks of young and old adults; and (2) identify the functional connections that contribute to this classification. Two eyes-open resting-state EEG recording sessions with 64 electrodes for each of 22 younger adults (19-37 years) and 22 older adults (63-85 years) were conducted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This systematic review aimed to summarise and critically appraise the evidence for the effect of bodily illusions on corticomotoneuronal excitability.
Methods: Five databases were searched, with two independent reviewers completing study inclusion, risk of bias, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) reporting quality, and data extraction. Included studies evaluated the effect of an illusion that altered perception of the body (and/or its movement) on excitability of motor circuitry in healthy, adult, human participants.
Objective: Somatic hypervigilance describes a clinical presentation in which people report more, and more intense, bodily sensations than is usual. Most explanations of somatic hypervigilance implicate altered information processing, but strong empirical data are lacking. Attention and working memory are critical for information processing, and we aimed to evaluate brain activity during attention/working memory tasks in people with and without somatic hypervigilance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA widely held belief within the clinical community is that chronic pain is associated with cognitive impairment, despite the absence of a definitive systematic review or meta-analysis on the topic. The current systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to establish the current evidence concerning the difference in executive function between people with chronic pain and healthy controls. Six databases were searched for citations related to executive function and chronic pain from inception to June 24, 2013.
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