Placebo exhibits beneficial effects on pain perception in human experimental studies. Most of these studies demonstrate that placebo significantly decreased neural activities in pain modulatory brain regions and pain-evoked potentials. This study examined placebo analgesia-related effects on spontaneous brain oscillations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: We aim to determine the effects of botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) on the thresholds of pain and the expression of transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1) in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) in rats with neuropathic pain induced by selective ventral root transection (VRT).
Methods: Neuropathic pain was induced by transection of the lumbar 5 ventral root in male Sprague-Dawley rats. BTX-A or saline was administered to the plantar surface by subcutaneous injection.
Objectives: We aim to determine the effects of Botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) on neuropathic pain behavior and the expression of P2X(3) receptor in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) in rats with neuropathic pain induced by L5 ventral root transection (L5 VRT).
Methods: Neuropathic pain was induced by L5 VRT in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Either saline or BTX-A was administered to the plantar surface.
Objective: To assess the benefits of subcutaneous injection of botulinum toxin A (BTX-A) for the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia (PHN).
Design: We investigated the therapeutic benefits of BTX-A in subjects with PHN in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Sixty subjects with PHN were randomly and evenly distributed into BTX-A, lidocaine, and placebo groups.
Post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a devastating complication of shingles. The treatment of PHN with traditional pharmaceutical agents has various side effects. Therefore, the treatment of intractable PHN is often very time consuming, mainly because the available treatments often lead to intolerable side effects before the efficient dose can be reached.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDegenerative disc disease (DDD) causes gradual intervertebral space collapse, concurrent discogenic or facet-induced pain, and possible compression radiculopathy. A new minimal invasion procedure of percutaneous posterior-lateral lumbar interbody fusion (PPLIF) using a B-Twin stand-alone expandable spinal spacer (ESS) was designed to treat this disease and evaluated by follow-up more than 1 year. 12 cases with chronic low back pain and compressive radiculopathy due to DDD refractory were selected to conservative treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPostherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a chronic pain syndrome and one of the most common complications of herpes zoster. Although the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in PHN are still largely unknown, it seems reasonable to assume that there are lesions of the peripheral afferent pain pathways and inflammation-induced damage to afferent ganglia in the spinal cord. Growing body of evidence indicates that the glial cells, particularly microglia (CNS macrophages) and astrocytes are activated following peripheral and central noxious insult and their activation is thought to play an important role in central sensitization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOptimal management of neuropathic pain is a major clinical challenge. We investigated the involvement of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) in neuropathic pain produced by spinal nerve ligation (SNL) (L5). SNL induced a slow (>3 d) and persistent (>21 d) activation of JNK, in particular JNK1, in GFAP-expressing astrocytes in the spinal cord.
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