Psychophysiologic symptom relief therapy for chronic back pain: hypothesis and trial rationale.

Chronic pain syndromes affect over one-third of the US adult population and often lead to significant disability and a reduced quality of life. Despite their high prevalence, causal links between chronic pain syndromes and anatomic abnormalities are often not apparent. Most current chronic pain treatments provide modest, if any, relief.

Patterns in emergency department unscheduled return visits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: Fear surrounding nosocomial infections, expanded telehealth, and decreases in ED (emergency department) utilization altered the way patients sought emergency care during the COVID pandemic. This study aims to evaluate COVID-19's impact on the frequency and characteristics of unscheduled return visits (URVs) to the adult and pediatric ED.

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, the electronic medical record was used to identify ≤9-day URVs at a tertiary adult and pediatric ED from 4/16/19-2/29/20 (control) and 4/16/20-2/28/21 (COVID).

Psychophysiologic symptom relief therapy for chronic back pain: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

Introduction: Chronic back pain is the leading cause of disability in the United States. Based on the hypothesis that nonspecific back pain may be rooted in a psychophysiologic etiology, we propose a new approach to chronic back pain.

Objectives: A pilot study was conducted to assess whether psychophysiologic symptom relief therapy (PSRT) can reduce disability and back pain bothersomeness for patients with chronic back pain.

Comparison between Patients Hospitalized with Influenza and COVID-19 at a Tertiary Care Center.

Background: Widespread reports suggest the characteristics and disease course of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and influenza differ, yet detailed comparisons of their clinical manifestations are lacking.

Objective: Comparison of the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients during the pandemic with those of influenza patients in previous influenza seasons at the same hospital DESIGN: Admission rates, clinical measurements, and clinical outcomes from confirmed COVID-19 cases between March 1 and April 30, 2020, were compared with those from confirmed influenza cases in the previous five influenza seasons (8 months each) beginning September 1, 2014.

Setting: Large tertiary care teaching hospital in Boston, MA PARTICIPANTS: Laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 and influenza inpatients MEASUREMENTS: Patient demographics and medical history, mortality, incidence and duration of mechanical ventilation, incidences of vasopressor support and renal replacement therapy, and hospital and intensive care admissions.

Residual and Dynamic Range of Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness in Glaucoma: Comparison of Three OCT Platforms.

Purpose: To estimate visual field (VF) sensitivity at which retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thinning reaches the measurement floor and at which RNFL stops thinning (change points), the dynamic range of RNFL thickness, and the number of steps from normal to RNFL floor among three optical coherence tomography (OCT) devices.

Methods: Glaucomatous patients (n = 58) and healthy subjects (n = 55-60) prospectively underwent VF testing and RNFL thickness measurement with Cirrus, Spectralis, and RTVue. Change points and corresponding RNFL thicknesses were estimated with simple linear regression (SLR) and Bayesian change point (BCP) analyses.