Classifying chronic pain using ICD-11 and questionnaires-reported characteristics in Japanese patients with chronic pain.

Introduction: The new ICD-11 code for chronic pain indicates a direction to divide chronic pain into two categories: chronic secondary pain, which has a clear underlying disease, and chronic primary pain, which is associated with significant emotional distress or functional disability and cannot be explained by another chronic condition. Until now, epidemiological studies have been hampered by the lack of a clear classification, but we believe that this new code system will provide a new perspective on the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain, and we have begun work on this code system.

Methods: We studied 2,360 patients at Aichi Medical University, the largest pain center in Japan, and asked them to answer questionnaires on pain severity (NRS), pain-related functional impairment (PDAS, Locomo25), quality of life (EQ-5D), and psychological state and pain cognition (HADS, PCS, PSEQ, AIS) while their attending physicians were giving diagnoses according to ICD-11 and the results of the study were used to determine the coding of pain severity.

Factors Associated with Defecation Satisfaction among Japanese Adults with Chronic Constipation.

Constipation causes substantial morbidity worldwide. This survey assessed constipation-related factors in Japan using the Japanese version of the Irritable Bowel Syndrome Quality of Life (IBS-QOL-J) instrument. We also examined the relationship among laxative type, Bristol Stool Form Scale (BSFS) scores, and treatment cost.

[Neuropathic Pain].

Many diseases are associated with "neuropathic pain", which is not usually manageable with common analgesics, such as NSAIDs and acetaminophen. Calcium ion channel α2δ ligands, serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors, and tricyclic antidepressants have been used as first-line drugs. If there are no improvements after using these drugs for a while, vaccinia virus inoculation of rabbit inflammatory skin extract, tramadol, and eventually opioid analgesics, may be considered.

The Relationship between Numbness and Quality of Life.

Background: Numbness is a term commonly used in clinical practice to describe an abnormal sensory experience that is produced by a stimulus or is present even without a stimulus. However, there is still much that remains obscure in this field, and also, few reports have focused on its symptoms. In addition, while pain itself is known to have a significant impact on quality of life (QOL), the relationship between numbness and QOL is often unclear.