Feasibility and acceptability of remote administration of the cold pressor test.

Objective: Quantitative sensory testing is often used to investigate pain in the context of experimental and clinical research studies. However, many of the devices used for QST protocols are only available in resource rich environments, thereby inadvertently limiting the possible pool of participants. Development of remote protocols for appropriate QST measures has the potential to reduce barriers to participation in research.

Genetic contributions to pain modulation in sickle cell: A focus on single nucleotide polymorphisms.

Background: Despite recent advances in our knowledge of genetic contributions to the highly variable sickle cell disease (SCD) phenotype, our understanding of genetic factors associated with pain sensitivity in SCD remains limited. Previous studies investigated specific variants in single candidate genes and their association with SCD pain variability. The primary aim of the current study was to expand the genes and polymorphisms tested to discover new risk genes (polymorphisms) associated with central sensitization for individuals with SCD.

A preliminary examination of the effects of childhood abuse and resilience on pain and physical functioning in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

Objectives: We examined associations of a self-reported history of childhood abuse with pain and physical functioning in patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA) awaiting total knee arthroplasty (TKA). We also explored the potential moderating effects of positive childhood experiences (PCEs), an index of resilience, on these associations.

Methods: Prior to TKA, participants with KOA awaiting surgery ( = 239) completed self-report measures of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), PCEs, pain, and physical functioning.

The association between changes in clinical pain severity and IL-6 reactivity among patients undergoing total knee Arthroplasty: The moderating role of change in insomnia.

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is linked to an enhanced release of interleukin-6 (IL-6). Increased levels of IL-6 are associated with greater pain and insomnia. While total knee arthroplasty (TKA) typically results in the reduction of pain, for a subgroup of patients, pain does not improve.

Elevated pain sensitivity is associated with reduced rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in females with comorbid temporomandibular disorder and insomnia.

Objective: Patients with chronic pain disorders, including Temporomandibular Disorders (TMDs) endorse high levels of sleep disturbances, frequently reporting reduced sleep quality. Despite this, little is known about the effect that daytime pain has on the microstructure and macro-architecture of sleep. Therefore, we aimed to examine the extent to which daytime pain sensitivity, measured using quantitative sensory testing (QST), is associated with objective sleep parameters the following night, including sleep architecture and power spectral density, in women with TMD.

Meditation Practice, Mindfulness, and Pain-Related Outcomes in Mindfulness-Based Treatment for Episodic Migraine.

Objectives: Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have emerged as promising prophylactic episodic migraine treatments. The present study investigated biopsychosocial predictors and outcomes associated with formal, daily-life meditation practice in migraine patients undergoing MBI, and whether augmented mindfulness mechanistically underlies change.

Methods: Secondary analyses of clinical trial data comparing a 12-week enhanced mindfulness-based stress reduction course (MBSR + ; = 50) to stress management for headache (SMH; = 48) were conducted.

Intensive Mindfulness Meditation Reduces Frequency and Burden of Migraine: An Unblinded Single-Arm Trial.

Objectives: Preventing migraine headaches and improving the quality of life for patients with migraine remains a challenge. We hypothesized intensive meditation training would reduce the disease burden of migraine.

Method: An unblinded trial was analyzed as a single cohort exposed to a silent 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat that included 100 hr of sitting meditation.

Change in Pain During Physical Activity Following Total Knee Arthroplasty: Associations With Improved Physical Function and Decreased Situational Pain Catastrophizing.

Background And Objectives: Knee osteoarthritis is one of the primary causes of chronic pain among older adults and because of the aging population, the number of total knee arthroplasties (TKAs) performed is exponentially increasing. While pain reduction is a goal of TKA, movement-evoked pain is rarely assessed pre- and post-TKA. We characterized the distributions of change in pain, function, and situational catastrophizing in patients from presurgery to 3 months postsurgery and explored associations among these pre-post changes.

Depressive and Insomnia Symptoms Sequentially Mediate the Association Between Racism-Based Discrimination in Healthcare Settings and Clinical Pain Among Adults With Sickle Cell Disease.

Racism-based discrimination in healthcare settings has been associated with clinical pain in adults living with sickle cell disease; however, no studies have examined depressive and insomnia symptoms as mechanisms that may drive this relationship. This secondary data analysis examined associations between depressive and insomnia symptoms, racism-based discrimination, and clinical pain. Seventy-one adults with sickle cell disease (70% female, M = 38.

Brief Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is Associated with Faster Recovery in Patients Undergoing Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Pilot Clinical Trial.

Objective: To assess whether brief mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy (MBCBT) could enhance the benefits of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in improving pain and pain-related disability. Specifically, to determine 1) whether patients who received MBCBT differed from matched controls who received treatment-as-usual with regard to postsurgical pain outcomes and 2) whether changes in pain catastrophizing, depression, or anxiety explained the potential effects of MBCBT on pain outcomes.

Design: Pilot clinical trial.

Is Mindfulness Associated With Lower Pain Reactivity and Connectivity of the Default Mode Network? A Replication and Extension Study in Healthy and Episodic Migraine Participants.

Formal training in mindfulness-based practices promotes reduced experimental and clinical pain, which may be driven by reduced emotional pain reactivity and undergirded by alterations in the default mode network, implicated in mind-wandering and self-referential processing. Recent results published in this journal suggest that mindfulness, defined here as the day-to-day tendency to maintain a non-reactive mental state in the absence of training, associates with lower pain reactivity, greater heat-pain thresholds, and resting-state default mode network functional connectivity in healthy adults in a similar manner to trained mindfulness. The extent to which these findings extend to chronic pain samples and replicate in healthy samples is unknown.

Three Dimensions of Association Link Migraine Symptoms and Functional Connectivity.

Migraine is a heterogeneous disorder with variable symptoms and responsiveness to therapy. Because of previous analytic shortcomings, variance in migraine symptoms has been inconsistently related to brain function. In the current analysis, we used data from two sites ( = 143, male and female humans), and performed canonical correlation analysis, relating resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) with a broad range of migraine symptoms, ranging from headache characteristics to sleep abnormalities.

The Influence of Expectancies on Pain and Function Over Time After Total Knee Arthroplasty.

Objective: Expectancies have a well-documented influence on the experience of pain, responses to treatment, and postsurgical outcomes. In individuals with osteoarthritis, several studies have shown that expectations predict increased pain and disability after total knee replacement surgery. Despite the growing recognition of the importance of expectancies in clinical settings, few studies have examined the influence of expectancies throughout postsurgical recovery trajectories.

Association of affective state with the assimilation of daily pain expectancy and pain experience.

Expectancies for pain and pain relief are central to experimental models of placebo analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia and are a promising target for clinical intervention in patients with chronic pain. Affective states may play an important role in modulating the degree to which expectancies influence pain, broadening the opportunities for intervention targets. However, findings to date have been mixed and mostly limited to laboratory designs.

Multimodal prediction of pain and functional outcomes 6 months following total knee replacement: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is among the most common and disabling persistent pain conditions, with increasing prevalence and impact around the globe. In the U.S.

Migraine disability, pain catastrophizing, and headache severity are associated with evoked pain and targeted by mind-body therapy.

Meta-analysis suggests that migraine patients are no more sensitive to experimentally evoked pain than healthy control subjects. At the same time, studies have linked some migraine symptoms to quantitative sensory testing (QST) profiles. Unfortunately, previous studies associating migraine symptoms and QST have important methodological shortcomings, stemming from small sample sizes, and frequent use of univariate statistics for multivariate research questions.

Insomnia with objective short sleep duration in women with temporomandibular joint disorder: quantitative sensory testing, inflammation and clinical pain profiles.

Objectives/background: Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) is a disabling facial pain syndrome with a high prevalence of insomnia that primarily affects women. Insomnia with objective short sleep duration (ISSD) is an emerging phenotype linked to cardiometabolic morbidity and increased mortality. The present report examines the association of ISSD on clinical and laboratory pain and systemic inflammation in TMD.

Pain Expectancy and Positive Affect Mediate the day-to-day Association Between Objectively Measured Sleep and Pain Severity Among Women With Temporomandibular Disorder.

The majority of individuals with temporomandibular disorders (TMD) experience sleep disturbance, which can maintain and exacerbate chronic pain. However, the factors underlying the sleep-pain link have not been fully elucidated, especially beyond the laboratory. Sleep deprivation can induce threat interpretation bias, as well as impairment in positive affective functioning.

Differences in gray matter volume in episodic migraine patients with and without prior diagnosis or clinical care: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Migraine sufferers face difficulties getting appropriate care and treatment. Migraine is associated with reduced gray matter volume (GMV) in several brain regions, which could be related to various clinical characteristics of the disorder.

Objectives: To examine differences in GMV in migraine patients with and without prior clinical care for migraine and examine differences in migraine clinical variables, psychosocial symptoms and their relationship with GMV.

Enhanced mindfulness-based stress reduction in episodic migraine-effects on sleep quality, anxiety, stress, and depression: a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial.

Patients with migraine suffer from high morbidity related to the repeated headache attacks, characteristic of the disorder, poor sleep, and a high prevalence of comorbid psychosocial disorders. Current pharmacological therapies do not address these aspects of migraine, but nonpharmacological treatments such as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) have been shown to improve both pain and psychological well-being. In this secondary analysis, we examined the change over time in sleep quality and psychosocial outcomes from the magnetic resonance imaging outcomes for mindfulness meditation clinical trial and assessed how these mediated treatment response (50% reduction in headache frequency postintervention).

Temporal Association of Pain Catastrophizing and Pain Severity Across the Perioperative Period: A Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis After Total Knee Arthroplasty.

Objective: Although numerous studies show that preoperative pain catastrophizing is a risk factor for pain after total knee arthroplasty (TKA), little is known about the temporal course of the association between perioperative pain catastrophizing and pain severity. The present study investigated temporal changes and their dynamic associations between pain catastrophizing and pain severity before and after TKA.

Design: A secondary data analysis of a larger observational parent study featuring prospective repeated measurement over 12 months.

A Preliminary Investigation of the Underlying Mechanism Associating Daily Sleep Continuity Disturbance and Prescription Opioid Use Among Individuals With Sickle Cell Disease.

Background: There are emerging data indicating that sleep disturbance may be linked with an increase in opioid use. The majority of sickle cell disease (SCD) patients experience sleep disturbances, which can elevate pain severity and pain catastrophizing, both of which are important predictors of opioid consumption.

Purpose: We conducted a preliminary investigation on the association between previous night sleep disturbance and short-acting opioid use, as well as the potential mediating roles of pain severity and pain catastrophizing.