Characterizing the impact of verbal communication and health literacy in the patient-surgeon encounter.

Background: Patients with limited health literacy (HL) have difficulty understanding written/verbal information. The quality of verbal communication is not well understood. Therefore, our aim was to characterize patient-surgeon conversations and identify opportunities for improvement.

Enhanced facilitation and diminished inhibition characterizes the pronociceptive endogenous pain modulatory balance of persons living with HIV and chronic pain.

Chronic pain in persons living with HIV (PLWH) may be related to alterations in endogenous pain modulatory processes (e.g., high facilitation and low inhibition of nociception) that promote exaggerated pain responses, known as hyperalgesia, and central nervous system (CNS) sensitization.

Intersectional health-related stigma in persons living with HIV and chronic pain: implications for depressive symptoms.

"Intersectional health-related stigma" (IHRS) refers to stigma that arises at the convergence of multiple health conditions. People living with HIV (PLWH) and chronic pain have two highly stigmatized health conditions, and thus may be at especially high risk for internalizing these stigmas and consequently experiencing depression. This study examined the intersectionality of internalized HIV and chronic pain stigma in relation to depressive symptoms in a sample of PLWH and chronic pain.

Detectable Viral Load May Be Associated with Increased Pain Sensitivity in Persons Living with HIV: Preliminary Findings.

Objective: Animal models have previously shown that HIV is associated with hyperalgesia, or heightened sensitivity to painful stimuli. Efforts to determine whether this finding translates to humans are presently lacking. Among persons living with HIV (PLWH), those with detectable viral loads may be at greatest risk for heightened pain sensitivity.