Zoom-Delivered Empowered Relief for Chronic Pain: Observational Longitudinal Pilot Study Exploring Feasibility and Pain-Related Outcomes in Patients on Long-Term Opioids.

Background: Patients with chronic pain on long-term opioid therapy often face barriers to accessing effective nonpharmacological treatments, including the burden of multiple sessions, lack of trained clinicians, and travel time. Empowered Relief (ER), a 2-hour, single-session pain relief skills class, can improve pain and quality of life among patients with chronic pain when delivered in person or virtually.

Objective: This study examined the impact of Zoom-delivered ER among people with chronic pain on long-term opioid therapy.

Mapping Hand Function with Simultaneous Brain-Spinal Cord Functional MRI.

Introduction: Hand motor control depends on intricate brain-spinal cord interactions that regulate muscle activity. Hand function can be disrupted by injury to the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves leading to weakness and impaired coordination. Functional MRI (fMRI) can map motor-related neural activity and potentially characterize the mechanisms underlying hand weakness and diminished coordination.

Data-Driven Peak Alpha Identification Reveals Distinct EEG Spatial Signature Phenotypes in Chronic Pain.

Chronic pain affects over 20% of US adults, making it a widely prevalent disorder characterized by a highly heterogeneous patient experience and lack of objective biomarkers for characterization. Recent studies have suggested that cortical oscillations captured by electroencephalography (EEG), specifically in the alpha frequency band, may encode information relevant to chronic pain. In this study, we investigate two recent data-driven approaches for extracting the peak alpha frequency (PAF) from EEG data.

Leg Muscle Volume, Intramuscular Fat and Force Generation: Insights From a Computer-Vision Model and Fat-Water MRI.

Background: Maintaining skeletal muscle health (i.e., muscle size and quality) is crucial for preserving mobility.

Problem of pain in the USA: evaluating the generalisability of high-impact chronic pain models over time using National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data.

Introduction: High-impact chronic pain (HICP) significantly affects the quality of life for millions of U.S. adults, imposing substantial economic/healthcare burdens.