Sensing behavior change in chronic pain: a scoping review of sensor technology for use in daily life.

Technology offers possibilities for quantification of behaviors and physiological changes of relevance to chronic pain, using wearable sensors and devices suitable for data collection in daily life contexts. We conducted a scoping review of wearable and passive sensor technologies that sample data of psychological interest in chronic pain, including in social situations. Sixty articles met our criteria from the 2783 citations retrieved from searching.

A thematic synthesis of qualitative studies and surveys of the psychological experience of painful endometriosis.

Background: Endometriosis is a widespread problem in women of reproductive age, causing cyclical and non-cyclical pain in the pelvis and elsewhere, and associated with fatigue, fertility problems, and other symptoms. As a chronic pain problem, psychological variables are important in adjustment and quality of life, but have not been systematically studied.

Methods: A systematic search of multiple databases was conducted to obtain surveys and qualitative studies of women's experience of pain from endometriosis.

Trials We Cannot Trust: Investigating Their Impact on Systematic Reviews and Clinical Guidelines in Spinal Pain.

We previously conducted an exploration of the trustworthiness of a group of clinical trials of cognitive-behavioral therapy and exercise in spinal pain. We identified multiple concerns in 8 trials, judging them untrustworthy. In this study, we systematically explored the impact of these trials ("index trials") on results, conclusions, and recommendations of systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines (CPGs).

Management of chronic primary pelvic pain syndromes.

Management of chronic pelvic pain (CPP) remains a huge challenge for care providers and a major burden for healthcare systems. Treating chronic pain that has no obvious cause warrants an understanding of the difficulties in managing these conditions. Chronic pain has recently been accepted as a disease in its own right by the World Health Organization, with chronic pain without obvious cause being classified as chronic primary pain.

Chronic pain produces hypervigilance to predator odor in mice.

The adaptive significance of acute pain (to withdraw from tissue-damaging or potentially tissue-damaging external stimuli, and to enhance the salience of the stimulus resulting in escape and avoidance learning) and tonic pain (to enforce recuperation by punishing movement) are well-accepted [1]. Pain researchers, however, generally assert that chronic pain has no adaptive significance, representing instead a pathophysiological state. This belief was recently challenged by the observation [2] that nociceptive sensitization caused by a chronic pain-producing injury reduced predation risk in squid (Doryteuthis pealeii).

Group Differences Between Countries and Between Languages in Pain-Related Beliefs, Coping, and Catastrophizing in Chronic Pain: A Systematic Review.

Objective: To evaluate the extent to which pain-related beliefs, appraisals, coping, and catastrophizing differ between countries, language groups, and country economy.

Design: Systematic review.

Methods: Two independent reviewers searched 15 databases without restriction for date or language of publication.

The National Pain Audit for specialist pain services in England and Wales 2010-2014.

Introduction: Numerous reports highlight variations in pain clinic provision between services, particularly in the provision of multidisciplinary services and length of waiting times. A National Audit aims to identify and quantify these variations, to facilitate raising standards of care in identified areas of need. This article describes a Quality Improvement Programme cycle covering England and Wales that used such an approach to remedy the paucity of data on the current state of UK pain clinics.

Symptom reduction and improved function in chronic CRPS type 1 after 12-week integrated, interdisciplinary therapy.

Background and aims Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) often recovers spontaneously within the first year, but when it becomes chronic, available rehabilitative therapies (pharmacological management, physiotherapy, and psychological intervention) have limited effectiveness. This study examined the effect of a 12-week intensive outpatient rehabilitation on pain relief and function in chronic CRPS patients. Rehabilitation program included memantine and morphine treatment (added to patient's prior pain medication) and concurrent psychological and physiotherapeutic intervention.

Psychosocial factors associated with persistent pain in people with HIV: a systematic review with meta-analysis.

Chronic pain remains a prevalent and disabling problem for people living with HIV in the current antiretroviral treatment era. Psychosocial treatments may have promise for managing the impact of this pain. However, research is needed to identify psychosocial processes to target through such treatments.

Patterns of regional variation of opioid prescribing in primary care in England: a retrospective observational study.

Background: Opioids are a widely prescribed class of drug with potentially harmful short-term and long-term side effects. There are concerns about the amounts of these drugs being prescribed in England given that they are increasingly considered ineffective in the context of long-term non-cancer pain, which is one of the major reasons for their prescription.

Aim: To assess the amount and type of opioids prescribed in primary care in England, and patterns of regional variation in prescribing.

Are patients' and doctors' accounts of the first specialist consultation for chronic back pain in agreement?

Introduction: The first consultation at a specialist pain clinic is potentially a pivotal event in a patient's pain history, affecting treatment adherence and engagement with longer term self-management. What doctors communicate to patients about their chronic pain and how patients interpret doctors' messages and explanations in pain consultations are under-investigated, particularly in specialist care. Yet, patients value personalized information about their pain problem.

Pain expressiveness and altruistic behavior: an exploration using agent-based modeling.

Predictions which invoke evolutionary mechanisms are hard to test. Agent-based modeling in artificial life offers a way to simulate behaviors and interactions in specific physical or social environments over many generations. The outcomes have implications for understanding adaptive value of behaviors in context.

How do people with chronically painful joint hypermobility syndrome make decisions about activity?

Background: The model of activity avoidance prompted by fear of increased pain and/or harm dominates understanding and research into activity limitation in chronic pain. Yet, the accounts of people with chronic pain on decisions about activity limitation are rarely heard beyond the confines of fear and avoidance questionnaires.

Methods: We used semi-structured interviews to explore the decisions of 11 women attending a pain management clinic with chronically painful Joint Hypermobility Syndrome (JHS).

Systematic review and meta-analysis of psychological therapies for children with chronic pain.

Objectives: This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the effects of psychological therapies for management of chronic pain in children. 

Methods: Randomized controlled trials of psychological interventions treating children (<18 years) with chronic pain conditions including headache, abdominal, musculoskeletal, or neuropathic pain were searched for. Pain symptoms, disability, depression, anxiety, and sleep outcomes were extracted.

What predicts performance during clinical psychology training?

Objectives: While the question of who is likely to be selected for clinical psychology training has been studied, evidence on performance during training is scant. This study explored data from seven consecutive intakes of the UK's largest clinical psychology training course, aiming to identify what factors predict better or poorer outcomes.

Design: Longitudinal cross-sectional study using prospective and retrospective data.

Discounting pain in the absence of medical evidence is explained by negative evaluation of the patient.

This study investigated the effect on observer responses of the presence/absence of information about medical evidence for pain and psychosocial influences on the patient's pain experience. Additionally, the moderating role of the patient's pain expressions and the mediating role of the observer's belief in deception and evaluation of the patient was examined. Sixty-two participants were presented with videos of 4 patients, each accompanied by a vignette describing the presence or absence of both medical evidence for the pain and psychosocial influences on the patient's pain.

Using graded motor imagery for complex regional pain syndrome in clinical practice: failure to improve pain.

Background: There is good evidence from studies conducted in a single-centre research setting for the efficacy of graded motor imagery (GMI) treatment, a complex physiotherapy intervention, to reduce pain in long-standing complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). However, whether GMI is effective in clinical practice is not established.

Aim: To establish whether GMI is effective in clinical practice.

Comparing patients' and clinician-researchers' outcome choice for psychological treatment of chronic pain.

In pain treatment, outcomes are generally defined by researchers and clinicians, predominantly using patient self-report. A large-scale survey of people with chronic pain found a more extensive range of treatment outcomes rated important (Turk et al., "Identifying important outcome domains for chronic pain clinical trials: an IMMPACT survey of people with pain.

Assessing pain and mood in a poorly resourced country in a post-conflict setting.

Context: Accurate pain assessment is important but presents problems in poorly resourced countries. A civil war in Sierra Leone resulted in civilian casualties with pain from deliberate amputation and other injuries.

Objectives: To examine the quality of simple pain and mood scales.

Group membership and staff turnover affect outcomes in group CBT for persistent pain.

The effects of two contextual factors, group membership and staff turnover, on the outcome of group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for persistent pain were investigated. The data came from end of treatment and 1 month follow-up assessments of 3050 individuals who attended an intensive group programme over 16 years. Intraclass correlations (ICC) showed significant intragroup effects on self-efficacy (ICC=0.

Randomized controlled trials of psychological therapies for management of chronic pain in children and adolescents: an updated meta-analytic review.

The purpose of this meta-analytic review was to quantify the effects of psychological therapies for the management of chronic pain in youth. Specifically, in this review we updated previous systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials by including new trials, and by adding disability and emotional functioning to pain as treatment outcomes. Electronic searches of the Cochrane Register of Randomised Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, PsycLIT, EMBASE, and the Social Sciences Citation Index were conducted from inception through August 2008.

Attention management as a treatment for chronic pain.

Attention management is often included in cognitive-behavioural treatments (CBT). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of attention management strategies in the treatment for chronic pain. The present pilot study consisted of six weekly 90-min treatment sessions and was based on a CBT attention management manual describing techniques such as attention diversion, imagery and mindfulness exercises.