The objective was to assess compliance of patients with nonl-oncologic pain and identify relationships between beliefs of health control and compliance. Thirty patients were evaluated over a period of six months, in five interviews. Compliance was classified as total, partial and non-compliance, and the Index of Correct Medication Ingestion (ICMI) was calculated. The belief about health control...

When conducting a meta-analysis of clinical trials with binary outcomes, a normal approximation for the summary treatment effect measure in each trial is inappropriate in the common situation where some of the trials in the meta-analysis are small, or the observed risks are close to 0 or 1. This problem can be avoided by making direct use of the binomial distribution within trials. A fully Baye...

Diagnosis of opioid addiction in chronic pain sufferers is often triggered by occurrence of what have been called aberrant drugrelated behaviors. Ambiguities inherent in this approach affect patient care adversely. Rather than consistently signifying abuse or addiction, these behaviors are often motivated by undertreated pain. Appropriate clinical responses are suggested here, as well as a diag...

Although, opioids are advocated in various guidelines their use for chronic non-cancer pain is controversial because evidence of long term benefit is weak. The potential for serious adverse effects and local regulations promote caution in both the prescribers and users. However, opioids have a place in the management of chronic non-cancer pain in carefully selected patients with regular monitor...

Although there is anecdotal evidence for the psychoanalgesic properties of distraction, research evidence is equivocal. Drawing on the clinical and experimental studies of attention-based coping strategies for pain control, and the theoretically driven 'cognitive' models of the human attention system, two experiments are reported. Experiment One demonstrates that chronic pain patients suffering...

OBJECTIVE To test the effect of nonnutritive sucking (NNS), music therapy (MT), and combined NNS and MT (NNS + MT), versus no intervention, on heart rate, transcutaneous oxygen (TcPaO(2)) levels, and pain behavior of neonates in intensive care units having blood taken by a heel-stick procedure. METHODOLOGY A within-subjects, counter-balancing, repeated-measures design conducted in a governmen...

OBJECTIVE To identify behavioral alterations in client-owned cats recovering at home following elective ovariohysterectomy or castration and determine owner perceptions regarding severity of postoperative pain. DESIGN Cohort study. Animals-145 cats undergoing elective ovariohysterectomy (n = 80) or castration (65) at 4 veterinary clinics in Finland. PROCEDURES Owners were asked to complete ...

Catastrophizing about pain is defined as ‘‘an exaggerated negative ‘mental set’ brought to bear during actual or anticipated pain experience’’ [25]. It is a salient form of worry, and one that has proven useful in explaining pain severity, disability, and adaptation to treatment in a range of different conditions and settings [7,12]. Catastrophizing involves repeated thought about threat as unc...

The study was designed to assess whether the social context of a pain experience impacted on the relation between catastrophizing and duration of pain behaviour. Based on a communal coping model, the prediction was that the presence of an observer during a pain procedure would differentially influence the display of pain behaviour in high and low catastrophizers. University undergraduates takin...

BACKGROUND The model of fear avoidance proposes that fear of movement in back pain patients is an obstacle to recovery and leads over time to increased disability. Therefore, fear of movement should be targeted explicitly by interventions. AIMS To review the evidence (1) for the causal components proposed by the model, and (2) about interventions that attempt to reduce fear of movement. In ad...