BACKGROUND In patients with pain in the back, chest or abdomen, it may be difficult to differentiate nonmusculoskeletal causes from musculoskeletal causes. OBJECTIVE This article discusses the mechanisms of musculoskeletal referred pain and the key clinical features that help the practitioner differentiate such pain from nonmusculoskeletal pain, thereby informing appropriate management. DIS...

OBJECTIVE Multimodal rehabilitation programmes (MMRP) for chronic pain could be improved by determining which patients do not benefit fully. General distress and pain-related fear may explain variations in the treatment effects of MMRP. DESIGN Cohort study with a cross-sectional, prospective part. PATIENTS Chronic musculoskeletal pain patients referred to 2 hospital-based pain rehabilitatio...

PURPOSE To analyse differences between males and females in expectations about rehabilitation outcome. METHODS DESIGN cross-sectional study. SETTING a general rehabilitation centre. PATIENTS n = 616, mean age 44 years, with chronic musculoskeletal pain, referred for multidisciplinary pain rehabilitation. All eligible patients in the period January 2005 to September 2009 were sent a que...

Spinal pain of mechanical origin, with or without referred pain, is a serious health problem suffered by many Australians. In order to help patients with this ailment, and to investigate this costly and debilitating condition, the National Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies of Back Pain was established at Townsville General Hospital as a joint venture between James Cook University of North Qu...

OBJECTIVE Confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the factor structure of the Social Consequences of Pain (SCP) questionnaire in youth referred for specialty pain treatment. The existing four-factor structure (i.e., Positive Attention, Negative Attention, Activity Restriction, Privileges) was compared to an alternate three-factor structure merging Positive Attention and Privileges int...

OBJECTIVE Although numerous studies have independently examined ethnic differences in clinical and experimental pain, few have investigated differences in both sensitivity to controlled noxious stimuli and clinical pain reports in the same sample. The present experiment examined the effects of ethnicity (African American vs. white) on experimental pain tolerance and adjustment to chronic pain. ...

This article carefully itemizes the various anatomic structures that can evoke neck pain, putting in perspective what clinicians know, what they assume, and what they need to understand better about neck pain and pain referred from the neck. The critique of many of the accepted entities in the differential diagnosis of neck pain is crucial to an understanding of the causes of neck pain and an a...

BACKGROUND A firm mattress is commonly believed to be beneficial for low-back pain, although evidence supporting this recommendation is lacking. We assessed the effect of different firmnesses of mattresses on the clinical course of patients with chronic non-specific low-back pain. METHODS In a randomised, double-blind, controlled, multicentre trial, we assessed 313 adults who had chronic non-...

Often craniofacial pain subjects report a number of conflicting and overlapping symptoms that can present a confusing clinical picture. Reaching a diagnosis on these individuals can prove to be a frustrating and difficult event for both the examiner and the patient. Thus, it is incumbent on clinicians treating patients with pain in the head, face and neck areas to be familiar with the less comm...