OBJECTIVE To examine the factors associated with FPs' referrals of patients with chronic noncancer pain to a tertiary care pain clinic. DESIGN A questionnaire-based survey; data were analyzed using univariate methods. SETTING A tertiary care pain clinic in Toronto, Ont. Participants All FPs who referred patients to the clinic between 2002 and 2005. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Variables explored...

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 speciali...

BACKGROUND Chronic pain is a debilitating problem with significant impact on healthcare utilization in the US. Many chronic pain patients use complementary or alternative medicine (CAM) in addition to standard pharmacologic therapy. OBJECTIVE The aim of our study was to identify differences in the characteristics of usage of CAM for chronic pain control among several ethnic groups. DESIGN W...

UNLABELLED Patients often fail to attend appointments in chronic pain clinics for unknown reasons. We hypothesized that certain patient characteristics predict failure to attend scheduled appointments, pointing to systematic barriers to accessing chronic pain services for certain underserved populations. We collected retrospective data from a longitudinal observational cohort of patients at an ...

Croft et al 1 found a prevalence of chronic widespread pain in 11.2% of the population. About one in six of these individuals has significant psychological problems, but rates of psychiatric morbidity are even higher in patients attending rheumatology outpatient clinics and pain clinics in general hospitals (Fig 1). These findings suggest that psychological assessment of patients with chronic p...

This paper is another of the papers presented at a conference on Pain organised under the auspices of the London Medical Group. Mark Swerdlow deals with the work of pain relief clinics and explores their value. He gives the background as to what these clinics are, describes who is treated, how they are staffed and finally offers his opinion as to their effectiveness.

This article describes the development and validation of the S-LANSS score, a self-report version of the Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs pain scale. The S-LANSS aims to identify pain of predominantly neuropathic origin, as distinct from nociceptive pain, without the need for clinical examination. Two hundred patients with chronic pain were asked to complete the S-LANSS unaide...

BACKGROUND Low Back Pain is a major public health problem all over the western world. Active approaches including exercise in the treatment of low back pain results in better outcomes for patients, but it is not known exactly which types of back exercises are most beneficial or whether general physical activity provide similar benefits. Nordic Walking is a popular and fast growing type of exerc...

BACKGROUND Prior studies found that pain fear avoidance and pain acceptance are significantly associated with adjustment to chronic pain. PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to compare the influence of pain fear avoidance and pain acceptance on adjustment to chronic pain across three samples: patients with chronic back pain treated at primary care centres, patients with heterogeneous pain co...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Ketamine is opioid-sparing. It attenuates the onset of opioid tolerance, and suppresses opioid-induced hyperalgesia. This study evaluated whether or not repeated outpatient infusions of intravenous ketamine reduced the amount of pain and the amount of opioid requirements for patients suffering with chronic, non-cancerous pain. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective study SETTI...