Non-pharmacological Treatment Of Chronic Pain Research Articles

Use of electroanalgesia and laser therapies as alternatives to opioids for acute and chronic pain management.

The use of opioid analgesics for postoperative pain management has contributed to the global opioid epidemic. It was recently reported that prescription opioid analgesic use often continued after major joint replacement surgery even though patients were no longer experiencing joint pain. The use of epidural local analgesia for perioperative pain management was not found to be protective against persistent opioid use in a large cohort of opioid-naïve patients undergoing abdominal surgery. In a retrospective study involving over 390,000 outpatients more than 66 years of age who underwent minor ambulatory surgery procedures, patients receiving a prescription opioid analgesic within 7 days of discharge were 44% more likely to continue using opioids 1 year after surgery. In a review of 11 million patients undergoing elective surgery from 2002 to 2011, both opioid overdoses and opioid dependence were found to be increasing over time. Opioid-dependent surgical patients were more likely to experience postoperative pulmonary complications, require longer hospital stays, and increase costs to the health-care system. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasized the importance of finding alternatives to opioid medication for treating pain. In the new clinical practice guidelines for back pain, the authors endorsed the use of non-pharmacologic therapies. However, one of the more widely used non-pharmacologic treatments for chronic pain (namely radiofrequency ablation therapy) was recently reported to have no clinical benefit. Therefore, this clinical commentary will review evidence in the peer-reviewed literature supporting the use of electroanalgesia and laser therapies for treating acute pain, cervical (neck) pain, low back pain, persistent post-surgical pain after spine surgery (“failed back syndrome”), major joint replacements, and abdominal surgery as well as other common chronic pain syndromes (for example, myofascial pain, peripheral neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, degenerative joint disease/osteoarthritis, and migraine headaches).

Using Patient Perspectives to Inform the Development of a Behavioral Intervention for Chronic Pain in Patients with HIV: A Qualitative Study.

Chronic pain is a common and disabling comorbidity in individuals living with HIV. Behavioral interventions are among the most effective and safe nonpharmacologic treatments for chronic pain. However, the success of a behavioral intervention is influenced by how well it is tailored to the target population's biological, psychological, and social context. Given well-documented psychosocial vulnerabilities among persons with HIV, it is critical to develop a behavioral intervention for chronic pain tailored to this population. To use qualitative methods to investigate patient preferences for the structure and delivery of a behavioral intervention for chronic pain in individuals with HIV. Interviews and focus groups were used to elicit participant preferences. A thematic analysis approach, with an initial round of open coding, was used to develop the codebook and analyze the data. Qualitative data from 12 interviews and 3 focus groups with patients living with HIV and chronic pain (total N = 24) were analyzed. Emergent themes fell into four major categories: perceived value of group sessions, incorporating peer leadership, and two key elements of how the intervention should be delivered: the HIV status of group participants and views on phone-delivered intervention content. This study provides a framework for the structure and delivery of a behavioral intervention for chronic pain in individuals with HIV based on patient preferences. We will use these results to design our intervention, and hope that our approach informs the work of investigators in other disciplines who seek to incorporate patient preferences during intervention development.

Pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatments for chronic pain in individuals with HIV: a systematic review

ABSTRACTChronic pain occurs in as many as 85% of individuals with HIV and is associated with substantial functional impairment. Little guidance is available for HIV providers seeking to address their patients’ chronic pain. We conducted a systematic review to identify clinical trials and observational studies that examined the impact of pharmacologic or non-pharmacologic interventions on pain and/or functional outcomes among HIV-infected individuals with chronic pain in high-development countries. Eleven studies met inclusion criteria and were mostly low or very low quality. Seven examined pharmacologic interventions (gabapentin, pregabalin, capsaicin, analgesics including opioids) and four examined non-pharmacologic interventions (cognitive behavioral therapy, self-hypnosis, smoked cannabis). The only controlled studies with positive results were of capsaicin and cannabis, and had short-term follow-up (≤12 weeks). Among the seven studies of pharmacologic interventions, five had substantial pharmaceutical industry sponsorship. These findings highlight several important gaps in the HIV/chronic pain literature that require further research.

Drug Counselors' Attitudes Toward Nonpharmacologic Treatments for Chronic Pain.

To examine methadone counselors' attitudes toward individual and group-based nonpharmacologic treatments for chronic pain. Thirty methadone drug counselors were interviewed about their attitudes toward pain interventions and completed a survey on the perceived efficacy of and willingness to refer patients to nonpharmacologic pain treatments. Counselors reported favorable attitudes toward interventions commonly found in interdisciplinary pain management, particularly, conventional psychological approaches. On average, counselors rated cognitive-behavioral therapy (individual or group) as the treatment with the highest perceived efficacy and the one to which they were most willing to refer patients with pain. In contrast, on average, counselors rated the use of herbal medicine, aromatherapy, and magnets among the lowest in perceived efficacy and in willingness to refer patients with pain. Generally, higher perceived efficacy was associated with higher referral willingness, and scores on both dimensions were comparable across individual and group interventions. Findings indicate that methadone drug counselors perceive several nonpharmacologic evidence-based pain treatments as efficacious for methadone-maintained patients with chronic pain and counselors would be willing to refer their patients to these therapies if they were available. If some of these nonpharmacologic interventions were shown to be effective in methadone maintenance treatment, they have the potential to address, at least in part, the routine undertreatment of pain in this vulnerable patient population.

Satisfaction With Chronic Pain Treatment.

Background:The effects of chronic pain (CP) on physical function and emotional and mental health of individuals, families, and community are well established. No adequate research is conducted in this field in Iran.Objectives:The current study aimed to assess the prevalence of CP, types of treatments used for CP and patients’ satisfaction with the CP treatments in an Iranian urban population.Patients and Methods:In the current study, CP was investigated using the international CP questionnaire administered to 1,050 adults living in Shiraz, Iran. The questionnaire consisted of 28 questions used to evaluate the effects of CP on the studied population including the prevalence of CP, pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments for CP, and participants’ satisfaction with CP treatments. All the statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software, version 18.Results:In the current study, 6.95% of the 1,050 subjects willing to participate in the study had CP for more than six months. According to the results, 54% of the subjects with CP used analgesics, mostly non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and narcotic analgesics. Besides, 37% of the subjects used other pain relief methods such as traditional medicine and acupuncture. The results also showed an acceptable rate of satisfaction with treatments.Conclusions:The number of subjects with CP proved it as a prevalent problem in the study population. Furthermore, characteristics and associations of those experiencing CP demonstrated that it might have significant negative health and psychosocial outcomes in this group. The problem was found significant enough to consider special health programs to prevent and manage CP in urban population of Shiraz.

Physical exercise as non-pharmacological treatment of chronic pain: Why and when.

Chronic pain broadly encompasses both objectively defined conditions and idiopathic conditions that lack physical findings. Despite variance in origin or pathogenesis, these conditions are similarly characterized by chronic pain, poor physical function, mobility limitations, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance, and they are treated alone or in combination by pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic approaches, such as physical activity (aerobic conditioning, muscle strengthening, flexibility training, and movement therapies). Physical activity improves general health, disease risk, and progression of chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. When applied to chronic pain conditions within appropriate parameters (frequency, duration, and intensity), physical activity significantly improves pain and related symptoms. For chronic pain, strict guidelines for physical activity are lacking, but frequent movement is preferable to sedentary behavior. This gives considerable freedom in prescribing physical activity treatments, which are most successful when tailored individually, progressed slowly, and account for physical limitations, psychosocial needs, and available resources.

The neurophysiological basis of the effectiveness of transcranial methods for the treatment of neuropathic pain

The present article reports the data concerning the prevalence of chronic pain syndromes in clinical practice. The importance of addressing the problem of finding effective treatment modalities for the patients presenting with these conditions is emphasized. The mechanisms of neuropathic pain are analyzed. The possible pathogenetically sound substantiations for the pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment of chronic pain are discussed. The article highlights the results of recent meta-analyses of the comparative effectiveness of transcranial methods. The mail lines of further investigations in the field of monotherapy and combined treatment of neuropathic pain are outlined.

Physical exercise as non-pharmacological treatment of chronic pain: Why and when

Physical exercise as non-pharmacological treatment of chronic pain: Why and when

Factor structure of the Arthritis-Related Health Belief instrument in ethnically diverse community-dwelling older adults with chronic pain.

Nonpharmacological treatment of chronic pain in older people can be effective but attitudes and adherence to use of this treatment may differ by ethnicity. This study supports that a modified 14-item instrument based on the modified Health Belief Model-the arthritis-related health belief instrument (AHBI)-can be used across ethnically diverse older adults (i.e., European Americans, Hispanics, African Americans, and Afro-Caribbeans). Confirmatory factor analysis tested the factor structure of the AHBI to eliminate items inappropriate for this population. Structural equation modeling tested expected relationships among four latent variables-severity, susceptibility, barriers, and benefits-across the four ethnic groups. Findings suggest that the modified 14-item AHBI (eliminating two items from the original AHBI) adequately described the four latent factors pertaining to use of nonpharmacological pain therapy in this sample. All items registered substantial loadings (.41-.95) on the hypothesized factors, operating similarly across the four ethnic groups. The modified 14-item AHBI may be useful in (a) assessing how individual perceptions influence access to nonpharmacological pain therapy among ethnically diverse community-dwelling older adults, with the goal to develop and implement effective pain treatment for this population; and (b) measuring the likelihood of using nonpharmacological pain therapy by older adults. The modified 14-item AHBI can help health care providers to provide accurate pain assessment and examine domains that could affect use of nonpharmacological pain therapy by ethnically diverse older adults and guide practice with them by identifying barriers to use of such therapies and providing education to encourage their use.

Non-Pharmacological Treatments for Chronic Pain

Precise estimates of the prevalence of chronic pain syndromes are difficult to ascertain. In the US, for example, there may be >30 million people with chronic or recurrent painful conditions. To date, there is still no one treatment that consistently and permanently alleviates chronic pain for all people. Since pain is likely to persist for a significant number of people, a disease management approach is highly desirable.