Category Archives: psychology

Emotional and Physical Pain Might Be a Memory Engram and How to Prevent It

Dr. AV Apkarian has pioneered the idea that brain changes occur following pain injury that leaves a pain memory. Mansour, A. R., M. A. Farmer, M. N. Baliki, and A. Vania Apkarian. “Chronic pain: the role of learning and brain … Continue reading

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Is It Worth Checking For Anxiety – Depression in Osteoarthritis?

Cost-utility Analysis suggests not. I am not a big fan of attributing chronic pain to anxiety-depression – (sorry Dr. Sarno)… Recent analysis suggests in osteoarthritis it is not cost -effective to spend special time on anxiety depression

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Does Ritalin Help Traumatic Brain Injury Mental Fatigue and Mental Functioning? -Yes

Two year study found methylphenidate, average 60 mg /day, improved mental functioning in TBI.

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Complex Grief or PTSD – New Treatment – Mirror Neuron Network Activation

It is proposed that PTSD and abnormal grief reactions are due to mal-wired brain connections that loop painful recollections. In phantom limb, abnormal circuit changes potentiate the pain. Some of these connections can be over-written by “mirror therapy” where a … Continue reading

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Depression in Chronic Back Pain? – Twin Study Suggests More Familial Than Related to Pain

Spine J. 2017 Jul;17(7):905-912. doi: 10.1016/j.spinee.2017.02.009. Chronic low back pain and the risk of depression or anxiety symptoms: insights from a longitudinal twin study. Fernandez M https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28267634 “The relationship between chronic LBP and the future development of depression or anxiety … Continue reading

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Pain News – Short Snaps June 2017

June 2017 Pain News: I put them up as short snaps because not going to blog note them – hope you like. You will probably not find many in news elsewhere.

Posted in Abdominal pain, celiac, chronic fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Headaches, Injection, Interstial Cystitis/Gynecologic, Knee, psychology, shoulder | Leave a comment

What Determines Depression – A Bad Diagnosis or the Pain? – the Pain of Course

Study did not find a history of cancer affected depression scores – what did was “a painful somatic symptom”. I have always contented that pain was the prime driver in chronic pain where the fear avoidance crowd like to put … Continue reading

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Hurt until Pain = Overdoing; Avoiding Things That Hurt = Avoidance – Can’t Win

Study found many overdo things resulted in significant pain flareups after. However, if they have periods where they avoid things that hurt, they are then categorized as avoidant – can’t seem to win though a paced life would be obvious.

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Suffering is a Distinct Pain Feature

Simple study zapping volunteers drew distinction between unpleasantness ratings and suffering to point it considered it a distinct pain factor. This is not new news to anyone whose life has been changed by pain.

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Does Musculoskeletal Pain Cause Stress or Stress Cause the Pain -Studying People over time

A longitudinal – study – studying people before and subsequent to pains is the most reliable study format for figuring out what is going on.. What this study found was that it was the Musculosketal pain that caused the stress … Continue reading

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Irritable Bowel – Hypnosis helps

Hypnosis is a useful adjunct to IBS treatment.

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Monotherapy Mediocre in Treating Fibromyalgia (FM)

New Acceptance and Commitment therapy – 8 sessions of 2.5 hours reduced pain by 20% in 1/2 cases but only 50% in 1/48 cases. Fairly maximal drug therapies with pregabalin +/- Duloxetine alone was not great

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Hypnomanic Checklist

Once had a psychiatrist phone me very irritated because I had diagnosed a teeanger as potentially bipolar. Fortunately, I had seen her hypomanic, and run a hypomanic questionnaire at time – adequate documentation despite his hostility (guy needed a holiday). … Continue reading

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What Determines Severity of Neuropathic Pain – The Neuropathicity, Not the Mood – and Good-Bye Fear Avoidance Model(FAM)

Factors such as pain on light touch (allodynia) and excessive pain on pinprick (hyperpathia) were strong indicators of pain severity. “Female gender, age, and history of serious mental disorders were found to be weaker indicators.”  Psychological factors are played up … Continue reading

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Fibromyalgia(FM) – Guided Imagary Treatment Not So Good By Self

Though results have varied, latest studies show little benefit of guided imagery in FM.

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With Prior History of Substance Abuse, What is Likelihood of Substance Abuse on Opioids For Chronic Pain?

Substance abuse issues in chronic pain sufferers is always a concern – and doubly so, if there is an abuse history.  Chance of abuse in high risk cases was 32%.

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Benefits of Group Laughter – Endophins and Social Bonding

Recent study suggests social laughter stimulates endophins and encourages social bonding. This makes a case for Laughter Yoga

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Unlearning Fibromylagia Pain

Quite some years ago, John Sarno, an orthopedic surgeon wrote book on how chronic widespread pain might be a manifestation of emotional pain – people whose bodies are on overdrive and knotted up with body armour. He called it Tension … Continue reading

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Mindfulness Therapy Not So Great in Fibromyalgia -Possible Reasons

Though an earlier uncontrolled study suggested Mindfulness medication could be helpful in FM, a randomized trial did not.  Maybe becoming aware of surroundings, some of which you don’t like, is not helpful?

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Pain Worsening From Opioids Rare

Pain Hyperalgesia is a condition where “allegedly” you become more sensitive to pain once on opioids. This is used by opioid-haters that tell of doom to those on opioids. A Stanford associated study couldn’t find any and another failed to … Continue reading

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Idea Chronic Pain Is Psychological Dispelled by Recent Studies

Several studies presented at the International Association for Study of Pain at Montreal 2010, all find the association of psychological problems and Chronic pain to be weak.

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Music Therapy in Chronic Pain May Drop Pains by 50% 0ver 2 Months

Program of twice daily 20 minute of specific music therapy dropped chronic pains from 6.3 to 3.2/10 over 6 weeks.

Posted in Fibromyalgia, Mechanical aids, psychology | 1 Comment

Mortality in Fibromyalgia

There is some good new and bad news in a recent study

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Doctors Embracing Biopsychosocial Model For Chronic Pain Still Missing Boat?

Recent British study found doctors using Biopsychosocial Model For Chronic Pain were actually concentrating on psychological approaches even when it was inappropriate

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Hypnotherapy and Biofeedback For Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) – and for Functional Abdominal Pains in Kids

Both Hypnosis and heart rate variability biofeedback are useful in irritable bowel and, in children and adolescents, functional bowel disease

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