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Chronic pain management in non-oncologic patients: multicentric study on adult patients referring to the centers for pain management in the Lazio Region (Italy)
No full textIntroduction
Chronic pain is a complex phenomenon usually associated with psychological stress, which implies
falling back on the National Health Service and reducing work capacities, indeed affecting Activities
of Daily Living. Studies based on efficacy have identified the multidisciplinary approach as the most
effective means to obtain therapeutic results. These programs can be provided by the Centers for Pain
Management (CPMs), where multidisciplinary teams are likely to provide the necessary expertise to
outline the best treatments for the diagnosis and management of chronic pain. To date, very little
information is available on the kind of assistance and support these centers can provide, as well as on
the clinical and socio-demographic characteristics of patients who refer to these facilities.
Aims
The present investigation has the following objectives:
• to describe what kind of assistance the centers for pain management (CPMs) in the Lazio
Region are able to provide;
• to describe the clinical and socio-demographic characteristics of the population referring to the
CPMs;
• to describe the type of pharmacologic, complementary and intervention treatments;
• to describe the clinical characteristics of patients who turn to the two different levels of
available assistance (hub and spoke system).
Methods
In 2011 a non-profit, retrospective and multicentric study was performed on all the CPMs existing in
the Lazio region. All relevant information on the centers was collected. As well, the health records of
patients between the age of 18 and 71 (paper and digitized documents) affected by chronic benign pain
for at least six months were analyzed. Patients suffering from migraine and from cancer pains were
excluded. The study was approved by the Ethic Committee (CE) of each participating center and of
the preeminent CPM (Tor Vergata). An average number of 1600 patients was estimated. All data were
collected in a SPSS database and processed according to a statistical analysis.
Results
Data collected between January 2012 and February 2013 from 1606 patients from all the twenty-six
(26) participating CPMs in the Lazio Region were analyzed.
Centers characteristics: CPMs are generally located in University and General Hospitals (among
these, 2 hubs) and in public or private hospital facilities. They are all equipped with a clinic, some of
them are able to provide Day Hospital surgery and day-beds. CPMs are managed by anesthetists and
in most instances they do not have multidisciplinary staff members. As well, the number of health
professionals, nurses, psychologists and physiotherapists is scarce. CPMs mainly supply patients with
pharmacotherapy, Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM) and with interventional treatments
which may be complex, as well. The median waiting time is of about 90 days. The clinics are not
homogeneously distributed in the Region; Rome turned out to be the city with a greater range of
offers, while in the provincial areas there is an under-utilization of the existing facilities.
6
Characteristics of the population: Most of the patients referring to the CPMs had been previously
evaluated by the General Practitioner (38%), 34% of them were directed to the pain centers by a
specialist different from an anesthesiologist, while 28% of patients refer to a CPM on their own
choice. 33.1% of patients are male, 66.9% are female (ratio 1:2); the most representative category of
patients was of an age between 65-69. In most cases, marital status, employment and education were
not documented. Almost all patients, regardless of their age, refer to a CPM at an average median time
of 48 months after onset of pain; female patients seem to experience more intense symptoms with
respect to males. The use of stairs was limited in order to guarantee a multi-dimension evaluation.
Localization/multi-localization of pain is different between males and females; as for the nature of the
pain, 45% of patients suffered from a somatic pain, while 21% of neuropathic pain and 31% mixed
nature (somatic and neuropathic).There is a prevalence of muscle-skeletal diseases (low back pain,
lumbar pain and spondyloarthrosis), immediately followed by neuropathic pain. The older the patient
is more are the clinical disturbances at the origin of the pain. In most cases a proper diagnosis is not
made, but pain is always related to the localization of the pain.
Pain relief treatments: Medications are the most widely used treatments for pain relief and
management. Medications for pain may range from selective and non-selective FANS, adjuvants
(anticonvulsants, benzodiazepine, antidepressants), opioids (i.e. tapentadol) and strong opioids, such
as the oxycodone-naloxone combination which may be of help in limiting the irreversible effects of
opioids. The choice of the treatment depends on the diagnosis and nature of the pain.
Medications alone are often not sufficient in the management of chronic pain and may be more
effective when combined with other treatments, such as acupuncture, massages and other
interventional treatments (perinervous injections, epidural, Pulsed Radiofrequency (RFP), trigger
points injections). No significant difference emerged between male and female patients. Associating
pharmacological medications to CAM is an innovative approach in pain management, which differs
from the traditional western model. By doing this, health care providers focus on the total person, not
just the pain, evaluating both the biological and psychological components of the patient. CAM
treatments may also reduce the use of medications and, as a consequence, of their side effects. We
have to keep in mind that in chronic pain the emotional component very often prevails on the
biological one, considering that the latter can be resolved.
Population referring to the hub and spoke centers: Patients referring to the two different models of
pain clinics differ significantly. This depends both on the length of time from the onset of pain and on
the intensity of the pain (spoke). Patients referring to hub centers show a prevalence of mixed and
neuropathic pain. This information proves that patients with a more complex clinical history turn to
hub centers, although these are not always able to offer the advanced and innovative treatments, which
would be necessary for an effective pain relief in patients.
Conclusions
In 2011, the availability of hub and spoke centers was not equally distributed throughout the territory.
Documents providing clinical data and case history of patients were more reliable than the information
obtained with phone interviews. Overall characteristics of patients, as well as the type of assistance
provided are still scarcely recorded, although this information would be helpful especially when
making a complete multidimensional evaluation on how to better manage chronic pain patients.
However, the 2011 network and system seems to be changing: this is demonstrated by the typology of
patients referring to the hub and spoke centers. Female patients usually turn to the CPMs, considering
their different hormonal and biological characteristics and that they may be more sensitive to the pain
threshold level
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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Evaluation of Psychometric and Linguistic Properties of the Italian Adolescent Pain Assessment Scales: A Systematic Review
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Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
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use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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