1,720,958 research outputs found
Classification of chronic pain. Quantification and grading with the mainz pain staging system
No full textIntroduction: Chronic pain is an individually variable experience, incorporating physical, psychological and social dimensions. Chronic pain occurs in a broad spectrum of severity; therefore, a grading procedure is of crucial importance in clinical research and in epidemiologic studies. The Mainz Pain Staging System is an interview-administered, multi-dimensional measure of chronic pain severity. The system suggests grading chronic pain in terms of 4 axes: time (persistence),spreading of pain site, medication use,and health care utilization. The whole scale consist of 10 items. The resulting score is used to classify the pain problem in three stages (I, II, III). Analysing the broader validity and parametric properties of the staging system is the purpose of the present study. Methods: The staging system and psychosocial data were administered to 542 consecutive patients of different diagnoses who attended one of six pain clinics in the year 1995/96. In a time period of 3 months since first contact, treatment procedures were registered. Three months after first contact patients rated the effectiveness of treatment concerning reduction of pain intensity. Results: According to the criteria of the staging system 25% of the sample belonged to each stage I and stage Ill,whereas 50% were classified to stage II. As a measure of validity, chronic pain status demonstrated significant correlation with psychological impairment, disability and time off work,whereas there was no correlation to pain intensity and persistence of pain. Surprisingly we found no difference in amount and quality of treatment between patients who were graded as severe pain patients (stage III) and the other stages. Furthermore, effectiveness of treatment also did not differ between the three stages. We made several proposals for optimizing the staging system. Conclusion: Given the high prevalence of recurrent and chronic pain as well as the broadness of severity, an important issue on further research is identification of factors which influence the chronification process. For this purpose improved measures of graded classification of pain status are needed
Psychometric properties of the pain drawing and the Ransford technique in patients with chronic low back pain
No full textBackground. The aim of our study was the analysis of the psychometric properties of the Ransford technique which is a qualitative scoring method of the pain drawing. It has been suggested that this method could be used as a brief screening technique for psychological involvement in pain complaints. Methods. 109 patients with chronic back pain filled in the pain drawing which was rated according to the technique described by Ransford and colleagues in 1976. As external criterium of validity we chosed a differentiated expert rating of psychological interference. Results. The Ransford technique showed moderate to good coefficients of reliability (re-test, inter and intra-rater). On the other hand, the Ransford technique demonstrated very low indices of validity in order to give a prognosis about psychological interference. Sensivity and specifity of the Ransford technique demonstrated inadequate values, which furthermore were independent from cut-off points. Conclusion. The pain drawing and the Ransford technique are not sufficiently sensitive and therefore allow no screening for psychological interference in complaints of back pain
Pain treatment facilities at hospitals in Germany. Outpatient, daycare and inpatient facilities for patients with chronic pain
No full textSpecialised pain treatment is available at inpatient, daycare and outpatient units at hospitals in Germany. A total of 579 hospitals in Germany offer at least one of the three pain treatment options. The main treatment involves outpatient care, but inpatient wards and daycare institutions have become more common. The type and number of pain treatment facilities differ regionally. Five of the 16 counties do not officially offer inpatient care at all, although pain treatment sites have been opened on the initiative of the hospitals themselves. Since specialised pain treatment is insufficiently defined by diagnosis (ICD-10) or procedures (OPS) in the German DRG system, it is not possible to recognise its availability when the facilities are not officially named. Pain treatment should be differentiated dependent on whether patients are treated within a single area of expertise or by specialised multiprofessional pain facilities. At hospitals, systematic multimodal pain treatment is possible. Inpatient and daycare pain treatment programs are suitable when outpatient treatment has failed. An overview of the pain therapies offered is a prerequisite for their optimal use,the demonstration of their necessity and for their continued development throughout Germany. This study was planned and supervised by the commission for quality assurance of the German IASP chapter and was sponsored by the German IASP chapter
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
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
The "Munchner Rucken-Intensiv-Programm". Prospective study to evaluate a multimodal functional restoration program for patients suffering from chronic back pain
No full textBack pain is an often reported complaint. Although the prognosis of acute back pain is generally good, this syndrome leads to very high costs for the social and health care systems. The reason is that back pain has a tendency to become chronic. As a result, nearly 50% of patients suffering from chronic back pain for more than six months, are unable to work In order to avoid this problem, a multimodal treatment program including somatic, psychological and social parameters is needed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the practicability and efficacy of a functional restoration program, in which improvement of physical activity and cooperation of the patients as well as reintegration into working life were the primary targets. Methods: Within one year 42 patients (16 men, 26 women, average age 42 years) suffering from chronic back pain were included. They took part at the program which was performed daily for 4 weeks. Before starting the program (t0) as well as at its end (t1) and six months later (t2) pain intensity, severity of depression, subjective disability, psychovegetative signs, frequency of medical treatment and return to work were assessed. Results: At the end of the treatment program as well as six months later all parameters had significantly improved compared to the baseline values. Only two patients had to interrupt the program because of independent of back pain diseases. In total 11 (58%) of the patients who were unable to work at the first visit (n = 19) were reintegrated into the working environment. Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that the multimodal program of functional restoration including physical, psychological and social factors is an effective treatment in patients suffering from chronic back pain with respect to return to work
Training von Arbeitsbewegungen - notwendiger Bestandteil multimodaler Behandlungskonzepte für Patienten mit chronifizierten Rückenschmerzen
No full textObjective: Up to now there is a lack in data concerning work-related functional capacities of patients with back pain and healthy subjects. Aim of the study is the development and analyses of 4 work-related movement patterns. Methods: In order to establish a standardized assessment we developed 4 work-related movement patterns and analysed them in their relation to spine flexibility and in their difference between healthy subjects without back pain (n = 92) and patients with low back pain (n = 72). Results: Performance in all 4 work-related movements demonstrated most significant differences between patients and normals. In both groups performance was not relied to measures of spine flexibility and in part not relied to anthropometric variables (age, sex, body weight, height). Complex movements with static muscular posture demonstrated the highest difference between both groups. Conclusions: Work-related movements as complex tasks may be very suitable for giving information about the amount of work-related function in patients with low back pain. Furthermore, the assessment can pilot the training process. Further development and optimizing work-related diagnostic procedures is a main task in further research
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
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
- …
