Dataset Information

Central Sensitization and Perceived Indoor Climate among Workers with Chronic Upper-Limb Pain: Cross-Sectional Study.

ABSTRACT: Monitoring of indoor climate is an essential part of occupational health and safety. While questionnaires are commonly used for surveillance, not all workers may perceive an identical indoor climate similarly. The aim of this study was to evaluate perceived indoor climate among workers with chronic pain compared with pain-free colleagues and to determine the influence of central sensitization on this perception. Eighty-two male slaughterhouse workers, 49 with upper-limb chronic pain and 33 pain-free controls, replied to a questionnaire with 13 items of indoor climate complaints. Pressure pain threshold (PPT) was measured in muscles of the arm, shoulder, and lower leg. Cross-sectional associations were determined using general linear models controlled for age, smoking, and job position. The number of indoor climate complaints was twice as high among workers with chronic pain compared with pain-free controls (1.8 [95% CI: 1.3-2.3] versus 0.9 [0.4-1.5], resp.). PPT of the nonpainful leg muscle was negatively associated with the number of complaints. Workers with chronic pain reported more indoor climate complaints than pain-free controls despite similar actual indoor climate. Previous studies that did not account for musculoskeletal pain in questionnaire assessment of indoor climate may be biased. Central sensitization likely explains the present findings.

SUBMITTER: Sundstrup E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4575741 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Central Sensitization and Perceived Indoor Climate among Workers with Chronic Upper-Limb Pain: Cross-Sectional Study.

Sundstrup Emil E Jakobsen Markus D MD Brandt Mikkel M Jay Kenneth K Persson Roger R Andersen Lars L LL

Pain research and treatment 20150906

Monitoring of indoor climate is an essential part of occupational health and safety. While questionnaires are commonly used for surveillance, not all workers may perceive an identical indoor climate similarly. The aim of this study was to evaluate perceived indoor climate among workers with chronic pain compared with pain-free colleagues and to determine the influence of central sensitization on this perception. Eighty-two male slaughterhouse workers, 49 with upper-limb chronic pain and 33 pain- ...[more]

PMID: 26425368

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Project description:BackgroundPatient-reported outcomes (PROs) can be used to evaluate perceived capacity of an individual in executing tasks in a natural environment with their prosthetic device. According to the World Health Organization International Classification of Health, Functioning, and Disability (ICF) models, there may be specific factors of a person, factors of assistive prosthetic technology, or factors related to the health condition or body function that affect their functioning and disability. However, an understanding of factors affecting an upper limb prosthesis user's perception of their ability to execute tasks in a natural environment is not well established.ObjectiveTo use the ICF model to identify which health condition-related, body function, environmental, and personal factors influence activity as measured by perceived function in the upper limb prosthesis user population.DesignQuantitative clinical descriptive study.SettingClinical offices within outpatient private practice (removed for blinding).ParticipantsA sample of 101 participants with upper limb amputation who use a prosthetic device and were undergoing a prosthesis fitting process.InterventionsNot applicable.Main outcome measuresPROs on pain with/without a prosthesis, satisfaction, and perceived function derived from the Comprehensive Arm Prosthesis and Rehabilitation Outcomes Questionnaire.ResultsModel coefficients indicate that with a unit increase in satisfaction (p < .001) and pain (p = .031) scores (with higher pain scores signifying less pain), the mean of perceived function increases by 0.66 and 0.47 units, respectively. Conversely, for individuals with elbow disarticulation, transhumeral, shoulder disarticulation, and interscapulothoracic amputations, the mean of perceived function decreases by 22.02 units (p = .006).ConclusionsBased on our sample, perceived function is significantly associated with satisfaction, pain, and amputation level. These findings could potentially help to inform initial clinical approach and targeted outcomes for patients based on these factors.

Project description:Nociceptor inputs can trigger a prolonged but reversible increase in the excitability and synaptic efficacy of neurons in central nociceptive pathways, the phenomenon of central sensitization. Central sensitization manifests as pain hypersensitivity, particularly dynamic tactile allodynia, secondary punctate or pressure hyperalgesia, aftersensations, and enhanced temporal summation. It can be readily and rapidly elicited in human volunteers by diverse experimental noxious conditioning stimuli to skin, muscles or viscera, and in addition to producing pain hypersensitivity, results in secondary changes in brain activity that can be detected by electrophysiological or imaging techniques. Studies in clinical cohorts reveal changes in pain sensitivity that have been interpreted as revealing an important contribution of central sensitization to the pain phenotype in patients with fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, musculoskeletal disorders with generalized pain hypersensitivity, headache, temporomandibular joint disorders, dental pain, neuropathic pain, visceral pain hypersensitivity disorders and post-surgical pain. The comorbidity of those pain hypersensitivity syndromes that present in the absence of inflammation or a neural lesion, their similar pattern of clinical presentation and response to centrally acting analgesics, may reflect a commonality of central sensitization to their pathophysiology. An important question that still needs to be determined is whether there are individuals with a higher inherited propensity for developing central sensitization than others, and if so, whether this conveys an increased risk in both developing conditions with pain hypersensitivity, and their chronification. Diagnostic criteria to establish the presence of central sensitization in patients will greatly assist the phenotyping of patients for choosing treatments that produce analgesia by normalizing hyperexcitable central neural activity. We have certainly come a long way since the first discovery of activity-dependent synaptic plasticity in the spinal cord and the revelation that it occurs and produces pain hypersensitivity in patients. Nevertheless, discovering the genetic and environmental contributors to and objective biomarkers of central sensitization will be highly beneficial, as will additional treatment options to prevent or reduce this prevalent and promiscuous form of pain plasticity.

Dataset Information

Central Sensitization and Perceived Indoor Climate among Workers with Chronic Upper-Limb Pain: Cross-Sectional Study.

Publications

Central Sensitization and Perceived Indoor Climate among Workers with Chronic Upper-Limb Pain: Cross-Sectional Study.

Similar Datasets

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