Such inferences need to be based on experimental designs or prospective studies using repeated sampling of pain characteristics across a longer time span, for example, following the progression of symptoms from an asymptomatic state to chronic pain.
The inclusion of a population-based sample is also reasonable because prior research is usually based on highly selective clinical samples of pain patients, and this might bias research.
The aim of our study was to synthesize pain drawings from a large sample of chest pain patients and to examine whether pain localizations differ for different underlying etiologies.
To do this, the present study used a large sample of chronic pain patients and matched pain-free individuals.
Impact on life satisfaction and mood in the total sample complaining of pain is counter-intuitive; there is no significant difference on perceived impact on life satisfaction and mood of those complaining of pain in the total sample; however, when those complaining of pain are separated into landmine/UXO victims and non UXO significant differences emerge.
It could be that the presence of neurological signs actually is less important for prognosis in patients with neck pain, or an alternative explanation might be that in this particular sample of neck pain patients, the neurological examination or recording of its results were less precise than in the low back pain study.
This study represents one of the first to follow a sample of chronic pain patients on opioid therapy over time, using a structured assessment tool to evaluate and track behaviors suggestive of addiction.
The translated COMM was pilot-tested on a convenience sample of twenty pain patients.
A second part of this project, however, will investigate in the same sample of hospitals pain management at the patient level, using pediatric admissions for headache as indicator.
The methodology has been described fully elsewhere [ 13] but in summary, data was collected through individual semi-structured interviews with a convenience sample of back pain patients who had been offered a seven-week community-based group rehabilitation programme (21 hours in total).
