Transition from acute to chronic pain in children: novel pieces of the puzzle

Non-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Psychological Interventions May Not Make the Difference in Children and Adolescents With Chronic Pain

Background and Aim

Chronic pain in pediatric populations presents a multifaceted challenge with biopsychosocial impact, requiring a multidisciplinary approach including psychological treatment. At our interdisciplinary pain center, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic-related disruptions led to the cessation of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and other psychological interventions during the pandemic. The aim of this retrospective cohort study with secondary retrospective matched case-control analysis was to evaluate the impact of interruption of non-CBT psychological interventions, namely psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy, on children and adolescents with chronic pain conditions during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Materials and Methods

We included pediatric patients with primary and secondary chronic pain conditions evaluated by our team during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. We excluded patients who did not receive psychological intervention when available, those with incomplete data on initial evaluation or follow-up, and those who received outside psychiatric care or individual or group CBT. The primary outcome was a Patients' Global Impression of Change (PGIC) score of 6-7. Secondary outcome measures were pain intensity, use of pain medication, sleep, physical function, school attendance, the incidence of suicidality, and the reason for end of treatment.

Results

The study included 146 patients, 77 who received non-CBT psychological interventions and 69 who did not receive any psychological interventions. We found no meaningful difference between the use of non-CBT psychological intervention and no treatment in the incidence of PGIC 6-7 points, pain intensity, school attendance, physical function, suicidality, and cause of end of treatment. Patients not receiving any psychological interventions were more likely to have normalized sleep at the end of treatment.

Conclusion

Non-CBT psychological interventions, namely psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy, were not associated with meaningful benefits for children and adolescents with chronic pain during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients who did not receive psychological interventions reported normalization of their sleep at the end of treatment compared to those who participated in non-CBT interventions.

Evolving Project ECHO: delivery of pediatric pain core competency learning for interprofessional healthcare providers

Introduction

Healthcare providers (HCPs) practicing in community settings are critical to improving access to pain care, yet there are significant gaps in training opportunities designed for interprofessional learners. Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (Project ECHO®) is an established model for delivering online HCP education through virtual clinics and cultivating a community of practice. However, to our knowledge, the integration of pain core competency education into the ECHO® model has not been previously attempted. This innovation could enhance the ECHO® model while also addressing the growing calls for more accessible interprofessional pain curricula. This paper describes efforts to implement and evaluate core competency curricula within the context of Pediatric Project ECHO for Pain, one of the first pediatric-pain focused ECHO programs in the world.

Methods

Needs assessments informed curricula development. The first delivered core competency model consisted of synchronous webinar-style sessions while the second model included a mixture of asynchronous (eLearning course) and synchronous (virtual clinical debrief) elements. A convenience sample of HCPs was recruited from ECHO program registrants. Participants completed baseline and follow-up surveys to assess core competency acceptability as well as impact on knowledge and self-efficacy related to managing pediatric pain. Usability of the eLearning platform (model 2 only) was also evaluated. Surveys used 5-point Likert scales to capture outcomes. A priori targets included mean scores ≥4/5 for acceptability and ≥80% of learners reporting knowledge and self-efficacy improvements. The study received local research ethics approval.

Results

The core competency was found to be highly acceptable to interprofessional learners (n = 31) across delivery models, surpassing a priori targets. Specifically, it was characterized as a worthwhile and satisfactory experience that was helpful in supporting learning. The core competency was also associated with improvements in knowledge and self-efficacy by 97% and 90% of learners, respectively. The eLearning platform was reported to have high usability with clinically realistic cases (100% of respondents) that were helpful to inform care delivery (94% of respondents).

Conclusion

The integration of core competency learning within the Project ECHO® model was a successful approach to deliver pediatric pain education to interprofessional HCPs.

Physical activity and education about physical activity for chronic musculoskeletal pain in children and adolescents

BACKGROUND

Chronic pain is a major health and socioeconomic burden, which is prevalent in children and adolescents. Among the most widely used interventions in children and adolescents are physical activity (including exercises) and education about physical activity.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the effectiveness of physical activity, education about physical activity, or both, compared with usual care (including waiting-list, and minimal interventions, such as advice, relaxation classes, or social group meetings) or active medical care in children and adolescents with chronic musculoskeletal pain.

SEARCH METHODS

We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PEDro, and LILACS from the date of their inception to October 2022. We also searched the reference lists of eligible papers, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform.

SELECTION CRITERIA

We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that compared physical activity or education about physical activity, or both, with usual care (including waiting-list and minimal interventions) or active medical care, in children and adolescents with chronic musculoskeletal pain.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Two review authors independently determined the eligibility of the included studies. Our primary outcomes were pain intensity, disability, and adverse events. Our secondary outcomes were depression, anxiety, fear avoidance, quality of life, physical activity level, and caregiver distress. We extracted data at postintervention assessment, and long-term follow-up. Two review authors independently assessed risk of bias for each study, using the RoB 1. We assessed the overall certainty of the evidence using the GRADE approach. We reported continuous outcomes as mean differences, and determined clinically important differences from the literature, or 10% of the scale.

MAIN RESULTS

We included four studies (243 participants with juvenile idiopathic arthritis). We judged all included studies to be at unclear risk of selection bias, performance bias, and detection bias, and at high risk of attrition bias. We downgraded the certainty of the evidence for each outcome to very low due to serious or very serious study limitations, inconsistency, and imprecision. Physical activity compared with usual care Physical activity may slightly reduce pain intensity (0 to 100 scale; 0 = no pain) compared with usual care at postintervention (standardised mean difference (SMD) -0.45, 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.82 to -0.08; 2 studies, 118 participants; recalculated as a mean difference (MD) -12.19, 95% CI -21.99 to -2.38; I² = 0%; very low-certainty evidence). Physical activity may slightly improve disability (0 to 3 scale; 0 = no disability) compared with usual care at postintervention assessment (MD -0.37, 95% CI -0.56 to -0.19; I² = 0%; 3 studies, 170 participants; very low-certainty evidence). We found no clear evidence of a difference in quality of life (QoL; 0 to 100 scale; lower scores = better QoL) between physical activity and usual care at postintervention assessment (SMD -0.46, 95% CI -1.27 to 0.35; 4 studies, 201 participants; very low-certainty evidence; recalculated as MD -6.30, 95% CI -18.23 to 5.64; I² = 91%). None of the included studies measured adverse events, depression, or anxiety for this comparison. Physical activity compared with active medical care We found no studies that could be analysed in this comparison. Education about physical activity compared with usual care or active medical care We found no studies that could be analysed in this comparison. Physical activity and education about physical activity compared with usual care or active medical care We found no studies that could be analysed in this comparison.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS

We are unable to confidently state whether interventions based on physical activity and education about physical activity are more effective than usual care for children and adolescents with chronic musculoskeletal pain. We found very low-certainty evidence that physical activity may reduce pain intensity and improve disability postintervention compared with usual care, for children and adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis. We did not find any studies reporting educational interventions; it remains unknown how these interventions influence the outcomes in children and adolescents with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Treatment decisions should consider the current best evidence, the professional's experience, and the young person's preferences. Further randomised controlled trials in other common chronic musculoskeletal pain conditions, with high methodological quality, large sample size, and long-term follow-up are urgently needed.

The mediating role of maladaptive cognitive schemas regarding the relationship between parenting styles and chronic pain in adolescents: a structural equation modelling approach

BACKGROUND

Although there is a growing body of evidence linking parenting styles to health outcomes, little emphasis has been dedicated to how parenting styles affect chronic pain in adolescents. Given the high prevalence of chronic pain in adolescents and taking into consideration the complexity of chronic pain and the factors affecting it, further research is needed to better understand the processes through which parenting styles affect adolescents' pain. The purpose of the present study was to explore the mediating role of maladaptive schemas in the association between different parenting styles and chronic pain.

METHOD

1302 adolescents aged 12 to 21 in Shiraz, Iran, were randomly selected to participate in this study. To identify adolescents with chronic pain, screening questions based on the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases were used. Buri's Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ), and Young's Schema Questionnaire-Short Form (YSQ-SF) were used to assess the parenting styles and maladaptive cognitive schemas, respectively. The structural equation modeling approach was carried out to evaluate the direct, indirect, and total effects of different parenting styles on chronic pain.

RESULTS

The results in the SEM models revealed that disconnection/ rejection (β = - 0.043, 95%CI =  - 0.07 to  - 0.02), impaired autonomy/ performance (β =  - 0.01, 95%CI =  - 0.02 to -0.003), over-vigilance/inhibition (β =  - 0.007, 95%CI =  - 0.01 to  - 0.008), and impaired limits schemas (β =  - 0.004, 95%CI =  - 0.006 to  - 0.002) significantly mediated the protective effects of the authoritative parenting style on chronic pain. It was also found that the mediating effects of disconnection/ rejection (β = 0.01, 95%CI = 0.01 to 0.02), and over-vigilance/ inhibition (β = 0.002, 95%CI = 0.001 to 0.02) existed in the relationship between the authoritarian style and chronic pain. The permissive style may also affect chronic pain through disconnection/ rejection (β = 0.004, 95%CI = 0.001 to 0.01), other-directedness (β = 0.01, 95%CI = 0.005 to 0.015), and impaired limits schemas (β = 0.05, 95%CI = 0.04 to 0.06).

DISCUSSION

The findings of the present study showed that maladaptive cognitive schemas play a mediating role in the relationship between parenting styles and chronic pain in adolescents. It seems that the interventions that target the effective communication between the parents and the adolescents can be considered as an important part in the chronic pain management in adolescents.

Automated Pain Assessment in Children using Electrodermal Activity and Video Data Fusion via Machine Learning

Pain assessment in children continues to challenge clinicians and researchers, as subjective experiences of pain require inference through observable behaviors, both involuntary and deliberate. The presented approach supplements the subjective self-report-based method by fusing electrodermal activity (EDA) recordings with video facial expressions to develop an objective pain assessment metric. Such an approach is specifically important for assessing pain in children who are not capable of providing accurate self-pain reports, requiring nonverbal pain assessment. We demonstrate the performance of our approach using data recorded from children in post-operative recovery following laparoscopic appendectomy. We examined separately and combined the usefulness of EDA and video facial expression data as predictors of childrens self-reports of pain following surgery through recovery. Findings indicate that EDA and facial expression data independently provide above chance sensitivities and specificities, but their fusion for classifying clinically significant pain vs. clinically nonsignificant pain achieved substantial improvement, yielding 90.91% accuracy, with 100% sensitivity and 81.82% specificity. The multimodal measures capitalize upon different features of the complex pain response. Thus, this paper presents both evidence for the utility of a weighted maximum likelihood algorithm as a novel feature selection method for EDA and video facial expression data and an accurate and objective automated classification algorithm capable of discriminating clinically significant pain from clinically nonsignificant pain in children.

The Role of Sleep in the Transition from Acute to Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain in Youth-A Narrative Review

Musculoskeletal pain is common in the general pediatric population and is a challenge to youth, their parents, and society. The majority of children experiencing musculoskeletal pain will recover; however, a small subgroup of youth develops chronic pain. There is limited understanding of the factors that affect the transition from acute to chronic pain in youth. This review introduces sleep deficiency in the acute to chronic pain transition, exploring the potential mediational or mechanistic role and pathways of sleep in this process, including the interaction with sensory, psychological, and social components of pain and highlighting new avenues for treatment. Biological mechanisms include the increased production of inflammatory mediators and the effect on the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and on the dopaminergic signaling. Psychological and social components include the effect of sleep on the emotional-affective and behavioral components of pain, the negative impact on daily and social activities and coping strategies and on the reward system, increased pain catastrophizing, fear of pain, pain-related anxiety, hypervigilance, and social isolation. Future longitudinal studies are needed to elucidate these mechanistic pathways of the effect of sleep on the transition from acute to chronic pain, which may lead to the development of new treatment targets to prevent this transition.

A descriptive analysis of pediatric post-tonsillectomy pain and recovery outcomes over a 10-day recovery period from 2 randomized, controlled trials

Pediatric tonsillectomy involves an often painful and lengthy recovery period, yet the extended recovery process is largely unknown. This article describes postoperative recovery outcomes for 121 children aged 4 to 15 (mean 6.6 years, SD = 2.3) years enrolled in 1 of 2 clinical trials of analgesia safety and efficacy after tonsillectomy. Postoperative analgesia included scheduled opioid analgesic plus acetaminophen/ibuprofen medication use (first 5 days) and “as-needed” use (last 5 days). Clinical recovery as measured daily by the Parents' Postoperative Pain Measure (PPPM; an observational/behavioral pain measure), children's self-reported pain scores, side-effect assessments, need for unanticipated medical care, and satisfaction with recovery over 10 days was assessed. Higher Parents' Postoperative Pain Measure scores were correlated with poorer sleep, receipt of breakthrough analgesics, distressing side effects, higher self-reported pain scores, and need for unanticipated medical care. Higher self-reported pain scores were associated with more distressing adverse events, including nausea, vomiting, insomnia, lower parent satisfaction, and unplanned medical visits and hospitalizations. Pain and symptoms improved over time, although 24% of the children were still experiencing clinically significant pain on day 10. Scheduled, multimodal analgesia and discharge education that sets realistic expectations is important. This study adds to the emerging body of literature that some children experience significant postoperative pain for an extended period after tonsillectomy.

Why Unidimensional Pain Measurement Prevails in the Pediatric Acute Pain Context and What Multidimensional Self-Report Methods Can Offer

Although pain is widely recognized to be a multidimensional experience and defined as such, unidimensional pain measurement focusing on pain intensity prevails in the pediatric acute pain context. Unidimensional assessments fail to provide a comprehensive picture of a child's pain experience and commonly do little to shape clinical interventions. The current review paper overviews the theoretical and empirical literature supporting the multidimensional nature of pediatric acute pain. Literature reporting concordance data for children's self-reported sensory, affective and evaluative pain scores in the acute pain context has been reviewed and supports the distinct nature of these dimensions. Multidimensional acute pain measurement holds particular promise for identifying predictive markers of chronicity and may provide the basis for tailoring clinical management. The current paper has described key reasons contributing to the widespread use of unidimensional, rather than multidimensional, acute pediatric pain assessment protocols. Implications for clinical practice, education and future research are considered.