Fatigue in Adults with Chronic Arthralgia/Myalgia in the Temporomandibular Region: Associations with Poor Sleep Quality, Depression, Pain Intensity, and Future Pain Interference.

AIMS: To examine associations between fatigue and poor sleep quality, depression symptoms, and pain intensity in an adult population with chronic arthralgia/myalgia in the temporomandibular region and to test whether fatigue predicted future pain-related interference above and beyond these other constructs. METHODS: The sample included 40 participants with chronic arthralgia and/or myalgia in the temporomandibular region and 21 healthy controls. Participants self-reported fatigue (PROMIS fatigue score), sleep quality (PSQI), depression symptoms (PROMIS depression score), and average pain intensity and completed four weekly surveys of pain-related interference with daily activities. RESULTS: The chronic arthralgia/myalgia group reported greater fatigue than healthy controls (t = 4.85, P < .001). Fatigue was significantly correlated with poor sleep quality (r = .46), higher depression symptoms (r = .41), and higher pain intensity (r = .46) in the chronic arthralgia/myalgia group, and these three variables together explained 39% of variance in fatigue. Greater fatigue-above and beyond sleep quality, depression symptoms, and average pain intensity-was associated with a higher average level of pain-related interference (ß = 0.56, t score = 3.30, P = .002) over the following month. Depression symptoms, poor sleep quality, and pain intensity did not significantly predict pain interference above and beyond fatigue (all P > .05). CONCLUSION: The results suggest that fatigue is a clinically relevant symptom distinct from depression, poor sleep quality, or pain intensity and may be related to worse pain outcomes over the following month in adults with chronic temporomandibular arthralgia/myalgia. Clinicians should assess, monitor, and treat fatigue to the best of their abilities when working with this population.

Transient Reductions in Postoperative Pain and Anxiety with the Use of Virtual Reality in Children.

OBJECTIVE: Virtual reality is a promising method to manage pain. Distraction-based virtual reality (VR-D) is thought to reduce pain by redirecting attention. Although VR-D can reduce pain associated with acutely painful procedures, it is unclear whether VR-D can reduce pain after surgery. We assessed the ability of a single VR-D session to decrease postoperative pain and anxiety and explored whether pain catastrophizing and anxiety sensitivity influenced these outcomes in children after surgery. DESIGN: Single-center, prospective, pilot study. SETTING: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). SUBJECTS: Fifty children (7-21 years of age) with postoperative pain followed by the Acute Pain Service. METHODS: Patients received one VR-D session after surgery. Before the session, patients completed pain catastrophizing (Pain Catastrophizing Scale for Children) and anxiety sensitivity (Child Anxiety Sensitivity Index) questionnaires. The primary outcome consisted of changes in pain intensity after VR-D (immediately, 15 minutes, and 30 minutes). Secondary outcomes included changes in pain unpleasantness and anxiety. RESULTS: VR-D use was associated with a decrease in pain intensity immediately and 15 minutes after VR-D. Reductions in pain unpleasantness were observed up to 30 minutes after VR-D. VR-D was also associated with a reduction in anxiety immediately and at 15 minutes. Although patients with higher pain catastrophizing had higher baseline pain intensity and unpleasantness, they did not show larger pain reductions after VR-D than those with lower pain catastrophizing. CONCLUSIONS: VR-D may be beneficial in transiently reducing pain intensity, unpleasantness, and anxiety in children with postoperative pain. This study informs the design of a larger, randomized, controlled study assessing VR-D for acute postoperative pain and anxiety management.

Improvements in Sleep Correlate With Improvements in Clinical Outcomes Among Adolescents Undergoing Intensive Interdisciplinary Pain Treatment.

OBJECTIVES: Intensive interdisciplinary pain treatment (IIPT) programs have been shown to restore function, improve coping, and reduce pain in adolescents with chronic pain. Yet, little is known about patients' sleep during IIPT and whether or not improvements in pain treatment outcomes are associated with changes in sleep pre-to-post IIPT treatment. The objectives of the current study were to describe sleep among adolescents entering IIPT and examine associations between sleep parameters and IIPT treatment effects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Self-reported sleep measures and clinical outcomes (eg, functional disability, coping, average pain), were collected from 44 adolescents (mean age=14.57, 68.2% female) at admission and discharge from an inpatient IIPT program. Wrist-worn actigraphy data and sleep diaries from participants' first week and last week in the program were analyzed to characterize sleep parameters. RESULTS: Participants self-reported poor sleep/wake patterns, high levels of insomnia symptoms, and subclinical problems with daytime sleepiness upon admission into IIPT, although actigraphic indices of sleep from the first week of IIPT admission were only just under clinical guidelines for healthy adolescent sleep. Better self-reported sleep quality assessed via aggregated sleep diaries from the first week was associated with improvement in average pain and disability over the course of the program. Furthermore, improvements in insomnia symptoms and daytime sleepiness throughout the program were positively correlated with concurrent improvements in functional disability and coping. DISCUSSION: Taken together, results suggest that sleep may be associated with IIPT treatment effects and pave the way for future research to continue examining these relationships.

Preliminary evidence for conserved transcriptional response to adversity in adults with temporomandibular disorder.

Temporomandibular disorder (TMD) is one of the most common orofacial pain conditions. Alteration in immune functioning is one promising biological mechanism underlying pain in TMD. However, there is a gap in the understanding of molecular bases contributing to altered immune functioning in these patients. OBJECTIVES: In the current study, we investigated whether individuals with TMD would exhibit differential activity of 3 specific transcription factors involved in inflammatory (nuclear factor-kappa B, NF-kB), antiviral (interferon-regulatory factors, IRF), and sympathetic (cAMP response element-binding protein, CREB) processes using a promoter-based bioinformatics analysis, which is characterized as the "Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity." METHODS: Adults with TMD (n = 19) and without (n = 17) underwent a standardized clinical examination for TMD. A blood sample was collected for genome-wide transcriptional RNA profiling. Bioinformatic analyses tested for differential prevalence of proinflammatory and antiviral transcription factor activity in core promoter sequences from all genes showing >1.2-fold differential expression in TMD vs controls. RESULTS: Promoter-based bioinformatic analyses of genome-wide transcriptome profiles confirmed upregulation of genes bearing response elements for proinflammatory transcription factor (NF-kB, P = 0.002) and downregulation of genes with response elements for IRF (P = 0.037) in patients with TMD relative to controls. Results also indicated upregulated activity of CREB in patients with TMD (P = 0.08), consistent with increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system. CONCLUSION: These results provide initial support that the regulation of immune pathways is altered in individuals with TMD. A shift of transcriptional resources to a proinflammatory state may be driven by psychosocial stress and contributes to symptoms associated with TMD.