The incidence of chronic and recurrent pain increases in adolescence. Prevalence of adolescent chronic pain is estimated to be 11%-44%, with approximately 5% adolescents experiencing moderate-to-severe chronic pain. Adolescents with chronic pain also report unwanted changes in emotional, social, and developmental functioning. Very little is known about how adolescents with chronic pain make sense of their development, the role of pain in that development, and how such developmental trajectories progress over time. A multi-methods qualitative study was designed to explore how adolescents make sense of their experience of chronic pain in the context of development. Nine adolescents (8 girls) aged 12-22 years old (Mean = 15.7, SD = 2.8) were recruited from a UK national pain service. Adolescents completed an interview on entering the service, and a follow-up interview 12 months later. They also completed monthly diaries in this 12-month period. Data comprised 18 interviews and 60 diary entries, which were analyzed using inductive reflexive thematic analysis. Analyses generated one overarching theme entitled "tug of war: push and pull," demonstrating developmental tension related to pain, and the cumulative impact these had over time. This overarching theme comprised two subthemes which capture these tensions across the developmental domains of peer relationships and autonomy. The first subtheme, "the shifting sands of peer relationships," explores the ever-changing closeness between self and peers. The second subtheme referred to "restricted choices" and how pain limited the participants' autonomy but that this, over time could push development forward. These results extend previous cross-sectional research on the developmental consequences of chronic pain, showing the dynamic fluctuations and alterations to developmental trajectories over time.
The aim of the current study was to examine adolescents' goals when coping with pain and map these goals to the cognitive and emotional profiles of both adolescent and their parent. 17 adolescents (11-16 years) and their parents participated in a cohort study of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA); the adolescents, took part in a two-part interview (about their pain perceptions and about a recent pain experience) and the parents completed an open-ended qualitative survey. The three datasets were analysed following a qualitative framework approach. A coping framework was developed and cognitive and emotional profiles for both adolescent and parent were mapped back to the framework. The overall goal of adolescents was to preserve social identity, by either focusing on maintaining a "normal" lifestyle (sub-coping goal one) or managing the pain (sub-coping goal two). Across these two sub-coping goals, the adolescents held similar cognitive profiles (beliefs about timeline, consequences, control) but different emotional profiles such as feeling fine/happy compared with feeling angry and frustrated. Conversely, the parents' cognitive and emotional profiles were mapped back to the two groups and found that their beliefs were different across the two sub-coping goals but had similar emotional profiles across the two groups such as worry. Both the adolescents' emotional representations and parental cognitive profiles seem to be related to how the adolescent perceives a pain event, deals with the pain, and the overall coping goal of the adolescent. Findings are suggestive that parental pain beliefs influence the adolescents' pain representations and their coping goals but are also driven by adolescents' emotions. Further work on these potential pathways is needed. Family interventions should be designed, targeting coping goals taking into consideration the importance of emotions for adolescents and parental pain beliefs.
Few studies have evaluated whether topical anesthetic cream reduces pain during pneumococcal vaccination. This is crucial, since effective pain management should be evidence-based. Previous studies have shown that topical lidocaine-prilocaine (EMLA®) reduces vaccination-related pain, measured using pain-rating instruments and observation of crying time. This intervention study aimed to compare the efficacy of topical lidocaine-prilocaine cream with that of the standard of care on the expression of pain during the first pneumococcal vaccination administered at age 3 months under the Swedish national vaccination program. A randomized controlled trial included 72 infants receiving their first pneumococcal vaccination (Prevenar 13®). The study showed that topical lidocaine-prilocaine before pneumococcal vaccination significantly reduced infants' expression of pain according to the Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability (FLACC) score (P = .006) and increased latency to cry (P = .001). There were no statistically significant differences in the total crying time (P = .146) between the groups. Topical lidocaine-prilocaine cream reduced pain expression and increased latency to cry in infants receiving their first pneumococcal vaccine. Systematic efforts are needed to successfully implement the use of topical anesthetic cream and other effective non-pharmacological pain-relieving strategies during infant vaccination procedures.
Objective: Intensive interdisciplinary pain treatment (IIPT) is a promising approach for youth with complex, disabling, refractory pain conditions. However, youth and families who initiate IIPT without sufficient acceptance of its focus on functional rehabilitation or readiness to adopt a self-management approach to their pain may face challenges in IIPT and/or experience suboptimal outcomes. Motivational interviewing (MI) techniques have been shown to enhance readiness to make a number of health behavior changes for adults and youth, but it has not been systematically examined in the context of pediatric IIPT. The authors developed an MI telehealth intervention protocol explicitly designed to prepare youth and families for admission to IIPT.
Method: The protocol development process is detailed here, including influential models, expert consultation, and feedback from IIPT clinical experts. The intervention protocol was then piloted with a group of eligible families to elicit feedback and prompt further refining. Feasibility and acceptability were explored through measures of treatment engagement and satisfaction.
Results: The Promoting Readiness and Engagement in Pain Rehabilitation (PREPaRe) intervention protocol contains four modules aimed to enhance youth and parent readiness to adopt a self-management approach to persistent pain, through a motivational interviewing approach. Initial responses from the test group suggested high levels of treatment engagement and treatment satisfaction with PREPaRe.
Conclusions: PREPaRe appears feasible to administer and acceptable to families of youth with persistent pain seeking IIPT. Implications for implementation are discussed. Further study via randomized control trial is warranted.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04093921.