Investigation Sheds Light on Discrimination and Chronic Pain
Discrimination is well known to be associated with worse pain outcomes and is more prevalent among adults from racial/ethnic minoritized groups. The role of everyday discrimination and its relationship with chronic pain in middle-aged and older adults however, is currently less understood.
In, ‘Chronic Pain Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in the United States: The Role of Everyday Discrimination and Racial Ethnic Identity’, Roger Fillingim, Yenisel Cruz-Almeida, Antoinette Spector and Katherine Quinn, an associate professor from the Medical College of Wisconsin, evaluated associations between exposure to everyday discrimination and odds to experience any, sever and high-impact chronic pain in middle-aged to older adults.
Results of their study showed that Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black middle aged and older adults had a higher, prevalence of severe and high-impact chronic pain. The reported exposure to everyday discrimination compared to non-Hispanic White middle-aged and older adults tended to be higher as well, leading to an overall higher predicted chronic pain burden.
Their study has been published in the Journal of Pain! Congratulations!
Publication on Fibromyalgia
Angela Mickle and Kimberly Sibille recently had their article, ‘Deciphering Relationships Between Stress Biomarkers and Fibromyalgia Syndrome With Implications Relevant to Other Chronic Pain Conditions’ published in PAIN!
Their article, which was a response to the study, ‘Stress Biomarkers in Individuals with Fibromyalgia Syndrome: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis’ addressed factors that the original authors had not taken into consideration such as addressing the differences an individual who experiences chronic pain for a limited amount of time compared to one who would experience long-term pain, as well as factoring the impact of psychosocial, socioenvironmental and dispositional traits have on stress biomarkers.
Their article can be found here!