Patient Expectations and Therapeutic Alliance Affect Pain Reduction following Lidocaine Infusion in an Interdisciplinary Chronic Pain Clinic

Pain experience is affected by both ascending nociceptive signals and descending modulation. Expectations can affect pain experience and augment treatment-induced analgesia through descending inhibitory modulation of pain. This open-label, prospective cohort study examined the association between participant expectation ratings and pain reduction in adult participants with chronic pain receiving an intravenous lidocaine infusion. We aimed to explore whether: 1) participants ’ expectations of treatment efficacy were associated with pain reduction over 8 weeks after infusion; and 2) participants’ therapeutic alliance was associated with expectations and/or pain reduction.
Source: The Journal of Pain - Category: Materials Science Authors: Source Type: research