Title
Management of central poststroke pain: Systematic review of randomized controlled trials
Date Issued
01 January 2015
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Mulla S.M.
Wang L.
Khokhar R.
Izhar Z.
Agarwal A.
Couban R.
Buckley D.N.
Moulin D.E.
Panju A.
Makosso-Kallyth S.
Turan A.
Sessler D.I.
Thabane L.
Guyatt G.H.
Busse J.W.
Mayo Clinic
Publisher(s)
Lippincott Williams and Wilkins
Abstract
Background and Purpose.Central poststroke pain is a chronic neuropathic disorder that follows a stroke. Current research on its management is limited, and no review has evaluated all therapies for central poststroke pain. Methods.We conducted a systematic review of randomized controlled trials to evaluate therapies for central poststroke pain. We identified eligible trials, in any language, by systematic searches of AMED, CENTRAL, CINAHL, DARE, EMBASE, HealthSTAR, MEDLINE, and PsychINFO. Eligible trials (1) enrolled ≥10 patients with central poststroke pain; (2) randomly assigned them to an active therapy or a control arm; and (3) collected outcome data ≥14 days after treatment. Pairs of reviewers, independently and in duplicate, screened titles and abstracts of identified citations, reviewed full texts of potentially eligible trials, and extracted information from eligible studies. We used a modified Cochrane tool to evaluate risk of bias of eligible studies, and collected patient-important outcomes according to recommendations by the Initiative on Methods, Measurement, and Pain Assessment in Clinical Trials. We conducted, when possible, random effects meta-analyses, and evaluated our certainty in treatment effects using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation System. Results.Eight eligible English language randomized controlled trials (459 patients) tested anticonvulsants, an antidepressant, an opioid antagonist, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, and acupuncture. Results suggested that all therapies had little to no effect on pain and other patient-important outcomes. Our certainty in the treatment estimates ranged from very low to low. Conclusions.Our findings are inconsistent with major clinical practice guidelines; the available evidence suggests no beneficial effects of any therapies that researchers have evaluated in randomized controlled trials.
Start page
2853
End page
2860
Volume
46
Issue
10
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Sistema cardiaco, Sistema cardiovascular
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84942907780
PubMed ID
Source
Stroke
ISSN of the container
00392499
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus