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Pharmacologic and Non-Pharmacologic Treatments for Chronic Pain Used by Patients with Pain, HIV, and Depression

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Abstract

The objective of this study was to understand pain treatment utilization, perceived efficacy, and differences in utilization by gender, clinic site, chronicity of pain, pain severity, and depression severity among people living with HIV (PLWH), chronic pain, and elevated depression symptoms. Participants included 187 PLWH at three HIV clinics in the U.S. Overall, 85% of participants reported taking a pain medication. One quarter (25%) reported non-pharmacological professional treatments for pain (e.g., massage, physical therapy), 60% reported mind–body treatments, including exercise, meditation, and yoga, and 62% reported other non-pharmacological self-administered treatments (e.g., heat/cold). Most pain treatments were considered “slightly helpful” or “moderately helpful.” Non-pharmacological self-administered treatments were more commonly used among women than men and among individuals with constant vs. intermittent pain. Further research is needed to evaluate the efficacy of the preferred analgesic modalities of PLWH.

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Data are available from corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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The SPSS code to conduct this statistical analysis presented in this paper is available upon reasonable request to the authors.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Nursing Research, US National Institutes of Health, under Grant # R01NR015977.

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LU, AB, JB, MP, CC, and MS contributed to the conceptualization and methodology. NG and SM contributed to material preparation and data collection. LU and EC conducted formal analysis and writing of the original draft. All authors reviewed and edited the paper, and read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lisa A. Uebelacker.

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Dr. Uebelacker’s spouse is employed by Abbvie Pharmaceuticals. The other authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Ethical approval for research involving human participants was obtained Butler Hospital, Miriam Hospital, and Boston Medical Center Institutional Review Boards. This study was performed in accordance the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Uebelacker, L.A., Cherenack, E.M., Busch, A. et al. Pharmacologic and Non-Pharmacologic Treatments for Chronic Pain Used by Patients with Pain, HIV, and Depression. AIDS Behav 26, 864–873 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-021-03447-x

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