Growing pain: 10-year research trends in the study of chronic pain and headache

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Abstract
This study examined trends in chronic pain (including chronic headache) research from 1986 to 1995. Medical and psychological citation databases were accessed to identify chronic pain publications and yearly trends. Data from the PsycLIT (psychological) database indicated significant growth over the time frame analyzed in both raw number of chronic pain publications and the percentage of articles devoted to chronic pain. Conversely, the Medline (medical) database showed a significant decline in the percentage of chronic pain articles over the time frame analyzed. Analyses revealed increases on the PsycLIT and Medline databases in the number of studies on elderly people, and the Medline database showed increases in the number of studies of chronic pain in children. Remarkably, there were significant increases on PsycLIT in the number of drug-therapy studies for chronic pain, but a significant decrease was evident in the number of drug therapy articles abstracted on Medline. Factors that may be associated with these research trends are discussed, and future probable trends are anticipated.

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