AMA Guides® Newsletter - Issue Archive

Articles

1. Recent Revisions to Chapter 13 for the AMA Guides, Sixth Edition, 2023

   James G Underhill, Diana Kraemer

   Pages 1–15

   DOI: 10.1001/amaguidesnewsletters.2023.JanFeb01

   Abstract

   The sixth edition (2023) of the AMA Guides^® to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides) adopted the terminology and conceptual framework of disablement as put forward by the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health. The sixth edition focuses on diagnosis-based impairments (6th ed, 2). In the AMA Guides, Sixth Edition (2008), Chapter 13, The Central and Peripheral Nervous System, had significant rating-process discrepancies with other chapters. This article identifies the discrepancies and explains the revisions made to Chapter 13 and its new title of “The Nervous System,” so that it is congruent with other chapters in the AMA Guides.
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2. Nociplastic Pain — A New Name for an Old and Underrecognized Concept

   James B. Talmage

   Pages 16–30

   DOI: 10.1001/amaguidesnewsletters.2023.JanFeb02

   Abstract

   The International Association for the Study of Pain and the World Health Organization have added a new diagnosis, chronic primary pain, and a new pain mechanism, nociplastic pain, to physicians' vocabularies. This new concept explains many pain presentations that have lacked a method of classification. The implications of this new concept regarding treatment options and for determining maximum medical improvement and permanent impairment are evolving. Incorporating the chronic primary pain diagnosis and the nociplastic pain mechanism into practice will require planning and action by physicians. In this article, the history of these terms and their applicability for the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment and related publications will be discussed.
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