APS

As the number of treatment options for multiple sclerosis continues to grow patients and their doctors are left to find the right choice for them in order to manage the disease as successfully as possible. This can be a long process that can have a long lasting impact on their overall health.

Patients with a range of pain conditions may face amplified discomfort based how on how they perceive their symptoms. The findings were presented at the 34th Annual American Pain Society Scientific Meeting in Palm Springs, CA.

If previous research has shown a correlation between chronic pain and depression, it's only natural that the same can be said about chronic pain and happiness – right? A new study shows that's not the case.

Opioid addiction is a serious problem that a subset of patients prescribed opioids for pain could face; however, the issue presents an even more slippery slope for those with chronic pain due to the long-term need for the drugs.

Patients' levels of anxiety and defensiveness are associated with how they view their chronic back pain, a new study showed.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia since 1995 have been assessing opioid-dependent patients with pain who are on methadone maintenance treatment.

A collaborative team from the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic recently examined the prevalence of migraines in patients with fibromyalgia. The study, presented at the 34th Annual American Pain Society Scientific Meeting in Palm Springs, CA, used patients from the Mayo Clinic Fibromyalgia Registry database.

The lack of biomarkers for some life-changing conditions makes diagnoses and treatments more challenging. A new study identified possible biological factors for certain painful diseases.

Competing theories have long been put forth to explain more about the cause of chronic pain, but a new study may finally have shed light on the mystery.

While maintaining high levels of physical activity may not appeal to many patients with fibromyalgia (FM), doing so may be the best way to help ease their pain.

Not only does poor sleep result in more pain for fibromyalgia patients, but it is also linked to a lower pain threshold.

Despite rampant opioid misuse, abuse, and diversion self-reported by chronic pain patients in a study presented at the American Pain Society 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting, primary care providers tended to downgrade the patients' risk for engaging in those drug-related aberrant behaviors, indicating a gap between physicians' objective risk assessment for opioid abuse and the actual extent of the problem.

Among adult patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), pain severity can impact performance on cognitive tests, suggesting that pain independently contributes to impaired brain function in MS.

Medical and nursing schools that reported extensively incorporating the topic of pain care into prelicensure curricula do not offer more robust pain management education programs than those indicating minimal or moderate pain course integration.

Patients who are hospitalized for pain related to acute pancreatitis pose unique challenges for achieving adequate analgesia, which is particularly true for those admitted with preexisting chronic pain and prior opioid use.

Though constipation as a side effect of opioid therapy is generally considered a tolerability issue that can be treated with over-the-counter laxatives, opioid-induced constipation may still lead to serious gastrointestinal complications.

Although the concept of delivering chronic pain care through multidisciplinary clinics is less than half a century old, John Loeser, MD, believes the model has already surpassed its peak in the United States, mainly due to financial reasons.

With the co-occurrence of chronic pain and cancer amassing from improved cancer survival rates, it is increasingly important for healthcare professionals to understand how the conditions interrelate and influence patients' quality of life.

Expanding upon previous investigations of the associations among low vitamin D levels, chronic pain, and poor sleep within the general and non-pain populations, a research poster presented at the American Pain Society 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting suggests correcting inadequate vitamin D levels in middle-aged to older patients with knee osteoarthritis may reduce their clinical pain and improve sleep quality.

Although the benefit of Botox (onabotulinumtoxinA) for preventing headaches in adults with chronic migraine has been extensively established in clinical trials, limited data exists on the injections' effectiveness for the indication beyond 5 treatment cycles.

Although several reliable and valid pain assessment tools for cognitively intact and impaired geriatric patients are currently available, clinical evidence emphasized by Keela Herr, PhD, RN, FAAN, AGSF, co-director of the John A. Hartford Center for Geriatric Nursing Excellence at the University of Iowa College of Nursing, suggests those scales are not consistently administered throughout practice settings.

Phase III study results show patients with chronic non-cancer pain and opioid-induced constipation (OIC) experienced improvements in spontaneous bowel movement frequency and other symptoms of OIC.

While past studies suggest variability in physicians' chronic pain treatment decisions based on patients' sex and race, few have considered the degree of providers' self-insight into the influence of such demographics on their treatment decisions.

A literature review of randomized controlled trials and open-label studies of six months or longer duration finds good evidence that opioid therapy improves pain scores, with weaker evidence for its long-term effect on functional status.

Though the total National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget has stayed flat over the past several years, chronic pain research has enjoyed an expanded slice of the federal funding pie, as dollars committed to that portion of science grew from $279 million in 2008 to $396 million in 2012.

In light of issues concerning opioid misuse running parallel to the tenfold increase of prescription opioid use over the past 20 years, a team of researchers have developed an ongoing study examining results of a pilot program aimed at reducing patients' use of pain medications.

Only half of all patients who report experiencing symptoms that would fulfill migraine diagnostic criteria have received a formal migraine diagnosis from a physician.

The TIRF REMS Access program is designed to streamline the prescribing process and ensure appropriate patients are safely provided with TIRF products, but it may be preventing patients from accessing needed medications.

Results from a small study indicate patients with difficult-to-treat diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) may benefit from therapy with tanezumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody against nerve growth factor.

Jennifer Erensen, associate director of health policy at Purdue Pharma L.P., discusses the clinical study "Review of opioid conversion recommendations from select clinical practice guidelines: all are not equal," presented at the 32nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Pain Society.