Katie Eder

Merck & Co. has ceased development of its experimental therapy for Parkinson's disease after the drug failed to show superiority to placebo in initial data from a series of phase III clinical trials.

A high-potency probiotic supplement that mimics the effect of morphine in the gut may reduce the development of visceral pain in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Approved by the US FDA in August 2012, Gilead's Stribild is indicated to treat human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection in adults who have no prior experience with antiretroviral therapy.

Results of a recent clinical trial by researchers at the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine in the Affiliated Tenth People's Hospital of Tongji University, in Shanghai, China, have deemed locally injected methylcobalamin more effective than its orally administered counterpart as a treatment for subacute herpetic neuralgia.

Treating postherpetic neuralgia patients with the oral opioid agonist tramadol may significantly reduce moderate to severe nerve pain.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today expanded approval of Simponi (golimumab) to treat moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that affects some 620,000 Americans.

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.

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.

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.

According to the Administration on Aging, patients older than 65 are expected to account for approximately 19 percent of the U.S. population by 2030, compared to 12.9 percent today.

Though the third edition of the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-III) proposes to label aura in non-hemiplegic migraine that lasts longer than one hour but shorter than one week as probable migraine with aura - or probable complex migraine - a group of researchers from Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and California decided to analyze clinical studies to determine whether or not that timeframe aligns with the typical duration of migraine aura.

Citing an increased risk of liver injury observed in recent clinical trials, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has limited Samsca (tolvaptan) treatment to 30 days and recommended the oral selective vasopressin V2-receptor antagonist be discontinued in patients with signs of liver disease or symptoms of liver injury.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved Kcentra [prothrombin complex concentrate (human)] for the urgent reversal of anticoagulation induced by vitamin K antagonist (VKA) therapies such as warfarin in adult patients with acute major bleeding.

In diagnosing a patient with type 2 diabetes, an endocrinologist or primary care physician may struggle with developing healthy treatment targets when comorbid conditions like obesity and hypoglycemia are at play.

After noticing the ample adverse effects of second-line Helicobacter pylori eradication treatments that utilize tetracycline, furazolidone and proton-pump inhibitors, one group of gastroenterologists set to work adding a probiotic compound to the regimen in an attempt to increase the stomach bacteria's eradication rate while curbing those unwanted effects.

While digital medicine and neuromodulation have gathered enough clinical evidence to treat chronic pain, Timothy R. Deer, MD, president and CEO of St. Francis Hospital's Center for Pain Relief, in Charleston, WV, said regenerative therapies like platelet-rich plasma, stem cells and biologics are lagging years behind in the testing realm with a long road to go.

The advent of accountable care organizations, bundled payments, and other reforms under the Affordable Care Act has steered the focus of health care delivery from quantity to quality, but where exactly do pain medicine providers fit into the new value-based care model, and how can it benefit their patients?

As an adjunct to diet and exercise, Amarin's lipid-regulating agent Vascepa (icosapent ethyl capsules) is indicated to reduce triglyceride levels in adult patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia, or very high triglyceride (TG) levels greater than or equal to 500 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL).

Approved by the FDA nearly four years ago, Otsuka Group's once-daily Samsca (tolvaptan tablets) is indicated to raise serum sodium levels in nonurgent patients with hyponatremia.

Approved by the FDA in July 2011, AstraZeneca's Brilinta (ticagrelor tablets) is a twice-daily treatment to reduce the rate of myocardial infarction and cardiovascular death in adult patients with acute coronary syndrome.

Approved by the FDA in September 2012, Genzyme's Aubagio (teriflunomide tablets) is a once-daily oral treatment shown to reduce relapses, slow physical disability progression and reduce the number of brain lesions detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS).

From full-motion video demonstrations of orthopedic clinical tests to suites of disease activity score calculators, these apps for Google and Apple mobile devices provide rheumatologists with useful and easy-to-access information at crucial moments in diagnosis and treatment.

One orthopedic surgeon estimates University of Louisville sophomore guard Kevin Ware will return to the basketball court after six months of healing and rehabilitation following emergency surgery on the athlete's compound fracture in his right tibia.

As more than 60 percent of women with temporomandibular disorders (TMD) also exhibit abdominal pain consistent with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms, two researchers in the neural and pain sciences department of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry, in Baltimore, have developed a model to better illustrate the two conditions' comorbidity.

Though the Crohn's disease activity index (CDAI) is commonly applied in large Crohn's disease clinical trials to distinguish symptoms resulting from inflammation, a study published online Feb. 21 in Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics demonstrated the index does not differentiate between active Crohn's disease patients and patients with the non-inflammatory irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Results from a new pilot study show early lifestyle intervention in obese pregnant women cuts their risk of developing gestational diabetes, as well as maternal and fetal complications that can emerge with high blood sugar.

Though two new blood clot removal devices only recently received FDA approval for clinical use, specialists at the Stony Brook University Cerebrovascular and Stroke Center have already seen improved outcomes in acute ischemic stroke patients after performing endovascular treatments with both advanced technologies.

While doctors struggle to detect autism spectrum disorders (ASD) at an early age, new research published online in the Journal of Pediatrics shows low-birth-weight newborns with cranial abnormalities discovered by ultrasound scans just days after childbirth have an increased risk of developing ASD.

Though the causes of acute pancreatitis are unknown in roughly a quarter of its worldwide patient population, a recent analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine has discovered a link between increased risk of the disease and medicines containing cortisone.