Chronic Pain

What is currently considered to be the "gold standard" for post-shoulder surgery pain management may not be as effective as what once was believed.

After studying the reasons for evacuation from theater, between 2004 to 2007, Steven P. Cohen, MD, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, found that the number one reason each year revolved around muscular skeletal injuries.

As the use of long-term opioid therapy to treat chronic pain continues to be a hotly debated topic, a new study in PAIN analyzed the extent to which patients misuse their medications and the risk of addiction associated with these behaviors.

The pain that typically accompanies osteoarthritis may be associated with excess mortality among middle-aged women, British scientists reported.

Although the relationship between pain and spatial representation is unclear, a study published in Current Biology took steps in understanding how pain is activated in the brain and raised the possibility of reducing the sensation.

A drug targeting a bioactive lipid linked to neuropathic pain is pending FDA approval to begin a phase 1 clinical trial.

The number of abuse, addiction, and opioid poisoning diagnoses has decreased since the introduction of reformulated OxyContin, according to a study presented at the American Academy of Pain Medicine's 31st Annual Meeting.

Data presented at AAPM 2015 show that moving hydrocodone from Schedule III to Schedule II has led to reduced access to combination hydrocodone medications and other hardships for patients.

Countless debates have concluded the practice of pain management to be fragmented compared with other disciplines.

Electrical pulses targeting the dorsal column were effective in treating Parkinson's disease-like symptoms in mice.

The association between depression and low back pain may be explained, at least in part, by genetic factors affecting both conditions.

Treatments for women in pain must differ from men's treatment, and often is, according to a study by the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

A team of investigators from the University of California (UC) Davis has discovered a compound that can potentially combat chronic pain by blocking key chemicals.

Physicians must decide on a case by case basis which patients will benefit the most from hepatitis C virus therapy, according to an editorial in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Researchers say "scrambler therapy" can be used to treat pediatric complex regional pain syndrome.

Rheumatoid arthritis pain has been alleviated in half of patients enrolled in a study which used an electrical implanted device to emit magnetic pulses at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The 5 percent lidocaine medicated plaster was efficacious and well tolerated in patients with localized neuropathic pain, according to findings published in the International Journal of General Medicine.

The new formulation of Zohydro ER uses technology that provides abuse-deterrent properties without changing the release properties of hydrocodone when the medication is used properly.

Breast cancer patients who believed acupuncture would reduce their joint pain demonstrated significant pain reduction, no matter if they received real or placebo acupuncture.

Chronic lower back pain patients did not experience reduced time to first moderate pain in a treadmill test using pregabalin, according to a report published in Neurology.

Young baseball players experience alarming rates of arm pain and are often encouraged to play through it, according to findings published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.

Diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN) can exist with or without neuropathic pain. Roughly half of patients with types I and II diabetes mellitus (DM) develop DPN. In type 1 DM, patients start to notice symptoms of distal polyneuropathy after many years of chronic prolonged hyperglycemia. It's more aggressive in type 2 DM, and can develop after only a few years of known poor glycemic control and may be present at diagnosis.

Pfizer announced pregabalin controlled release was effective therapy in adult postherpetic neuralgia patients.

Investigators believe they may have identified a potential "off switch" for pain, according to study results published in the journal Brain.

In a rat study, Brazilian researchers looked at the connections between exercise, opioid receptors (OR) and myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injuries.

Diabetics often experience peripheral neuropathy. In an estimated 30% to 50% of patients, this condition results in pain. The most common painful neuropathy is distal symmetric sensorimotor polyneuropathy.

Many clinicians and academicians believe that stipulation for random urine drug testing should be a part of any opioid agreement, with UDT serving the dual purposes of ensuring compliance with prescribed opioids as well as monitoring use of illicit drugs and non-prescribed medications.

Dronabinol, commonly used as a nausea treatment, could be effective treatment for non-cardiac chest pain patients.

Hysingla ER (hydrocodone bitartrate) is a single-entity oral hydrocodone tablet that is administered to treat pain severe enough to require daily, around-the-clock, long-term opioid treatment and for which alternative treatment options are inadequate.

Almost everyone has episodes of low back pain (LBP) from time to time. Fortunately, most episodes of LBP are considered acute, and resolve within 6 to 12 weeks. When LBP pain persists and becomes chronic, treatment is considerably more complicated and often leads the patient to the surgical suite.