Chronic Pain

While the idea of developing vaccines to combat health risks like smoking and drug abuse sounds like a solid theory there are legitimate concerns to be addressed in the process.

For close to two decades researchers have been working to develop vaccines to prevent people from health hazards like smoking and drug use. Despite these efforts work remains to find ways to make these effective for a large number of people at risk.

The body’s inflammatory response to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is one reason why patients with HIV can experience chronic pain.

Whether it’s drugs or procedures, there are different strategies for managing chronic pain. However, when psychological symptoms come into play, treatment may need to take an alternative course.

In a perfect world, the pain data provided by diagnostic tests would match up with how a patient is actually feeling. However, the association is probably not as strong as doctors would like.

Researchers behind the potential new opioid, cebranopadol, presented efficacy and safety results at PAINWeek 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Oxycodone is one opioid option for patients with chronic pain and other conditions. The drug, however, has not been extensively studied in older patients.

Different types of pain respond to different medications; so a collaborative team across the United States and United Kingdom looked at how the Chronic Pain Questionnaire (CPQ) can assist in making those important treatment decisions.

There have been big steps taken to help combat the opioid abuse epidemic but there is still much more work to be done. Several leading organizations and pharmaceutical companies to help patients with overdose and prevent abuse in the first place.

For patients who do not need opioids or other strong medications for pain management there are other steps that can be taken to help them better manage their symptoms and issues.

One of the biggest concerns in the opioid epidemic is the medications being abused by patients and those who get the drugs through other methods. While technology is being developed to help in this issue getting these changes into the market has been more difficult so far.

The opioid epidemic is clearly a growing problem in the medical community. However, there are concerns that there is so much concern about prescribing opioids that they are not being given who can benefit most from them.

It may seem like opioids could be a “quick fix” for acute low back pain, but introducing the drugs early on increases the risk for dependency and addiction.

When a patient presents at the emergency room with severe pain, there are various things to take into consideration before deciding on a course of action. But there are new options out there that probably aren’t at the forefront of your thinking.

Presented at PAINWeek 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada, researchers looked at how turmeric could be used as a safer, more tolerable option for pain control.

In March 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published new guidelines for prescribing opioids. And while the aim is to curb the deadly opioid epidemic, some physicians saying that the changes could cause other prescription issues.

Oxycodone, morphine, hydrocodone, and codeine are among the commonly recognized prescription painkillers. But levorphanol is one that has been around since 1953, yet is often left behind for a newer medication.

The subjectivity of pain is just one of the reasons that it’s challenging to manage. A common strategy comes in the form of prescription drugs, which poses its own set of challenges. Therefore, it isn’t clear how well opioids actually work.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) created the Guidance for the Assessment of Abuse Potential of drugs for patients who have a history of recreational opioid use. But does the strategy actually work?

Children who suffer from chronic conditions may find pain relief with acupuncture, according to a new study in the journal Medical Acupuncture.

Although indications for medicinal marijuana differ by state, pain is a common condition behind a prescription. But the pain relief effects appear to be greater in men.

“Physical exercise is an essential component of any treatment for fibromyalgia, and plenty of studies have demonstrated that low-impact aerobic exercise offers the most benefits," said Jamil Natour, MD, PhD.

While it is clear the opioid abuse problem is not going away, those working in the field are still determined to ensure that the problems of the past do not interfere with success in the future.

As the field of pain medicine advances there is a considerable focus on helping patients get better as well as undoing the damage done by the opioid abuse epidemic. Both problems will likely require a long term approach to be successful.

For some patients, especially on a short term basis opioids may still be the best treatment option. Safely prescribing these medications is the focus of a field looking to help patients without causing problems in other areas.

As it is becoming clearer how dangerous opioids can be for some patients work is being done to find alternatives to help manage pain without as much fear of addiction.

The connection between chronic pain and major depressive disorder (MDD) has been long studied in the medical world; and although the effort to identify precise drivers behind pain is still a work in progress, genetics and environmental factors have been in the forefront.

Long used in traditional medicine, new research illustrates the specific mechanisms by which plant-derived diterpenoids are able to alleviate pain and inflammation.

The strongest pain pill prescriptions come with the potential risk of addiction. For patients who are already battling the disease, finding pain relief presents quite a challenge.

Researchers caution that Pregabalin, an agent approved by the FDA to treat epilepsy, fibromyalgia, and neuropathic pain, may be associated with an increased risk of major birth defects after first trimester exposure, though results are inconclusive.