Migraine

"The current health care reform proposal is just a beginning," says Norman Makous, MD. "This legislation addresses health coverage reform. The problem that has not been touched in the current legislation relates to how we provide medical services.

First identified in cancer patients in the 1970s, breakthrough pain is also a clinical challenge in other pain modalities, including neuropathy and back pain. With new information and more effective treatments now available, physicians are changing the way they approach this puzzle.

Research on TENS for chronic low-back pain has produced conflicting results.

The ABPAT is a standardized assessment "designed to characterize various clinically relevant elements of breakthrough pain" and support "improved research on the tolerability, safety and efficacy of novel breakthrough analgesic interventions."

This interview with Dr. Carol Campbell of Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates, explores how patients suffering from chronic pain who discuss their pain often and freely can frustrate and alienate family and friends.

The Facial Pain Association's Learning Center provides numerous patient-focused guides, one of which aid individuals fighting insurance coverage denials and another that helps neuropathic facial pain sufferers better understand their rights as disabled individuals under various state and federal laws.

The American Society of Anesthetologists addresses numerous concerns that patients might have regarding acute, chronic, cancer, pre- or post-operative pain.

Timothy Moynihan, MD, a cancer specialist at Mayo Clinic, authors this article on cancer pain, the most important aspect of which focuses on how patients can work with their doctor to ensure that it is controlled.

In a University of Kentucky study, acetaminophen reduced neural responses to social rejection in brain regions associated with the distress of social pain and the affective component of physical pain (the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula)

The American Lung Association created this collection of in-depth educational resources for patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension and their families and caregivers.

This online CME activity is designed for family physicians and primary care physicians who "are on the front line of recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of depression in the US."

University of Michigan researchers found that several coxibs interfere with aspirin's ability to discourage blood clots, if the aspirin is taken in low doses. Celebrex (celecoxib) is the only coxib currently on the market.

This CME activity provides a detailed overview of key topics in influenza prevention and management.

In this month's Tech Talk column, MDNG editorial board member Jonathan Bertman, MD, acknowledges the growing popularity of smartphones among his physician colleagues, touting their usefulness for on-the-go physicians who need Internet and e-mail access.

Phil Baumann, a registered nurse, blogger, owner of brand Web presence consulting firm CareAdvocate, and author of "140 Healthcare Uses for Twitter" explains why he thinks social media is important in healthcare, and offers advice for physicians who want to use these tools in their practice.

The aim of Clinical Reader is to "bring academic content together and create a semantic digital medical library" by building a "user-friendly platform that will enable medical professionals around the world...to easily interact with the latest developments in their respective specialties." Clinical Reader CEO and founder Allan C. Marks, MD, explains the origins of the site, what he has planned for the future of Clinical Reader, and more.

Despite widespread use of smartphones to perform a variety of tasks, experts say consumers are still waiting for the right incentives to push them to use their phones to access personal health records and manage their medical information on the go.

A physician's recent experience with two patients suffering from congenital insensitivity to pain has led to the discovery of an extra layer of "sensory feedback" in the skin.

In each issue of MDNG, we will showcase a post by one of the HCPLive.com bloggers. This month, we have selected a post from The Nerve Center, written by Victor G. Dostrow, MD.

This podcast interview with Dr. Carol Campbell, focuses on Campbell's study which explores how patients suffering from chronic pain who discuss their pain often and freely can frustrate and alienate family and friends.

The Virtual Anesthesia Textbook seeks to "organise all Internet resources on anaesthesia into one concise, textbook style website." Browsing medical professionals will benefit from chapters covering statistics, research, legal and ethical issues, post-operative pain management, and more.

The World Health Organization has developed this three-step pain ladder to guide proper administration of medication in order to "maintain freedom from cancer pain."

This activity covers a German report in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders that found of 448 patients reporting at least one episode of neck pain between March 2005 and April 2006, "depression and anxiety were highly significantly correlated with increasing levels of neck pain."

This two hour-long podcast comprises two CME activities with accompanying slides, based on presentations made at Palliative Medicine 2008.

Yale School of Medicine provides this coloring book that doubles as a guide for children to understanding MRIs and spinal taps.

These researchers found that ethnicity is an important factor in identifying specific COPD genes.

This educational activity discusses the results of an April 2009 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine about proton-pump inhibitors and asthma control.

This trial aims to explore whether or not their is a relationship between inflammation and obesity in asthma patients and how this relationship can impact a patient's response to treatment.

A majority of providers felt that hydroxyurea was effective for the prevention of pain, but some still did not prescribe the drug to eligible children because of apprehension about future reproductive issues, despite insufficient evidence to support this concern.

HITECH says covered entities must be able to monitor and record every time that patient data is accessed, enabling the entity to comply with the new notification requirements should unauthorized access occur. Will the new rules end up restricting the efficient exchange of data that is crucial to providing high-quality healthcare?