Pain

The issue of physician assisted suicide can cause people to fervently pick one side or another. For some, their belief is so strong that they are moved to do things they may not have done in their career beforehand.

For many psychiatrists one of their biggest challenges in their daily practice is working to show patients that suicide is not the solution to their problems. Changes in the criteria for physician assisted suicide in Europe which include allowing mental illness as a criteria can fly in the face of that mission.

The issue of physician assisted suicide is one that has been debated both in the medical community and in the general population. Recent law changes by some European countries have brought the issue to the forefront perhaps more than ever before.

Calling all computer programmers, public health advocates, clinical researchers, entrepreneurs, and innovators from various specialties!

Will our next president be medically fit? And how much is the public entitled to know about candidates’ personal health?

On 9/11/01 Manuel Delgado was a paramedic caring for patients at the base of the south tower. Delgado shares his first hand account of the attack on the building, patient care, survival, and the implications of events of the day on paramedic practice in New York City.

Even a severe medical condition won’t let players avoid the NFL’s recent seemingly admirable stance on substance abuse violations.

Ravi Prasad, Phd, Stanford University, shared his work with the Stanford Comprehensive Interdisciplinary Pain Program to help improve patient quality of life.

A phase 3 study presented at PAINWeek 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada, showed the benefits of using an electronic tracking system.

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.

Pain management is everyone's job. It's a human problem.

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

"Opiates are not the first line for every condition; they should not be reflexively prescribed," said Alexis LaPietra, DO, St. Joseph's Medical Center.

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.

There’s many benefits to using nitrous oxide for analgesia – which is why it’s a staple for dentists. Dubbed “laughing gas,” the tasteless, colorless gas has proven to be safe and effective for both adults and children.

There is a lot of regulatory scrutiny, media attention, and confusion about managing pain, so patient education should be at the forefront of physicians' minds.

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.

Pain is the single most common reason people seek medical attention - more than heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension.

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.

Dr. Fricton of the University of Minnesota and HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research explored how to make transformative care a practical part in treating patients with chronic pain.