News

September is Pain Awareness Month, and what better way to get the inside scoop from physicians and patients than connecting directly via social media?

Longer intervals between injections of anti-TNF drugs in patients with psoriatic arthritis is "safe, effective, cost-effective, and facilitates patient compliance," according to researchers.

A device manufacturer's decision to halt a trial of a pump-and-filter system that removes excess salt and fluid from heart failure patients left researchers with promising but statistically insignificant data. It also raised questions about whether that manufacturer acted ethically.

As new drugs for lowering heart rate become available, physicians treat heart failure patients may chose these agents instead of increasing doses of beta blockers. A multi-center study finds that could be the wrong choice.

The FDA today approved two new diabetes drugs. The agency gave the nod to insulin degludec injection (Tresiba/Novo Nordisk) and insulin degludec/insulin aspart (Ryzodeg/Novo Nordisk)

Electronic medical records from neurologists' offices are going into a practice-based research network in Evanston, Ill. It's part of an academic medical center's initiative to harness the data for scientific and clinical purposes. In a journal article researchers offer tips on replicating their system.

Pachyonychia congenita (PC), a rare skin disorder, can cause an inordinate amount of neuropathic pain, a study in Clinical and Experimental Dermatology confirms. In the chilling words used by the researchers, "The health states observed in this sample are at a level that the average US citizen would forfeit one-third of their remaining lifespan to avoid."

There is not yet enough clinical evidence suggesting that cannabis is effective for self-management of pain. Some short-duration trials have shown efficacy, whereas other studies have shown little improvement over placebo. Effective or not, however, cannabis continues to be widely used as a self-management strategy by patients with a wide range of symptoms and diseases. A study in The Journal of Pain suggests that such use over a one-year period did not increase patients' risk of serious adverse events.

A study in the British Journal of Pain examined ethnic differences in pain tolerance and came to a strong, perhaps not so shocking, conclusion.

A study in Arthritis Research & Therapy found that patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) experience shoulder pain early in the course of the disease, suggesting that screening of shoulder function should become a larger focus for maintenance and treatment of RA.

Study finds A3AR agonists reverse neuropathic pain

About 50,000 people become infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) every year in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The latest data from the CDC offers valuable insight into current trends in HIV infection.

On the battlefield soldiers can suffer any number of injuries that can lead to a lifetime of painful injuries. How doctors approach that care can affect the quality of life their patients enjoy long after their time in the service is done.

A first-in-human Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–regulated phase 1 safety study of subcutaneous infiltration of sodium channel blocker Neosaxitoxin (NeoSTX) with bupivacaine produced long-lasting anesthesia but no serious adverse events, according to a study in Anesthesiology.

Treating moderate to severe plaque psoriasis is certainly no picnic for patients' pockets.

A vitamin D deficiency makes chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) worse, according to Nele Heulens, of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, and several colleagues.

The field of rheumatology is largely the same whether it is in the civilian or military world. Differences can be seen in the cause of some of these conditions as well as the treatment options pursued by doctors.

Children with pneumonia have an increased risk of developing COPD and decreased lung-function, Boston researchers say.

Negative emotions can affect more than your mental health; a recent report concluded they also make painful conditions even worse.

A social media poll found that US doctors who responded tended not to want states to pass laws on physician-assisted suicide.

Colonoscopies that take longer are linked to lower cancer rates, according to findings published in Gastroenterology.

Expensive and worth it. That's the verdict from Medicaid programs across the US when it comes to the new hepatitis C antivirals. State spending figures are available in a study published as a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Individuals afflicted with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis are also at higher risk for new-onset migraines.

Following one of the deadliest outbreaks of the Ebola virus in history the medical community has had to change the way it approaches such emergencies to ensure public health and safety going forward.

Killing and limiting the spread of colon cancer cells may be possible through the compounds found in purple potatoes, according to recent findings published in The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.

Devoted soda drinkers began to lose their minds when an infographic outlining the harmful effects a single can of Coca-Cola has on the body in one hour began circulating the Internet. Now a new infographic has revealed what a Big Mac from McDonald's can do to the body in the same amount of time.

Gout is on the rise globally. A Brazilian researcher who surveyed that nation's rheumatologists found some are ignoring--or unaware of--guidelines on how to treat the ailment.

Not all flu virus strains are created equal. After all, some are better equipped to transmit from host to host than others and new research has pinpointed an intricate factor that allows the virus to do so through the air.

Patients with cutaneous melanoma metastases responded favorably to combination treatment with intralesional interleukin 2 (IL-2) and topical imiquimod and a retinoid cream.

Sugar-sweetened beverages (SBB) can do more than increase belly fat and send your body on a rollercoaster, it can elevate serum urate levels which increases the risk of gout. Researchers from New Zealand recently looked at how body mass index (BMI) plays a role in the SBB and gout relationship.