New Books

Breaking News

This section includes a wide variety of pain management stories, arranged by date and type (not significance), which have appeared in the popular media (print, broadcast, and on-line) in the last month. Because of the volume of stories, only the first few are included on the main page. Be sure to click on "More Stories" at the bottom of each front page section.

Pain Studies In The News

Biological, psychological and social factors influence individual pain differences
May 8, 2009 Source: American Pain Society
Why would two patients undergoing the same surgery report vastly different levels of post-operative pain and are genetic factors mainly responsible? A leading pain researcher believes this discrepancy is more understandable if clinicians acknowledge that pain is a variable personal experience that is influenced by genetics but also involves multiple interactive biopsychosocial processes. Story

Opioids recommended for elderly with chronic pain
May 6, 2009 Source: American Geriatrics Society
New recommendations advise doctors to have their patients avoid NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and COX-2 inhibitors and consider the use of low-dose opioid therapy instead. Story

More Pain Studies In The News

Pain Stories In The News

Center for Practical Bioethics announces creation of the Kathleen M. Foley Chair for Pain and Palliative Care
May 8, 2009  Source: The Center for Practical Bioethics
The Center for Practical Bioethics has announced the establishment of the Kathleen M. Foley Chair for Pain and Palliative Care.  The new chair - which will ensure that a trusted expert will have the chance to focus on ways to overcome barriers to care for those in pain - is named after Kathleen M. Foley, MD, a revered neuro-oncologist and international leader in pain and palliative care. Story

English professor urges pain doctors to improve narrative skills
May 7, 2009 Source: American Pain Society
Noted writer, teacher and scholar, David Morris, PhD, urged practitioners to become proficient at using narrative skills. He emphasized that narrative skills should be learned just like other medical abilities, and outcomes from an unskilled approach to narrative can adversely impact both pain treatment and research. Morris says he has observed that dialogue can help patients replace or revise harmful forms of narrative, such as catastrophizing and expose beliefs that may create barriers to effective treatment. Story

More Pain Stories In The News

Policy and Law

Louisiana Supreme Court rules in favor of board certified interventional pain physicians
April 16, 2009 Source: The American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians
Louisiana Supreme Court has denied a court order filed by the Louisiana State Board of Nursing, Louisiana Association of Nurse Anesthetists and the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists to allow the practice of interventional pain techniques by non-physicians. This ruling means that the permanent injunction issued by the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal is now final. Story

Utah Department of Health finalizes guidelines for prescribing pain meds
April 11, 2009 Source: Utah Department of Health
The Utah Department of Health (UDOH) today released its final draft of clinical guidelines to assist health care providers in safely prescribing pain medications. UDOH developed the guidelines in partnership with two multi-disciplinary panels of physicians as part of an ongoing campaign to reduce the amount of prescription drug overdose deaths. The guidelines contain a number of recommendations providers may use in their practices to aid in the safe distribution and use of prescription pain meds. Story

Product News & Clinical Trial Reports

Archimedes Pharma announces ground breaking Phase III data showing NasalFent to be superior to the standard of care for breakthrough cancer pain
May 8, 2009 Source: Archimedes Pharma
Archimedes Pharma Limited announced the new phase III results for NasalFent(R), the Company's innovative and highly differentiated fentanyl citrate nasal spray, developed for the rapid relief of breakthrough cancer pain. The study reported significant improvements in pain scores for NasalFent versus immediate release morphine sulphate were seen at all subsequent time points indicating that superiority of NasalFent was maintained for 60 minutes after dosing. Story

New once-daily RYZOLT (tramadol HCl extended-release tablets) now available in the U.S.
May 7, 2009 Source: Purdue Pharma
RYZOLT (tramadol HCl extended-release tablets) is now available from Purdue Pharma L.P. for the management of moderate to moderately severe chronic pain in adults who require around-the-clock treatment of their pain for an extended period of time. Taken once every 24 hours, RYZOLT offers convenient dosing in 100 mg, 200 mg, and 300 mg tablet strengths. Story

More Product News & Clinical Trial Reports

Prescription Addiction, Diversion, and Abuse

Law may lack teeth to rein in pill mills
April 27, 2009 Source: Miami Herald
South Florida -- and Broward County in particular -- has become the nation's chief supplier of black-market prescription narcotics. In response the Florida Senate passed a bill that would create a database to track narcotics prescriptions filled by doctors and pharmacists and require pain clinics to register with the state and submit to annual inspections by the Department of Health. Story

Ohio pharmacists use education to fight drug abuse
April 14, 2009 Source: The Associated Press
The Ohio Pharmacists Association, the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy, and Cardinal Health Inc. plan to soon launch pilot programs using local pharmacists to teach residents in Columbus, Mount Vernon and Chillicothe about the dangers of abusing drugs they may find at home. Story

More Prescription Addiction, Diversion, and Abuse

For Your Patients

What is migraine? What causes migraines?
April 30, 2009 Source: Medical News Today
A migraine is a severe, painful headache that is often preceded or accompanied by sensory warning signs such as flashes of light, blind spots, tingling in the arms and legs, nausea, vomiting, and increased sensitivity to light and sound. The excruciating pain that migraines bring can last for hours or even days. Story

What is fibromyalgia? What causes fibromyalgia?
April 22, 2009 Source: Medical News Today
Fibromyalgia is a common syndrome of chronic widespread soft-tissue pain accompanied by weakness, fatigue, and sleep disturbances; the cause is unknown Even though fibromyalgia is frequently referred to as an arthritis-related condition, it does not cause joint damage or inflammation, as arthritis does. Neither does fibromyalgia cause damage to muscle and other tissues. However, it is similar to arthritis because it causes severe pain and tiredness, and can undermine the patient's ability to go about his daily activities. Fibromyalgia is seen as a rheumatic condition. A rheumatic condition is one that causes joint and soft tissue pain. Story

Research Abstracts Stay up-to-date on the latest research! This section of Currents offers complete abstracts on a wide variety of pain and pain management topics that have been selected from the National Library of Medicine. All Abstracts

Some include:

Eccleston C, Palermo TM, Williams AC, et al.
Psychological therapies for the management of chronic and recurrent pain in children and adolescents. Abstract

Lee SH, Lee BC.
Electroacupuncture relieves pain in men with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome: three-arm randomized trial. Abstract

Meltzer-Brody SE, Zolnoun D, Steege JF, et al.
Open-label trial of lamotrigine focusing on efficacy in vulvodynia.Abstract

Sherman KJ, Cherkin DC, Hawkes RJ, et al.
Randomized trial of therapeutic massage for chronic neck pain. Abstract

Wasan AD, Butler SF, Budman SH, et al.
Does report of craving opioid medication predict aberrant drug behavior among chronic pain patients? Abstract

198 Research Abstracts

Legislative and Administrative Updates

Branch of Government: California. Assembly
Title: A.B. 1144
Summary: Requires a health care service plan or a health insurer covering prescription drug benefits to report to the Department of Managed Health Care or to the Department of Insurance whenever it requires an enrollee or insured to use certain pain medications prior to providing access to a pain medication supported by a federal Food and Drug Administration approved indication or to a pain medication prescribed by the enrollee's or insured's health care provider.
Sponsor: Price
Status:
02/27/2009 Introduced.
03/26/2009 To Assembly Committee on Health.
04/13/2009 From Assembly Committee on Health with author's amendments.
04/13/2009 In Assembly. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Committee on Health.
04/21/2009 From Assembly Committee on Health: Do pass as amended to Committee on Appropriations. [full text]

Branch of Government: Colorado. House
Title: House Bill 1047
Summary: Establishes a pilot program to provide chiropractic care, massage therapy, and acupuncture to an eligible person with a spinal cord injury (pilot program). Specifies criteria for identifying eligible persons. Directs the medical services board to adopt rules to administer the pilot program, including defining complementary and alternative therapies. Requires the department of health care policy and financing (department) to report to specified committees of the general assembly.
Sponsor: Todd
Status:
01/07/2009 Introduced.
01/07/2009 To House Committee on Health and Human Services.
01/26/2009 From House Committee on Health and Human Services: Reported favorably.
01/26/2009 To House Committee on Appropriations.
04/03/2009 From House Committee on Appropriations: Reported favorably with amendment.
04/03/2009 In House. To second reading.
04/06/2009 In House. Read second time and amended. To third reading.
04/07/2009 In House. Read third time. Passed House. *****To Senate.
04/09/2009 To Senate Committee on Health and Human Services.
04/23/2009 From Senate Committee on Health and Human Services: Reported favorably with amendment.
04/23/2009 To Senate Committee on Appropriations.
04/28/2009 From Senate Committee on Appropriations: Reported favorably with amendment.
04/28/2009 In Senate. To second reading. [full text]

More Legislative and Administrative Updates

New Practice Guidelines

Musculoskeletal Diseases
l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
Diagnostic imaging practice guidelines for musculoskeletal complaints in adults - an evidence-based approach. Part 1: lower extremity disorders.
[Summary]

l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
Diagnostic imaging guideline for musculoskeletal complaints in adults - an evidence-based approach. Part 2: upper extremity disorders.
[Summary]

More Practice Guidelines

New Clinical Trials

Alabama

Age Groups, Child
City: Birmingham
Summary: A study to assess the predictors and patient versus parental perceptions of health-related quality of life in pediatric chronic pain.

Arthritis
City: Mobile
Summary: A study assessing the safety and efficacy of Buprenorphine Transdermal System in opioid-naïve subjects with moderate to severe chronic osteoarthritic knee pain.

More New Clinical Trials

New Books

Biobehavioral Approaches to Pain
Edited by Rhonda J. Moore, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
Springer Publishing, 2009

Pain is a common symptom, yet it is frequently underevaluated and undertreated. It is difficult to define, describe—and sometimes to prove. It’s pain, and suspicions of exaggerations often add further insult to a patients’ injuries. Biobehavioral Approaches to Pain translates this highly subjective experience—and its physical, psychological, social, and cultural dimensions—into practical insights key to transforming the field of pain management.

This pathbreaking volume synthesizes a rich knowledge base from across disciplines, including neurobiologic, genetic, biobehavioral, clinical, narrative, substance abuse, health services,ethical and policy perspectives, for a deeper understanding of the impact of pain on individual lives and the larger society. Its international panel of contributors highlights special issues and review best practice guidelines, from placebo effects to cancer, Whiplash Associated Disorders to pain imaging to complementary medicine, phantom limb pain to gene therapies to AIDS. Among the topics covered:

* The distinction between acute and chronic pain: is it clinically useful?
* Improving clinical assessment of patients with pain.
* Age and sex differences in pain.
* The what, how and why of the placebo and nocebo effect
* Psychosocial and partner-assisted biopsychosocial interventions for disease-related pain
* Substance abuse issues in pain treatment.
* The personal, social and economic costs of chronic pain.

Biobehavioral Approaches to Pain offers clinical and health professionals, psychologists, as well as specialists in pain management or palliative care, new directions in their ongoing dialogue with patients. Given the prevalence of pain in the general population, it should also interest researchers and students in the field of public health. More info

Lagniappe (A little something extra)

Do sports creams rub the pain away?
May 6, 2009 Source: New York Times
Last year, external analgesic rubs had approximately $275 million in sales in the United States, excluding sales at Wal-Mart, but studies have found only limited evidence that over-the-counter topical analgesics are helpful for any type of pain. Story

Human brains make their own 'marijuana'
April 20, 2009 Source: The FASEB Journal
U.S. and Brazilian scientists have discovered that the brain manufactures proteins that act like marijuana at specific receptors in the brain itself. This discovery may lead to new marijuana-like drugs for managing pain, stimulating appetite, and preventing marijuana abuse. Story

'Pleasant touch' decoded: signals from stroking skin have direct route to brain enlarge
April, 15, 2009 Source: Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine
Nerve signals that tell the brain that we are being slowly stroked on the skin have their own specialised nerve fibres in the skin. This is shown by a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy in Sweden. The discovery may explain why touching the skin can relieve pain. Story

Awareness of alternative therapies may be lacking
April 13, 2009 Source: Archives of Internal Medicine
About 25 percent of practicing clinicians in the United States aren't aware of two major federal government-funded clinical trials of complementary and alternative (CAM) therapies, a new survey has found. The survey, which included 1,561 acupuncturists, naturopaths, internists and rheumatologists, also found that many clinicians aren't fully confident in their ability to interpret research results. Story

Editorial
Edward Duensing, Research
Lennie Duensing, Editorial

Design
Carol Harper, Art Direction