Pain Stories
A doctor's dilemma: prescribing pain pills is getting trickier
February 04, 2008
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has now given physicians another reason to pause before prescribing painkillers. The state's highest court allowed a lower court to hear a lawsuit resulting from a car accident in which a 75-year-old man, who was on various medications for medical ailments, killed a 10-year-old boy. The man, who had cancer, has since died, but the boy's family sued the man's physician because he had prescribed the medications without adequate (according to the lawsuit) instructions about driving. The ruling means that providers may now face legal jeopardy for unintended consequences of prescribed medications. Story
Scar away your pain? Some docs back prolotherapy
February 04, 2008
Doctors have modernized and refined prolotherapy. Instead of forcing scarring with hot needles, a concentrated sugar solution is injected in and around the injured area, as close to the tendons and ligaments as possible. The injections irritate the tissues and cause inflammation, which rushes blood, nutrients and cells called fibroblasts to the area. Fibroblasts help lay down the repair fibers -- namely collagen -- in an injured area, creating a scar, which, according to some, alleviates pain. Story
Education helps back pain patients return to work, study says
February 04, 2008
Recent analysis revealed that patients who experienced short-term lower back pain, and who received 2.5 hours of individual patient education sessions with a health care provider, were able to return to work faster than if they had received no education. Story
New insights into genital pain in women
January 29, 2008
Studies have shown that sexual phobias are rarely the explanation for a condition known as vulvodynia, a chronic discomfort of the vulva that can result in searing or shooting pain when any amount of pressure is placed on the sensitized tissues. Some women compare the feeling to acid being poured on an open wound. The problem can last months, years or a lifetime. Worse, doctors often misdiagnose it or treat it inappropriately, if at all.. Story
M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and AstraZeneca form alliance to advance understanding of cancer-related neuropathic pain
January 24, 2008
The new alliance will focus on identifying neurobiological differences between cancer patients who develop chemotherapy-induced pain and patients who experience little or no pain. Story
Task force presents evidence based recommendations on neck pain
January 22, 2008
A report BY THE Task Force underscores the need for a systematic, evidence-based approach to the common, costly, and underestimated problem of neck pain. A key component of the recommendations is a proposed new system for classification of neck pain. Story
Pain patients should not be punished for opioid medication abuse or addiction
January 22, 2008
Practitioners prescribing opioids for pain should be prepared to deal with patients’ problems in using the medicines, according to a special report from Pain-Topics.org. Patients should not be discharged from treatment if opioid abuse or addiction occurs. Report explains how opioids can be continued while medication-misuse problems are addressed Story
Viscosupplementation offers OA pain relief
Janaury 17, 2008
Hyaluronic acid suppresses cartilage degeneration, reduces the release of proteoglycans from the extracellular matrix of cartilage tissue, suppresses PGE2 production, and influences viscoelasticity and/or lubrication of the stroma. Story
Drug approved. Is disease real?
January 14, 2008
Fibromyalgia is a real disease. Or so says Pfizer in a new television advertising campaign for Lyrica, the first medicine approved to treat the pain condition, whose very existence is questioned by some doctors. Story
Dark addiction: miners caught in western Va.'s spiraling rates of painkiller abuse
January 13, 2007
Publicized efforts to crack down on drug dealers and manufacturers through tougher street-level enforcement and tighter prescription regulations have failed to curb the crisis, and the result is a quiet catastrophe unfolding largely out of sight, in private bedrooms and isolated trailers far from the drug war's urban front lines Story
Embracing alternative care
January 9, 2008
All 18 hospitals on U.S. News's most recent "America's Best Hospitals" superselective
Honor Roll provide CAM of some type. Fifteen of the 18 also belong to the three-year-old Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine, 36 U.S. teaching hospitals pushing to blend CAM with traditional care. Story
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