Pain Studies In The News

Many people with foot and ankle pain drop out of care
May 7, 2010 Source: Elsevier Global Medical News
Foot pain and foot problems are very common in primary care. Researchers recently studied the reasons for musculoskeletal foot consultations in a primary care cohort of people older than 50 years. They found that only 9% of these individuals actually consulted for foot pain or problems after completing the regional pain survey.
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Chronic pain severely limits patients’ quality of life and is among the cost drivers in U.S. health care.
May 4, 2010 Source: Mayo Clinic
Chronic pain affects 50 million Americans and costs $100 billion in health costs, lost work time and other economic impacts. New research reports that chronic pain may be caused by the inadvertent reprogramming of more than 2,000 genes in the peripheral nervous system. The research might ultimately lead to “transcription therapy” researchers speculate, which would employ drugs that kill pain by correcting the activity of specific genes.
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Fibromyalgia affects mental health of those diagnosed and their spouses, study finds
April 30, 2010 Source: University of Missouri-Columbia.
In a new study, researchers are examining how the diagnosis of fibromyalgia can affect marriages. Initial findings reveal that diagnosed spouses have considerably higher levels of depressive symptoms and pain and report more marital instability and anger than their spouses. For both spouses, the symptoms can trigger increased emotional withdrawal and mental strain.
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Study supports acupuncture effects in pain control
April 30, 2010 Source: International Anesthesia Research Society
A new study gives a nod of support for traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of pain. Researchers used quantitative sensory testing to identify changes in pain sensitivity with acupuncture in 24 healthy volunteers. After applying acupuncture to the leg, subjects’ pain thresholds increased by up to 50 percent.
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Use of alternative therapy for pain treatment increases with age and wealth
April 29, 2010 Source: University of Michigan Health System,
In a new study, 1 out of 3 patients with chronic pain reported using complementary and alternative therapies such as acupuncture and chiropractic visits for pain relief. Socioeconomic factors -- primarily race and age -- played a large role in the use of alternative therapy in chronic pain patients, the study showed. Whites used alternative modalities more frequently than blacks and elderly adults had a higher frequency of using alternative therapies than younger adults.
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Obesity associated with increased risk of fibromyalgia
April 29, 2010 Source: Wiley-Blackwell
Researchers have found an association between the level of leisure time physical exercise and a future risk of developing fibromyalgia. The research team also identified body mass index as an independent risk factor for fibromyalgia. Women who reported exercising 4 times per week had a 29% lower risk of fibromyalgia compared with inactive women.
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Men and women differ in pain drug abuse risks
April 27, 2010 Source: American Pain Society
According to a new study, men and women have similar frequencies of aberrant drug behavior, but there are gender differences in risk factors for misuse of opioid medications. Drug misuse by women appears to be motivated more by emotional issues and psychological distress while in men this behavior usually stems from problematic social and behavioral problems that lead to substance abuse.
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Study examines costs of neuropathic pain
April 27, 2010 Source: American Pain Society
Constantly rising U.S. health care costs could be reduced significantly by preventing and treating neuropathic pain conditions associated with diabetes and herpes zoster virus infections, according to new research. The study reported that annual health care costs associated with two peripheral neuropathic pain conditions, post herpetic neuralgia and diabetic peripheral neuropathy, in patients of all ages range from $1,600 to $7,000 per case.
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Cognitive behavior therapy may rapidly relieve severe irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms
April 27, 2010 Source: American Gastroenterological Association
A significant proportion of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients treated with cognitive behavior therapy have a positive response within four weeks of treatment, according to a new study. Of patients undergoing cognitive behavior therapy for IBS, 30 percent were rapid responders, of whom 90 percent to 95 percent maintained gains at the immediate four week and three-month follow-up examinations.
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Walter Reed report confirms validity of fast-acting, non-drug PTSD treatment
April 26, 2010 Source: Advanced Pain Centers
Case reports were recently published detailing the successful treatment of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder with a stellate ganglion block (SGB.) SGB is a 10-minute procedure during which local anesthesia is injected next to the stellate ganglion, a collection of nerves in the neck.
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Botulinum injection provides relief of tennis elbow
April 26, 2010 Source: Canadian Medical Association Journal
An injection of botulinum toxin can provide relief for "tennis elbow" but needs to be injected properly to avoid potential paralysis, states a new research article. Further research is needed to determine whether the pain-relieving effects of the treatment remain or diminish after four months.
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People with no health insurance get substandard migraine care
April 13, 2010 Source: American Academy of Neurology
People with no health insurance are less likely than the privately insured to receive proper treatment for their migraines, according to a new study. Study authors say migraine sufferers who lack private health insurance are twice as likely to get inadequate treatment for their condition as their insured counterparts. Migraine patients insured through Medicaid are one and a half times as likely to receive substandard treatment.
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Migraine sufferers: more difficulty tuning out visual stimuli?
April 9, 2010 Source: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
When people feel the onset of a migraine, they may head to a dark, quiet room to rest. This instinct may be sound. In a new study, researchers asked migraine sufferers to pick out a small disk of light amid visual noise, an effect similar to the black-and-white snow on an off-air television. Without the visual noise, people prone to migraine could identify the light disk about as well as the control group. But when the noise was added, migraine sufferers performed significantly worse.
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New study details high rates of rehospitalizations and emergency pain treatment of sickle cell disease
April 7, 2010 Source: Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality
The largest study to date of the use of acute care medical services by people with sickle cell disease found that 4 of every 10 had to return to the hospital within 30 days of a previous hospitalization or go to the emergency department for treatment of pain. Eighteen to 30-year-old patients had the highest rate of rehospitalizations within 30 days (41 percent).
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Meditative breathing may help manage chronic pain
April 7, 2010 Source: ASU News
A new study offers support for the benefits of yoga-style breathing and meditation to help control chronic pain. The study involved women with chronic pain from fibromyalgia and 25 healthy women of the same age. Participants were subjected to brief pulses of moderately painful heat on their palms. Slow breathing reduced ratings of pain intensity and unpleasantness as well as negative emotion.
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