Pain Management News and Research

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Acetaminophen, when taken as directed, is safe for patients with liver disease

Contrary to common perception, clinical data demonstrate that acetaminophen is an appropriate pain relief choice for patients with chronic liver disease. According to a systematic literature review of the data, which is published in the current issue of the American Journal of Therapeutics, there is no evidence that acetaminophen at therapeutic doses aggravates liver disease.

26 Jul 2005

Video games can be useful in health care and research

One innovative application of video games in health care is their use in pain management as the degree of attention needed to play such a game can distract the player from the sensation of pain, writes Mark Griffiths, Professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University.

14 Jul 2005

At the end of life hospices better option for the elderly than nursing homes

A new study has shown that straight talking elderly people, who are facing death in nursing homes, raises the likelihood of them agreeing to enter hospices in the last days of their life.

14 Jul 2005

Hospice referral rates increase with intervention

A simple information and communication intervention between a patient and physician can increase hospice referral rates among nursing home residents, increase their families' ratings of end-of-life care, and may decrease use of acute care resources, according to an article in the July 13 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.

13 Jul 2005

Helping children deal with chronic pain

One in fifty children and adolescents live with severely debilitating and recurrent pain but there is an "embarrassing" lack of data on the best ways to treat them, according to researchers.

6 Jul 2005

It's the truth - pain hurts women more than men

Researchers at Bath University are disputing the common belief that women are able to tolerate pain better than men; they claim that in fact the opposite is true.

5 Jul 2005

Canada first country to approve cannabis based painkiller

Canada has become the first country to approve a cannabis based painkiller for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.

21 Jun 2005

Survey highlights need for primary care guidance on NSAID use

New guidance on NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) use is urgently needed to ensure the best patient care, European experts said today. The news coincides with the results from a European survey of 626 arthritis patients which found that many are confused and worried about the potential side-effects of their medication.

10 Jun 2005

Study suggests continuous NSAID treatment more effectively reduces X-Ray progression than intermittent treatment

A widely under-recognized form of arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic, progressive disease targeting the spine.

2 Jun 2005

Narcotic medications can safely and effectively ease severe, chronic pain in older people

Narcotic medications can safely and effectively ease severe, chronic pain in older people with little risk that these patients will seek ever-increasing doses, UCSF medical scientists have found. Younger patients, however, are likely to want to rapidly increase their medication dose, the researchers found, posing serious potential health consequences.

23 May 2005

Narcotic medications can safely and effectively ease severe, chronic pain in older people

Narcotic medications can safely and effectively ease severe, chronic pain in older people with little risk that these patients will seek ever-increasing doses, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) medical scientists have found. Younger patients, however, are likely to want to rapidly increase their medication dose, the researchers found, posing serious potential health consequences.

20 May 2005

Coping with pain quite a struggle for half of the U.S.A.

At least 50 precent of the U.S. population are struggling to cope either with the aggravation of intermittent pain or with the misery of chronic pain which is difficult to treat. This results in less work, crankier moods and fewer activities, combined with a wide-ranging search for pain relief.

11 May 2005

Reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome may affect more than 1.2 million

Paula Abdul's story about her struggle with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome (RSD), also known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) highlights this complex and poorly understood disorder.

23 Apr 2005

Drug that reduces the pain of fibromyalgia and improves sleep

A study of a drug that reduces the pain of fibromyalgia and improves sleep is published by a University of Kentucky physician in the peer-reviewed journal, Arthritis & Rheumatism.

12 Apr 2005

Animi-3 may offer hope for rheumatoid arthritis

Animi-3, a prescription medication from PBM Pharmaceuticals, Inc., contains ingredients that may have a beneficial, protective effect in inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

7 Apr 2005

Chronic pain treatments more effective when taken together

People suffering from chronic, debilitating pain caused by nerve damage or disease report better pain relief at lower doses of a combined drug treatment than from either drug administered individually, a new Queen’s study funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) shows.

3 Apr 2005

T’ai Chi has many benefits for frail older adults

It’s no longer an ancient Chinese secret. A University of Missouri-Columbia researcher is putting a new spin on an old exercise and the outcome has many benefits for frail older adults.

15 Mar 2005

Minorities who experience pain don’t receive the same care as Caucasians

The first issue of Pain Medicine in 2005 will focus on the inequalities and differences in how pain is assessed and treated amongst various racial and ethnic minority groups. Data from the articles in this themed edition provide evidence that African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians and other racial and ethnic minorities do not receive optimal care in treatment for pain.

26 Jan 2005

Virtual pain relief for children

Children who have the distraction of a virtual reality game while undergoing post-operative physiotherapy, report a significant decrease in their experience of pain, new research at the University of South Australia has found.

12 Jan 2005

Women need less morphine after hysterectomies with new treatment

Women recovering from hysterectomies require less morphine to combat pain and are able to recover their lung function more quickly when they receive a combination of two non-morphine-like or “non-opioid” drugs as part of their treatment, a new Queen’s study shows.

5 Jan 2005