Pain News and Research

Latest Pain News and Research

Avoiding overuse, misuse, and underuse of medications

Adverse drug events are more common in older adults because they are prescribed more drugs and are effected differently by these drugs than their younger counterparts.

3 Jan 2008

Forgiveness may be good for your health

Forgiveness may be good for your health, according to the January issue of Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource .

3 Jan 2008

FDA approves Hi-Flex mobile bearing knee prostheses

Mitchell Sheinkop, M.D., will be the first in the U.S. to surgically implant the just-approved Nex Gen LPS-Flex mobile bearing knee on February 20, 2008 at the Neurologic and Orthopedic Hospital of Chicago.

3 Jan 2008

AstraZeneca submits sNDAs for SEROQUEL XR for bipolar symptoms

AstraZeneca has announced that the company has submitted two separate supplemental New Drug Applications (sNDAs) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for once-daily SEROQUEL XR (quetiapine fumarate) Extended-Release Tablets to seek approval for the treatment of manic episodes associated with bipolar disorder and the treatment of depressive episodes associated with bipolar disorder.

3 Jan 2008

Use of opioid medications for pain in ERs on the rise, but racial differences in use still exist

In the last 15 years, use of opioid medications to treat patients with pain-related emergency department visits has improved although white patients were more likely to receive opioids than patients of a different race/ethnicity, according to a study in the January 2 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.

2 Jan 2008

Tonsillectomies to treat chronic and recurrent tonsillitis

Tonsillectomies to treat chronic and recurrent tonsillitis substantially improve a patient's quality of live in both children and adults, according to two new studies published as a supplement to the January 2008 issue of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

2 Jan 2008

Drug effective for hepatitis C patients with low platelets

For patients with hepatitis C, having a low blood platelet count is a frequent complication associated with advanced disease.

2 Jan 2008

Blacks, Hispanics less likely to get strong pain drugs in emergency rooms

Despite increases in the overall use of opioid drugs to relieve severe pain, black and Hispanic patients remain significantly less likely than whites to receive these pain-relievers in emergency rooms, according to a new national study.

2 Jan 2008

BIDMC surgeons to be tested on laparoscopic motor skills

Attending general surgeons at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) will be required to prove basic motor skills outside an operating room before performing laparoscopic surgery on patients.

2 Jan 2008

Big toe injuries

With the Fall sports season winding down and the indoor sport season now underway, the importance of understanding and preventing foot injuries is top of mind for thousands of athletes around the country.

28 Dec 2007

Mutations in a protein called dynein may cause inherited neuropathy

Mutations in a protein called dynein, required for the proper functioning of sensory nerve cells, can cause defects in mice that may provide crucial clues leading to better treatments for a human nerve disorder known as peripheral neuropathy, which affects about three percent of all those over age 60.

28 Dec 2007

Health improves for previously uninsured adults after receiving Medicare coverage

Previously uninsured adults who received Medicare coverage reported improvements in health, especially those with cardiovascular disease or diabetes, according to a study in the December 26 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.

28 Dec 2007

Health coverage improves health and reduces major heart complications

As presidential candidates ramp up their primary campaigns, health care reform looms prominently among voters' main concerns.

28 Dec 2007

Robotic-assisted visceral arterial aneurysm surgery

Surgeons at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago have performed a landmark robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery to remove a renal arterial aneurysm and reconstruct the artery using a graft from a vein in the patient's leg.

20 Dec 2007

Brains respond differently to thirst depending upon age

Twelve healthy subjects in their 60s and 70s showed a different pattern of brain activations during thirst and satiation than did 10 healthy subjects in their 20s who drank the same amounts and underwent imaging with positron-emission tomography (PET).

20 Dec 2007

$Bone mineral density test predicts 'silent' spinal fractures years later$

Bone mineral density test predicts 'silent' spinal fractures years later

A single bone mineral density (BMD) test given 15 years earlier predicted a woman's risk of developing fractures to her spine over time, according to the largest and longest prospective study of osteoporosis.

20 Dec 2007

A genetic influence on alcohol addiction found - lack of endorphin

The research reveals that a subject's brain with low beta-endorphin levels becomes accustomed to the presence of an exogenous surplus, diminishing its own supply and triggering dependence on an external source--in this case, alcohol.

19 Dec 2007

Massage relieves pain after surgery and complements the use of drugs

Researchers in the U.S. have found that pain after surgery was eased by massage and they suggest it may complement the use of drugs.

19 Dec 2007

Z-shaped incision inside the stomach enhances minimally-invasive surgery

A novel surgical technique allowing doctors to operate on patients by making a Z-shaped incision inside the stomach could potentially replace certain types of conventional surgery in humans, according to Penn State medical researchers who have successfully demonstrated the procedure in pigs.

18 Dec 2007

Where vets served affects frequency of ER visits but not hospital stays

Five years post-conflict, individuals who served in the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War were 25 percent more likely to visit an emergency department than veterans of the same era who were not deployed, but were no more likely to have a hospital stay or an outpatient visit, according to a study appearing in the December 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

18 Dec 2007