Pain News and Research

Latest Pain News and Research

Study: Health insurance premiums soar in all 50 states

A new study confirmed a national trend in employer-sponsored coverage -- higher costs for skimpier benefits.

18 Nov 2011

New framework to improve care for patients with delirium

A new national plan of action provides a roadmap for improving the care of patients with delirium, a poorly understood and often unrecognized brain condition that affects approximately seven million hospitalized Americans each year.

18 Nov 2011

State roundup: Calif. cuts make public health outlook bleak

One thing Gov. Mitch Daniels believes with absolute conviction is that consumers need to pay more of the cost of their health care. ... No one can say Daniels isn't practicing what he preaches. Indiana has been using a version of consumer-driven health care for state employees since 2006. Starting next year, 90 percent of Indiana state workers will be covered by a consumer-driven plan with low premiums and high out-of-pocket expenses for actual care.

18 Nov 2011

Research shows how the bite of a small Texas snake causes extreme pain

Examining venom from a variety of poisonous snakes, a group of researchers at the University of California, San Francisco has discovered why the bite of one small black, yellow and red serpent called the Texas coral snake can be so painful.

17 Nov 2011

EC approves Pfizer's Vyndaqel to treat Transthyretin Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy

Pfizer announced today that the European Commission has approved Vyndaqel (tafamidis) for the treatment of Transthyretin Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy (TTR-FAP) in adult patients with stage 1 symptomatic polyneuropathy.

17 Nov 2011

Hemoglobin levels, blood pressure and male gender linked to higher risk of silent strokes in SCA children

Factors such as low hemoglobin levels, increased systolic blood pressure, and male gender are linked to a higher risk of silent cerebral infarcts (SCIs), or silent strokes, in children with sickle cell anemia (SCA), according to results from a large, first-of-its-kind study published online today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).

17 Nov 2011

Eli Lilly provides $4M in additional funding to IDRI for new TB therapies

Eli Lilly and Company today announced that it is providing more than $4 million in additional funding to the Infectious Disease Research Institute. The funding will allow IDRI to continue its early phase drug discovery efforts focused on identifying new and better therapies in the fight against tuberculosis, including multidrug-resistant strains known as MDR-TB.

17 Nov 2011

Incidences of self harm rises among adolescents: study

A recent large population based study shows that at least one in 12 teenagers commit self-harm. The commonest form of self harm is by cutting or burning, as a way of coping with depression, anxiety or other problems.

17 Nov 2011

Vitamin D and its good and bad effects on the heart

Vitamin D in excess may not be beneficial and may even harm the heart says a new study. Scientists have long known that low levels of the nutrient can hurt the heart, but new research shows that higher than normal levels can make it beat too fast and out of rhythm, a condition called atrial fibrillation. The study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association.

17 Nov 2011

New possibilities for relief from digestive diseases

As a researcher in neurogastroenterology for 40 years, professor Khalil Bitar has spent his professional life studying the causes of perplexing and what frequently become embarrassing problems for humans—issues such as constipation, diarrhea and colon disease.

17 Nov 2011

ACR special issue focuses on assessing adult pain

Assessment of patient outcomes allows physicians and researchers to measure the success or failure of diagnostics and treatments that patients receive. One set of measurement tools focuses on assessing adult pain and is included in a special issue of Arthritis Care & Research, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), providing physicians and researchers with a single resource of 250 patient outcomes measurements in rheumatology.

17 Nov 2011

Potential breakthrough in treating late-stage ovarian cancer

A potential breakthrough in treating late-stage ovarian cancer has come from University of Guelph researchers who have discovered a peptide that shrinks advanced tumours and improves survival rates for this deadly but often undetected disease.

17 Nov 2011

Dipyrone may reduce brain damage after stroke

An older nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) called dipyrone may offer a new approach to reducing injury to brain tissue after a stroke, according to a study in the October issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

17 Nov 2011

Incyte receives FDA approval for Jakafi to treat intermediate or high-risk MF

Incyte Corporation today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted marketing approval for Jakafi (ruxolitinib) for the treatment of patients with intermediate or high-risk myelofibrosis (MF), including primary MF, post-polycythemia vera MF and post-essential thrombocythemia MF.

17 Nov 2011

New CAD test associated with higher rates of cardiac procedures, health-care spending

A new, noninvasive diagnostic test for coronary artery disease is associated with a higher rate of subsequent invasive cardiac procedures and higher health-care spending. That's according to an observational study of Medicare recipients conducted by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

16 Nov 2011

Atherosclerotic plaques spread downstream in coronary arteries

In human coronary arteries, atherosclerotic plaques tend to spread downstream because of the changes in blood flow patterns the plaque causes, researchers have found.

16 Nov 2011

Pacira prices public offering of 7,000,000 shares of common stock

Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc., an emerging specialty pharmaceutical company, today announced the pricing of its public offering of 7,000,000 shares of its common stock at a price of $6.50 per share.

16 Nov 2011

Press Ganey recognizes UT Southwestern with two major patient satisfaction awards

UT Southwestern Medical Center today became the nation's only academic medical center to win two major patient satisfaction awards - the Patient Voice Award and the Summit Award for inpatient services - from Press Ganey, a national consulting firm specializing in health care performance.

16 Nov 2011

Blood-based gene expression test more effective in ruling out obstructive CAD

A blood-based gene expression test was found to be more effective for ruling out obstructive coronary artery disease in stable symptomatic patients than myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), a common test that uses a radioactive agent to evaluate the blood flow and function of the heart.

16 Nov 2011

Amgen receives EC approval to extend therapeutic indications for Vectibix

Amgen today announced that the European Commission (EC) has approved a variation to the marketing authorization for Vectibix (panitumumab) to include indications for the treatment of patients with wild-type KRAS metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) in first-line in combination with FOLFOX and in second-line in combination with FOLFIRI in patients who have received first-line fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy.

16 Nov 2011