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I liken pain management to a team sport. We need all the right players on the team. As physicians, and we all look at patients through a certain lens. But working at Stanford and also observing other places, I appreciate the value that pain psychology brings, that physical therapy brings, that all...
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The CDC guidelines and also the National Pain Strategy emphasize the role of behavioral factors, of pain psychology in the experience and treatment of pain. Most primary care physicians may not be aware of the critical role that psychology plays in the pain experience and in patient’s treatment...
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Approval for the first viscosupplement agent in the United States came 19 years ago. It has been used in different forms for well over two decades in multiple different medical fields ranging from cosmetics all the way to neurosurgery. It also has application to the management of disability and pain...
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The use of interventional procedures is probably going to increase due to the CDC guidelines, because they are emphasizing non-opioid, and non-pharmacological therapies. So this is an important area for primary care doctors to understand, specifically if we look at patients with low back pain, one...
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A number of factors came together to facilitate increased prescribing of opioids and prescribing to more people using higher doses. There was a perceived under treatment of chronic pain. Laws and regulations were passed in many states to permit the use of opioids for that purpose, for which they...
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Evidence-based medicine is how we connect research to clinical practice. It started in the 80s and 90s as of way of looking at how studies are done and how they could be applied to clinical care, and it’s gone through a number of changes over the years. Evidence-based medicine now is being applied...
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As professionals, we’re always thinking about the patients we’re helping and we rarely think about ourselves. Sometimes we feel even a little guilty when we do. And yet, I like to remind everyone when you’re listening to the safety instructions from the flight attendant, she or he says ‘put on your...
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Pain is important. It’s called the fifth vital sign. That partially led to patient satisfaction scores, the HCAHPS scores, and two or three of those are based on pain. And even though they are hospital-based scores, your experience starts in the emergency department. So there’s talk about taking...
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With this new awareness of pain management in the Emergency Department, there’s a lot more interest and a lot more research being done. There’s still long ways for us to go developing actual tools that can be used in the ED setting. All the tools that are currently available are not really designed...
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The nationwide opioid abuse epidemic has directed a lot of attention from the state and federal levels on the primary care provider. The CDC guidelines for the prescribing of opioids for acute pain can do a lot to help a provider to steel himself or herself in the event that there is inquiry into...