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The journal of Minimally Invasive Surgery published an article in which the researchers systematically reviewed the literature to evaluate the effectiveness of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. 373 MS patients were found after a review of 452 articles and 7 studies...
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The Stars and Stripes website reports that those in the military “are in constant pain” at a much higher rate than civilians, according to a study by the Rand Corporation—a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges. As many as 44% of active duty...
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Fibromyalgia—which worldwide affects anywhere from 1 in 40 to 1 in 20 people, mostly women—has long been poorly understood. The disorder causes chronic muscle pain, tenderness, fatigue, and sleep disturbances, but how and why, and where does the pain originate? In a new study, published in the Journ...
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In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 135 people diagnosed with chronic migraine—aged 10 to 17 years, mostly female (79%) and mostly white (89%)—were assessed. Researchers sought to understand “predictors of improvement in headache days and migraine-related...
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A draft of a guideline from NICE—the United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence—has been completed. Its title is “Pelvic floor dysfunction: prevention and non-surgical management”; it seeks to educate and to clarify the problem that too many women face. The guideline...
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How much of a problem is doctor shopping? “Doctor shopping” is defined as ≥1 day of getting overlapping prescriptions for opioids from ≥2 prescribers and going to ≥3 pharmacies to have them filled. A recent article published in the Journal of Pain Research looked at patients with chronic noncancer...
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The journal of Nature Biomedical Engineering features an article highlighting a blueprint to study pain and potential treatments. Because pain is unpredictable and random, it can be hard to study. Scientists have developed a prototype closed-loop brain–machine interface that “can modulate sensory...
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A letter published in the journal of Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy brings to light a potential new tool to combat chronic pain. Conolidine, used in traditional Chinese medicine, is a natural analgesic alkaloid that targets the atypical chemokine receptor ACKR3. Researchers say it offers...
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“Leaders in pain medicine recognize that terminology needs to keep up with our understanding of disorders, their pathophysiologies, and their treatment.” So say the authors of an article published in the Journal of Pain Research, one of whom is long time PAINWeek faculty, Michael Schatman, PhD, CPE...
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Which screening and diagnostic tests are ordered for a new patient with potential musculoskeletal pain? That’s the question posed in an article published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. Researchers looked at almost 12,000 initial medical encounters over 9 years that had a...