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Virtual reality (VR) has been used as a pain treatment technique in some settings for decades. However, the cost of the technology has traditionally been out of reach for almost all practitioners. This has changed in the last year as the hardware has become affordable and the possibility of using VR...
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On September 16, 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hosted a public webinar where they revealed a draft of their 12 prescribing guidelines for chronic pain. Due to technical difficulties, the entire process was repeated the following day. Concerns over the way the guidelines...
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Accumulating evidence suggests that widespread pain syndromes such as fibromyalgia display a generalized disturbance in central nervous system pain processing. Multiple lines of research have identified that the locus for many functional chronic pain disorders, including fibromyalgia, pelvic pain...
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Pain management coaching is a systematized application of techniques, including motivational interviewing, that enable your patients to work through ambivalence and take action to change their lives. One of the primary components is education. Coaches teach skills to enable the patient to regain a...
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Pain and restrictions on movement are often inextricably linked. The pain of movement and the tendency to hold oneself still in order to avoid further pain can have a residually negative impact in a disease trajectory. Compelling research in music and medicine illuminates the therapeutic benefits of...
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Despite the increase in prescriptions of pain medication and interventional procedures to treat pain, there is scant evidence from population based research that these treatments have been successful in reducing pain associated functional impairment. This is because successful treatment of chronic...
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Arachnoiditis is officially listed as a rare disease, but its estimated incidence has increased over about 400% in the past decade. Almost every pain practice has now encountered a case. Technically, the name implies an inflammatory disease of the arachnoid layer of the thecal sac or meninges. In...
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Although long regarded as an appropriate standard of care for treating acute and cancer pain, the use of prescription opioids to treat chronic benign pain conditions has been highly controversial. The lack of empirical support in conjunction with the increased prevalence of prescription opioid abuse...
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Although opioids remain an important tool in aiding the management of pain in the United States, the balance between the potential benefits and harms must be considered. Some specific harms are manifested in the abuse of opioids for nonmedical purposes. The primary access to prescribable opioids for...
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Fierce debates rage on about chronic pain. These include the utility of chronic opioid therapy, the value proposition of multidisciplinary approaches, reimbursement related issues, risk of aberrant drug related behaviors, along with many other questions related to assessment and treatment...