| Podcast
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...
| Podcast
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...
| Podcast
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...
| Podcast
The United States is in the midst of a prescription drug crisis. Each year, over 100 million surgical procedures are performed in the US and routinely opioid use is prescribed for postoperative pain. While the recent CDC guidelines are geared towards outpatient chronic pain management, few concerns...
| Podcast
In this time during which the use of opioids for analgesia is being attacked by well-organized zealots, society is desperately seeking ways to make utilization of these medications safer and more effective. In a growing number of developed nations, genetic testing is being routinely utilized to...
| Article
Certainly the idea of making an opioid safer is very desirable, and the current approach has been to address certain components of the way that these drugs are abused. Most of the products we have currently are focused at abuse through nasal snorting or through injection. We have technologies that...
| Article
There is a special report from the online journal STAT that reviews the dimensions of the crisis in opioid prescribing for patients with chronic pain. While not breaking new ground in the discussion, the report offers a succinct roundup of the different points of view on this issue of central...
| Article
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. has announced FDA approval for its new extended release hydrocodone bitartrate tablets. VANTRELATM ER incorporates a proprietary abuse deterrent technology and is indicated for management of pain sufficiently severe to warrant daily long-term opioid therapy and...
| Article
Described by the authors as among the most comprehensive efforts yet undertaken, a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine offers a review of scientific research on the health impacts of cannabis and cannabis-related products. More than 10,000 scientific...
| Video
In an environment of escalating scrutiny over controlled medications, frontline practitioners who prescribe them for pain therapy need to take the appropriate steps to demonstrate "prescribing for a legitimate medical purpose while acting in the usual course of professional practice." Jennifer Bolen...