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In an article in the Cell journal, scientists from China and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have researched the structural framework of opioid receptors in an effort to build better pain management and limit side effects. “This collaboration revealed conserved, or shared...
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Black patients: prescribed opioids less frequently yet undergo more urine drug screenings. The Journal of Clinical Oncology reports on various healthcare disparities affecting older patients at end of life. Findings from over 300,000 decedents >65 years with poor-prognosis cancers include:
- Receiv...
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Does cannabis use impact levels of anesthesia during surgery? The American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA Pain Medicine) has developed guidelines for screening patients, presurgery, for cannabis use. Use of cannabis—whether recreational or medicinal—can interact and affect...
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Post outpatient surgery for joint replacement, what are the benefits and/or drawbacks of sending a patient home with dexamethasone pills for pain? Over 100 patients at an institution received either dexamethasone or placebo for 4 days after a total knee arthroplasty. Pain scores for postoperative...
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The journal of Science reports findings from researchers accessing chemotypes from a virtual library of over 300 million molecules. The authors of the study “computationally docked each virtual molecule into the highly similar α2BAR binding site, prioritizing those that physically fit and that were...
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A study presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY 2022 annual meeting analyzed postsurgery pain in people who used cannabis. According to the analysis of over 34,000 patients who had elective surgery, the 1650 who used cannabis within 30 days presurgery:
- Had 14% more pain during the 24 hours postsurgery ...
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In Australia, “Hospitalisations and deaths related to opioid overuse, misuse, or overdose increased by 240% and 180%, respectively, with a corresponding 32-fold increase in yearly public health costs to $271 million AUD within the past 2 decades.” After implementing a single anesthesiologist-led...
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Pre-COVID, half of Australian women giving birth utilized nitrous oxide for pain relief, 40% had epidurals, and 12% used opioids. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology reports that post-COVID, nitrous oxide was withheld to lower transmission risk, and opioid use...
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The American Journal of Managed Care has published an article highlighting the need for policy changes in prescribing opioids postsurgery. The level of opioid dispensing in morphine milligram equivalents in 2019 was nearly 3 times greater than in 1999. In an effort to encourage use of pain...
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The 2016 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain was controversial; did it change minds? Apparently it did get practitioners to think “nonopioids” more often. An article published in JAMA Network Open presented information based on cohort study...