Migraine Position Statement from the International Headache Society

Over 1 billion people in the world live with migraine. In a position statement, Health Technology Assessment for the Acute Treatment of Migraine Attacks and Prevention of Migraine, from the International Headache Society (IHS), health technology assessments—"systematic evaluations of the properties...

When Denying Opioids Gets Dangerous

Threats. Harassment. Attacks. There have been reports recently about practitioners saying “No” to patients requesting opioids, and either being threatened or actually harmed. In Minnesota, five people were shot, and one killed, by a man who had been denied painkillers. A report in the Baltimore Sun...

Opioids and the Socially Disadvantaged

Pain, chronic pain, anxiety, depression, opioids. A study presented at the Association of Academic Physiatrists Annual Meeting linked all of those to "the socially disadvantaged" and stated that more needs to be done to improve patient outcomes. A  lack of access to nonpharmacological therapy, such...

For Pain: Ibuprofen Arginate vs Ibuprofen

An article in January’s Journal of Pain discussed ibuprofen, a highly used analgesic. Due to its slow absorption, however, just how well does it work on acute moderate to severe pain? Researchers presented findings on the relatively new L-arginine salt-containing ibuprofen to determine its efficacy...

An Easier—and Painfree—Way to Capture a Biomarker

Blood draws for testing. For many people, that hurts. They’re necessary, however, to obtain biomarkers of disease. Biomarkers such as antibodies can also be found, in low abundance, in the liquid around cells. Researchers have “developed a microneedle patch that can be applied to the skin, capture a...

“Uncertain Evidence” of Antidepressant Treatment for Pain

Do antidepressants offer pain relief for osteoarthritis and back pain? Researchers published findings in the British Medical Journal, describing their systematic review and meta-analysis of 33 trials with 5318 participants, given either serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) or...

Pain Psychology and Management: It’s All About the Patient

Heather Poupore-King, PhD, and Jamie Clapp, PT, DPT, OCS, answer our questions about pain management, patients managing their own pain, what “patient-centered” really means, and how the “opioid crisis” is affecting the world of physical therapy.

Analgesic Hydrogel Dressings for Burn Pain

An article in BMJ states, “Pain remains a major issue following a burn, and research suggests that pain from burn injuries continues to be undertreated in children.” In a study, two burn dressings were compared to determine the efficacy of treatment for pediatric burns. This was the first randomized...

The Relationship of Fear and Pain

Pain is affected by fear and anxiety about pain. How does that relationship change over the span of a life? The abstract of an article in the Pain Medicine journal states that "Nociception and pain history differ depending on age, yet little empirical evidence exists on how fear of pain varies over...

Ketamine: More Effective than Opioids?

A systematic review published in BMJ Open looked at the use of analgesic doses of ketamine to assess its efficacy and safety compared with other analgesic drugs (or no drug) in adult prehospital patients with acute pain. Culling information from clinical trials, the researchers included 8 studies...