| Article
Echoing a consensus view expressed by many PAINWeek faculty participants, the West Virginia House of Delegates took legislative action last week acknowledging the limitations of opioid prescribing restrictions on the crisis of opioid abuse, and on the well-being of patients with chronic pain. The...
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Researchers at McGill University, Montreal report that a new assessment tool that gauges observable behavioral cues offers a simple and effective means to measure pain levels in critically ill patients who may be unable to communicate. The Behavior Pain Assessment Tool (BPAT) considers 8 readily...
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Will recently released prescribing guidelines from the CDC advance the cause of rational opioid therapy? Will they lead to better pain practice and better patient outcomes? Dr. Argoff considers the good, the bad, and the ugly...
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Transformative care is as much about training and treatments as it is about using a team to work with the patients. Most of the pain clinics have followed this protocol very well. But still, there is an overemphasis on passive treatments as the primary care strategy for these patients. In actuality...
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An article in the April 2 edition of The Washington Post offers confirmation of a problem that has been extensively discussed by members of PAINWeek faculty: the persistent and prevalent under diagnosis of women’s chronic pain conditions. Journalist Hillary Gulley relates her personal experience of...
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The connection between migraine headache and dopamine levels has been a poorly understood area of therapy and research, although patients undergoing a migraine attack may often be administered dopamine antagonists to smooth fluctuations in dopamine levels and lessen the headache pain. New research...
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Research conducted at University of North Carolina School of Medicine sheds new light on the cause of a frequently encountered side effect of opioid therapy, intense itching. UNC scientists report that the receptor protein MRGRPX2 may be activated to trigger an immune system response that results in...
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Much of the publicity today, as well as initiatives like the CDC guidelines, really focus on the outpatient problems with chronic pain patients. But there’s a growing concern with how we prescribe opioids for post-op pain control. There is a fair amount of literature that’s emerging about whether...
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The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the lead federal agency charged with improving patient safety and healthcare quality, has published new findings on the effectiveness of some antidepressants, antiseizure drugs, and other medications in treating diabetic peripheral neuropathy...
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A new approach to prescription drug monitoring in patients on chronic opioid therapy is claimed to offer significant advantages over urine drug testing according to the manufacturer, Cordant Health Solutions. In a press announcement earlier this week, the Cordant Comprehensive Oral fluid Rx...