Methadone and Marijuana: What's New and What's Not

Methadone is a very useful opioid that indisputably requires careful attention to dosing and monitoring. In this fast paced presentation, participants will learn about the American Pain Society guidelines for the safe and effective use of methadone and how those guidelines should be applied for...

Not for Human Consumption: New Drugs of Abuse and Their Detection

Designer drugs are structurally related to illegal psychoactive drugs and include cathinones (bath salts and flakka), synthetic cannabinoids (K2), piperazines (Molly), salvia, kratom, and desomorphine (krokodil). Often designer drugs are readily available on the Internet or in head shops and skirt...

Pain Terminology: Knowing the Difference Makes a Difference!

The Pain Educators Forum presents this course because there are so many different levels of practitioner experience with pain management. Specifically, inspiration came from someone who, after attending one of our courses, had a burning question for our faculty: "What do sodium channels have to do...

Acupuncture Analgesia: Therapy or Sham?

Acupuncture has been used for centuries to treat pain; however, multiple recent randomized controlled trials of acupuncture in chronic pain disorders have largely shown mixed findings. In most of these studies acupuncture is no better than sham/placebo. Moreover, many basic as well as clinical...

It's Me Communication and Pain Management

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...

Low Pressure Headaches: What Are You Missing

Low pressure headaches (LPH) are caused by low cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) pressure or volume and may be spontaneous or provoked. Although the suspected incidence of spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH) is rare, improved imaging and greater awareness have led to increased identification...

Neurochemical Imaging as a Probe of Chronic Pain and Its Treatment

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...

Opioid Conversion Calculations (2016)

Many patients receiving opioids will need to be switched from one opioid to another during therapy or at least from one dosage formulation or route of administration to another. During this session, practitioners learn to recognize clinical situations in which opioid switching would be appropriate...

Balancing Analgesia vs ORAEs in Postoperative Acute Pain

This presentation will review the consequences of not adequately addressing postoperative acute pain, strategies for balancing analgesia against opioid related adverse events in this setting, and new approaches on the horizon. Postoperative acute pain continues to be undertreated in a large number...

Innovative Interventional Approaches to Pain Management in the Elderly

Pain management in the elderly can be quite complex. The most common method of pain control in this population is pharmacotherapy. However, this patient population is becoming subject to the complex interactions and risks associated with polypharmacy. Hence, interventional strategies are...