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.

Medication-Assisted Treatments for Opioid Use Disorder

Dr. Martin Cheatle, Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, offers his opinion on medications used to treat opioid use disorder: methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone.

Polypharmacy: Yea or Nay?

Rarely is one medication or pharmacologic class of drugs the answer to a medical conundrum, including pain management. While opioids are indisputably valuable in treating acute pain and some forms of chronic pain, they are just one therapeutic option. Two pharmacists, and PW faculty members Drs...

Rising Interest in Cannabinoids?

Gary Jay, MD, FAAPM, a clinical professor at the University of North Carolina, discusses the all-time high interest in cannabinoids. Does this interest impact the perceived opioid crisis? Do we know enough about CBD and THC to make decisions? What are the facts? What about edibles for headaches?

The Opioid Crisis and Its Relationship to Music Therapy

As the opioid pendulum swings away from its use, is it swinging closer to music therapy? Joanne Loewy, DA, LCAT, MT-BC, and John Mondanaro, MA, LCAT, MT-BC, CCLS, of Mount Sinai Beth Israel Louis Armstrong Center for Music & Medicine and the Louis & Lucille Armstrong Music Therapy Program...

What Should Nonspecialists Know About Pelvic Floor Disorders?

Dr. Georgine Lamvu, a gynecologic surgeon and pelvic pain specialist at the VA medical center in Orlando, discusses pelvic floor disorders. Many women suffer in silence; many practitioners don’t know enough.

Relieving Administrative Burdens to Help Prevent Burnout

Practitioners are experiencing burnout at an alarming rate. Administrative burden is part of the problem. “Healthcare providers didn’t become healthcare providers to do paperwork and to sit at a keyboard.” But how can it be made better? Dr. Kevin Zacharoff, a clinical instructor and course director...

Opioid Use in Headache Management

Drs. Nina Riggins and Larry Charleston IV, headache specialists, offer their knowledge and opinions of the use of opioids for headache pain management. Are they helpful? Should they be used? Are they a last resort?

Let’s Get Physical! Musculoskeletal Pelvic Pain

Pelvic floor muscle dysfunction is associated with pelvic pain, physical disability, and sexual dysfunction. Prevalence estimates of musculoskeletal dysfunction in various pelvic pain conditions, including endometriosis, vulvodynia, and painful bladder syndrome, range from 21% to 80%. In addition to...

Imaging Studies: Seeing and Believing?

Diagnostic testing is an integral component for the differential diagnosis. In routine clinical practice there has been a tendency for clinical examinations to become more cursory, largely influenced by increasing demands on a practitioner’s time and the patient’s expectations of technological...