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Can psilocybin—a hallucinogenic chemical obtained from mushrooms—improve mental health in struggling Veterans? Arizona’s legislature may grant $30 million to help researchers find solutions via controlled trials. By studying whole mushrooms and their 100s of compounds, vs the synthetic, 1 molecule...
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A survey of over 1700 adults (aged ≥18), from a representative sample from 36 states and DC, asked about cannabis use for relief of chronic pain. The results, in JAMA Network Open, found the following:
- 31.0% used cannabis for pain management
- 94.7% also utilized ≥1 pharmacologic pain treatment ...
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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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The Oklahoma Study of Native American Pain Risk is a first of its kind. Its goal? To understand why Native Americans have higher levels—up to 3 times more than non-Hispanic whites—of chronic pain. A 5 year, $2.75 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will allow exploration of possible...
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A BMC Women’s Health article evaluates back pain and reason(s) more women suffer from it than men. They specifically looked at pregnancy and childbirth, and the likelihood of future back pain. 12,776 women were contacted; 1069 made it to the final stage of the study. Notable findings:
- 33%...
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Are patients reliable self-witnesses? Can they realize they are in a state of PTSD? Dr. Peter Abaci, the medical director of two comprehensive interdisciplinary clinics in California, discusses how a patient’s self-view may differ from what they actually have gone through.
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Jacques Cousteau said, “We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one." Water enriched with hydrogen molecules, which has had positive results when used as treatment in Alzheimer’s disease as well as depression, is now being studied for potential treatment of neurologic pain and its...
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"Doing something as simple as reducing daily TV-watching time can have a profound effect on bodily pain trajectories that occur with aging,” states the principal researcher of an article in the BMC Public Health journal. Over 4,000 people in the Australian Diabetes, Obesity, and Lifestyle Study were...
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In this study, reported in Cureus, 92 patients were put into 2 groups based on whether their thoracic surgery was video assisted (VATS) or robotic assisted (RATS). All had operations anywhere from 6 months to 2 years before the study. Quality of life measures—pain/discomfort, self-care, anxiety...
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A retrospective review of high or mid thoracic vertebral compression fractures (VCF) examined outcomes after either high viscosity cement (HVC) vertebroplasty (VP) or low viscosity cement (LVC) balloon kyphoplasty (BKP) repairs. 114 patients in a single tertiary medical center were included. Outcome...