| Article
Researchers from Texas A&M University are seeking to develop new drugs that alter the function of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain which, if successful, may result in new treatment options for conditions that include nicotine addiction, Alzheimer’s, and other memory disorders, as well...
| Article
A number of factors came together to facilitate increased prescribing of opioids and prescribing to more people using higher doses. There was a perceived under treatment of chronic pain. Laws and regulations were passed in many states to permit the use of opioids for that purpose, for which they...
| Article
As professionals, we’re always thinking about the patients we’re helping and we rarely think about ourselves. Sometimes we feel even a little guilty when we do. And yet, I like to remind everyone when you’re listening to the safety instructions from the flight attendant, she or he says ‘put on your...
| 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...
| Article
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...
| Article
A study reported in the American Journal of Orthopedics concludes that music therapy is effective in reducing postoperative pain in patients who underwent spine surgery. The research was conducted by a team from the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine and the Mount Sinai Department of...
| Article
Transformative care is a strategy to really improve the care for patients with pain. It basically means integrating training of patients with treatment of patients. Evidence-based treatments work very well, slightly above placebo, and work fairly well short term, but most patients don’t want to be...
| Article
I think it’s important for primary care providers or anyone taking care of chronic pain patients to realize that the central nervous system plays a very prominent role in pain processing. In many individuals, in whom we see that the central nervous system is amplifying their pain, the brain is also...
| Article
The challenge to prescribers seeking to manage their patients’ chronic pain while addressing the risk for opioid related adverse events has escalated with the increasing use of opioid therapy over the last 2 decades. A recent study by a team that included PAINWeek faculty member Beth Darnall, PhD...
| Podcast
As we acknowledge the recent increases in deaths and other negative outcomes associated with chronic opioid use, abuse, and overdose, we as clinicians are faced with very important questions: Can opioids be rationally prescribed for chronic pain? For whom? How? For how long? Recent CDC guidelines...