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JAMA Neurology reports findings gathered from over 2600 migraine sufferers, aged 18 to 65, from 4 randomized clinical trials. Researchers sought to determine whether erenumab would improve migraine frequency and lessen migraine medication need in those with and without aura. The study notes, “One or...
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The journal of Anesthesiology featured a special article in which a new concept is presented: a prescription opioid ecosystem. The need for this ecosystem stems from the “opioid paradox” that, even though the past 10 years has seen a drop in opioid prescribing of about 38%, deaths from opioids have...
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Does what you eat eventually impact the amount of medications you'll need when you’re older? Researchers investigated diets and medication amounts in 328 participants 60 years or older. Via questionnaires and measurements, the participants recounted what they ate, and the number of pills/medication...
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Results of a focus group brought to light the perspectives of 29 women (mean age 46 years) experiencing urinary tract infections (UTI). The results, reported in the Journal of Urology, identified 7 themes (below) in these categories: 1) the problems with taking antibiotics and 2) resentment towards...
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A letter published in the journal of Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy brings to light a potential new tool to combat chronic pain. Conolidine, used in traditional Chinese medicine, is a natural analgesic alkaloid that targets the atypical chemokine receptor ACKR3. Researchers say it offers...
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Children are not small adults. If drugs are first tested on adults, and they usually are, how do we know how much is too much for children? An article in Statistics in Medicine brings up these important questions for discussion. In it, researchers “propose a model based on a non‐parametric...
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Is placebo blinding necessary? It has been thought that patient blinding to a placebo was necessary for success. However, a study published in the journal Pain compared standard placebo treatment to an open-label, or “honest” placebo. The study, of patients with irritable bowel syndrome, had two...
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Threats. Harassment. Attacks. There have been reports recently about practitioners saying “No” to patients requesting opioids, and either being threatened or actually harmed. In Minnesota, five people were shot, and one killed, by a man who had been denied painkillers. A report in the Baltimore Sun...
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Newswise — A study comparing short-term outcomes of minimally invasive (MI) lumbar decompression surgery to MI lumbar spine fusion surgery found no statistically significant difference in the amount of time patients needed to return to work. Researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New...
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From the FDA:
CURE ID is an internet-based repository that lets the clinical community report novel uses of existing drugs for difficult-to-treat infectious diseases through a website, a smartphone or other mobile device. The platform enables the crowdsourcing of medical information from health...