Looking to the Future of Analgesics

For the last decade or longer, we’ve been talking about the challenges with opioids, and they are a challenging class of drug.  On the one hand, they’re great at treating severe levels of pain; they may be the only class of medicine that works for severe pain.  But there’s a lot of baggage...

A Major Advance in Therapy for Sickle Cell Disease

Researchers from UCF Benioff Children’s Hospital, Oakland, in collaboration with colleagues from other sickle cell centers report that Endari^TM, a pharmaceutical form of the amino acid L-glutamine, has proven effective in Phase 3 clinical trials in reducing the frequency of pain episodes associated...

Music Therapy for Sickle Cell Patients: An Alternative Pain Management

Improvisational music therapy was found to be an effective modality for the treatment of pain associated with sickle cell disease (SCD), according to conclusions from a recent study. The research, conducted my music therapist Samuel Rogers-Melnick, MT-BC, with University Hospitals Connor Integrative...

Building Brain Resilience Through Mindfulness Meditation

This presentation will focus on mindfulness meditation as an approach to building resilience and will highlight the speaker’s findings regarding the neural mechanisms whereby mindfulness might improve pain by building brain resilience. (Recorded at PAINWeek 2017)

Breathing: Not as Simple as We Think

Life and age and stress all contribute to human beings incorrectly doing the most basic, natural function: breathing. Anthony Whitney, a licensed mental health counselor and biofeedback specialist, explains why.

Denouncing Opioid Use...but What to Use Instead?

The hot topic with respect to practitioner groups is there seems to be a lot of denouncing of the fact that there’s too much opioid use and everyone is looking for ideas to minimize these opioids. But one of the top suggestions that people will consider is maybe nonopioid and nonpharmacologic...

Differential Diagnosis of Myelopathies

Myelopathie--spinal cord disorders--are associated with multiple medical conditions. Dr. Argoff provides an overview of the causes of myelopathy, and discusses differential diagnosis and options for treatment.

A Better Approach to Pain Management Following Knee Replacement

A study conducted at the Hospital for Special Surgery concludes that patient outcomes from total knee arthroplasty (TKA) may be substantially improved with a combination therapy consisting of peripheral nerve blocks added to routine periarticular injections. The investigative team reports that both...

Lost in Translation: Making Sense of Clinical Treatment Guidelines

This presentation will highlight common procedures used for pain reduction, their evidence base, and a basic description of how each procedure is performed. We will primarily review epidural steroid injections, facet joint blocks and denervation, sacroiliac joint injections and denervation...

Virtual Reality for Pain Management: Looks Good, But...

A review published in the February 26 edition of Clinical Journal of Pain surveys findings from clinical studies of virtual reality (VR) for pain management during medical procedures including chemotherapy, burn management, surgery, and dental treatment, among others. The authors conclude that...