UCLA To Host Global Chronic Pain Database - HDM Latest News Article
A new database at the University of California, Los Angeles, featuring hundreds of brain scans and other key clinical information will help researchers tease out similarities and differences between migraine, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and many other chronic-pain conditions, UCLA Health officials say.
The Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer Family Center for Neurobiology of Stress at UCLA will serve as the main hub for this new Pain and Interoception Imaging Network (PAIN); UCLA Health says it is the first-ever standardized database for brain imaging associated with chronic pain. So far, 14 inst...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 30, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
How A Wandering Brain Can Help People Cope With Pain : Shots - Health News : NPR
When some people are in pain, the experience is so intense that they can't think of anything else. But others can turn their minds elsewhere and feel better.
Why? The difference may be due in part to brain wiring, researchers say, and knowing more about how it works may someday make it easier to match people with effective pain treatments.
Prescription painkillers like Vicodin don't work for everyone, and alternative treatments like meditation or cognitive behavioral therapy work for some but not all. Right now, doctors can't tell in advance which pain treatment will work best for a patient.
The problem intr...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 30, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
'Chimera' protein could lead to drug treatments for chronic pain - ScienceDaily
Scientists have manufactured a new bio-therapeutic molecule that could be used to treat neurological disorders such as chronic pain and epilepsy.A team of 22 scientists from 11 research institutes, including Dr Enrico Ferrari from the University of Lincoln, UK, created and characterised a new molecule that was able to alleviate hypersensitivity to inflammatory pain.The work is featured on the cover of the October 2013 issue of the scientific journal Bioconjugate Chemistry.Dr Ferrari joined the School of Life Sciences in October last year from the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge,...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 30, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
New Wrinkle for Old Drug It’s not just for smoothing laugh lines. Botulinum toxin may have the potential to ease OA pain.| Arthritis Today Magazine
Widely used by doctors to soften forehead wrinkles and reduce uncontrollably sweaty armpits, researchers now are exploring botulinum toxin as a potential therapy for osteoarthritis (OA) pain.
Although botulinum toxin (Botox, Dysport, Myobloc) has been studied since the 1950s, recent studies on its use in osteoarthritis pain suggest it could be a new analgesic option for a group of patients that's been hard to treat.
"The Botox story is very intriguing," says David Felson, MD, professor of medicine and epidemiology at Boston University. "It isn't just muscles. It can paralyze nerves. Just like celeb...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 30, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Judy Foreman's pain book and blog
A Nation in Pain: Healing our Biggest Health ProblemJudy ForemanBased on interviews with hundreds of scientists and many hundreds of research studiesWritten in an informal, conversational tone, and accessible to anyone interested in painIncludes a thoughtful analysis of the politics of opioid and marijuana regulationExplores the many possible reasons for women's extra pain burden, including the complex role of estrogen, and the reasons why women receive inferior pain treatment,http://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-nation-in-pain-9780199837205?cc=us&lang=en&q=judy%20foreman&tab=reviewsVideo:http://www.yo...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 26, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
F.D.A. Urging a Tighter Rein on Painkillers - NYTimes.com
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday recommended tighter controls on how doctors prescribe the most commonly used narcotic painkillers, changes that are expected to take place as early as next year.The move, which represents a major policy shift, follows a decade-long debate over whether the widely abused drugs, which contain the narcotic hydrocodone, should be controlled as tightly as more powerful painkillers like OxyContin.The drugs at issue contain a combination of hydrocodone and an over-the-counter painkiller like acetaminophen or aspirin and are sold either as generics or under brand names like Vicodin or Lo...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 25, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
'Love Hormone' May Mediate Placebo Effect - MedPage Today
Intranasal oxytocin, sometimes called the "love hormone," intensified the painkilling effect of placebo in a clinical study, suggesting a physical basis for the placebo effect, researchers said.Among 75 healthy young men exposed to painful heat stimuli on their forearms in the randomized, double-blind study, ratings of a placebo cream's analgesic effect were greater after the participants received active intranasal oxytocin than when they snorted a saline solution, with a difference of 5.76 points out of 60 (95% CI 0.59-10.93, P=0.03), according to Ulrike Bingel, MD, of the University of Duisberg-Essen in Germany...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 23, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) > Public Meeting on Fibromyalgia Patient-Focused Drug Development
Public Meeting on Fibromyalgia Patient-Focused Drug DevelopmentOn December 10, 2013, FDA is conducting a public meeting on Patient-Focused Drug Development for fibromyalgia. FDA is interested in obtaining patient input on the impact of fibromyalgia on daily life and patients' views on currently available therapies to treat the condition.This website will be updated as registration and additional meeting information become available.Date: December 10, 2013 Time: 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Location:FDA White Oak Campus10903 New Hampshire Ave.Building 31, Room 1503A (Great Room)Silver Spri...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 23, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Brain treats rejection like physical pain say scientists - Science - News - The Independent
The human brain treats rejection in a similar way to the way it process physical pain, new research has suggested.A scientific study conducted by the University of Michigan Medical School has shown that the brain uses a similar reaction to ease the pain of social rejection as it does to deal with pain caused by physical injury.A team led by Dr David T. Hsu also found that people who showed high levels of resilience on a personality test also had higher levels of natural painkiller activation.When the body experiences physical pain, the brain releases chemical opioids into the empty space between neurons, which "d...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 17, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Congress Probes VA Painkiller Prescribing - MedPage Today
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill hammered the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for the way it handles pain management in patients during a hearing Thursday on the topic.Rep. Dan Benishek, MD (R-Mich.), chair of the House Veterans Affairs Health Subcommittee, questioned the VA's pain management approach, which places primary care providers at the center of care teams."As I know from personal experience, the multifaceted nature of chronic pain, particularly when multiple medications are being prescribed, should not be managed by primary care physicians but rather by a qualified pain specialist who is trained to understand t...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 17, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Graduate Certificate in Chronic Pain Management (online learning) | School of Physical & Occupational Therapy - McGill University
Chronic pain management is a major and growing challenge for patients, healthcare professionals and the global healthcare system. This certificate is an ongoing collaboration between the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy and the Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain to provide healthcare professionals with the most recent and relevant approaches and technologies for the care and management of chronic pain.An interdisciplinary approach is represented by the participants as well as by the educators of the certificate. By teaching evidence-based clinical practice with an interdisciplinary perspective, this g...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 14, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
When more medicine isn’t always better: High costs of unnecessary radiation for terminal cancer patients - ScienceDaily
For cancer patients dealing with the pain of tumors that have spread to their bones, doctors typically recommend radiation as a palliative therapy. But as in many areas of medicine, more of this treatment isn't actually better. Medical evidence over the past decade has demonstrated that patients with terminal cancer who receive a single session of radiotherapy get just as much pain relief as those who receive multiple treatments. But despite its obvious advantages for patient comfort and convenience -- and the associated cost savings -- this so-called single-fraction treatment has yet to be adopted in routine practice....
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 12, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Sensorimotor cortex reorganization: a ghost story | NeuWrite San Diego
Ugh … not again. The all-too-familiar pain appears in your hand. The muscles cramp and the crushing pressure mounts. Nothing you do alleviates the ache, and the longer it persists, the more intolerable it becomes. You try with all your might to unclench it, move it to any other position. But, as in those nightmares where you try desperately to run, but cannot coax your legs to move, your hand feels paralyzed – because there is no hand. The sensation is so real, so intense, yet its origin is but a ghost … a phantom pain.As surreal as the phenomenon may sound, phantom pain emanating from a lost limb is a genuine, debil...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 12, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Sex Matters in Migraines: Scientific American
Halos, auras, flashes of light, pins and needles running down your arms, the sudden scent of sulfur—many symptoms of a migraine have vaguely mystical qualities, and experts remain puzzled by the debilitating headaches' cause. Researchers at Harvard University, however, have come at least one step closer to figuring out why women are twice as likely to suffer from chronic migraines as men. The brain of a female migraineur looks so unlike the brain of a male migraineur, asserts Harvard scientist Nasim Maleki, that we should think of migraines in men and women as "different diseases altogether."
Maleki is kno...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 8, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
5 Things I Wish I Learned in Medical School about Managing Pain - HCPLive.com
With most medical schools devoting only a few curriculum hours to pain management training, many physicians begin their medical career underprepared to meet the needs of patients suffering with chronic pain. Here, Barry Cole, MD, identifies several key concepts that would help improve pain care in the US if only more physicians would learn about them sooner. Pain is highly variable, personal, and cannot be managed with "blanket" order sets. How much someone hurts with a painful condition is based upon past pain experiences, understanding of the present pain circumstance, expectations and outcome, and may be color...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 6, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
