Neurobiology of Pain - Journal - Elsevier
Neurobiology of Pain is an international journal for the publication of basic and translational research on the mechanisms of acute and chronic pain. It focuses on experimental studies of pain mechanisms at every level from molecular and cellular to brain imaging and behavioural. The journal primarily publishes original basic and translational studies, but will consider clinical studies which address mechanistic aspects of pain based on experimental approaches in human subjects.The scope of the journal addresses all areas of pain neurobiology, including:Molecular substrates and cell signalingGenetics and epigeneticsSp...
Source: Psychology of Pain - June 13, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
Your mind can be trained to control chronic pain. But it will cost you - STAT
There was plenty to blame: the car wreck that broke his back. The job pouring concrete that shattered his spine a second time. The way he tore up his insides with cigarettes, booze, cocaine, and opioids.It all amounted to this: Carl White was in pain. All the time. And nothing helped — not the multiple surgeries, nor the self-medication, not the wife and daughter who supported him and relied on him.Then White enrolled in a pain management clinic that taught him some of his physical torment was in his head — and he could train his brain to control it. It's a philosophy that dates back decades, to the 1970s or even e...
Source: Psychology of Pain - June 8, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
NIH Releases Federal Pain Research Strategy Draft Research Priorities - American Society of Anesthesiologists
On May 25, the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC) and the Office of Pain Policy of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released draft Federal Pain Research Priorities, which were presented and discussed at a forum and public comment period on June 1. The forum immediately followed the Annual NIH Pain Consortium Symposium, where presentations highlighted multidisciplinary strategies for the management of pain. Following the open public comment period, written comments will be accepted until June 6.The Federal Pain Research Strategy (FPRS) is an effort to oversee development...
Source: Psychology of Pain - June 7, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
The opioid epidemic could be cured with virtual-reality worlds that let patients escape their pain — Quartz
"It's like a crawly feeling inside," says Judy*."You get hot, then chilled, and you feel like you want to run away." The 57-year-old has short dark-grey hair and a haunted expression. She's breathless and sits with her right leg balanced up on her walking stick, rocking it back and forth as she speaks.Judy explains that she suffers from constant, debilitating pain: arthritis, back problems, fibromyalgia and daily migraines. She was a manager at a major electronics company until 2008, but can no longer work. She often hurts too much even to make it out of bed.She's taking around 20 different ...
Source: Psychology of Pain - May 30, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
The Federal Pain Research Strategy - NIH
The Federal Pain Research Strategy is an effort of the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee and the Office of Pain Policy of the National Institutes of Health to oversee development of a long-term strategic plan for those federal agencies and departments that support pain research. A diverse and balanced group of scientific experts, patient advocates, and federal representatives identified and prioritized research recommendations as a basis for this long-term strategic plan to coordinate and advance the federal pain research agenda. The key areas of prevention of acute and chronic pain, acute pain and acute pai...
Source: Psychology of Pain - May 26, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
Even short-term opioid use can set people up for addiction risks | Science News
Even though a sprained ankle rarely needs an opioid, a new study of emergency room patients found that about 7 percent of patients got sent home with a prescription for the potentially addictive painkiller anyway. And the more pills prescribed, the greater the chance the prescription would be refilled, raising concerns about continued use.The research adds to evidence that it's hard for some people to stop taking the pills even after a brief use. State officials in New Jersey recently enacted a law limiting first-time prescriptions to a five-day supply, and other states should consider similar restrictions, says Kit De...
Source: Psychology of Pain - May 20, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
Pain in Animals Workshop 2017 – Creating a Research Roadmap for measuring chronic pain in dogs and cats
Despite recent advances, chronic pain is one of the most poorly understood, under diagnosed, and under treated medical problems facing veterinary medicine today. One of the most frustrating parts of chronic pain therapeutic development in veterinary medicine is the lack of validated methods to measure chronic pain in different species and diseases.In parallel, translational success has come under the spotlight. Numerous reviews have highlighted a lack of translation of basic research into new approved therapeutics for treatment of persistent pain in humans. The use of spontaneous painful disease in companion animals has be...
Source: Psychology of Pain - May 13, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
The ACTTION –APS–AAPM Pain Taxonomy (AAAPT) Multidimensional Approach to Classifying Acute Pain Conditions - The Journal of Pain
As a complement to a taxonomy recently developed for chronic pain, the ACTTION public-private partnership with the US Food and Drug Administration, the APS, and the AAPM convened a consensus meeting of experts to develop an acute pain taxonomy using prevailing evidence. Key issues pertaining to the distinct nature of acute pain are presented followed by the agreed-upon taxonomy. The ACTTION-APS-AAPM Acute Pain Taxonomy will include the following dimensions: 1) core criteria, 2) common features, 3) modulating factors, 4) impact/functional consequences, and 5) putative pathophysiologic pain mechanisms. Future efforts will co...
Source: Psychology of Pain - May 10, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
The opioid epidemic could be cured with virtual-reality worlds that let patients escape their pain — Quartz
"It's like a crawly feeling inside," says Judy*."You get hot, then chilled, and you feel like you want to run away." The 57-year-old has short dark-grey hair and a haunted expression. She's breathless and sits with her right leg balanced up on her walking stick, rocking it back and forth as she speaks.Judy explains that she suffers from constant, debilitating pain: arthritis, back problems, fibromyalgia and daily migraines. She was a manager at a major electronics company until 2008, but can no longer work. She often hurts too much even to make it out of bed.She's taking around 20 different ...
Source: Psychology of Pain - May 3, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
How a Single Gene Could Become a Volume Knob for Pain —and End America's Opioid Epidemic | WIRED
On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain? Would you say it aches, or would you say it stabs? Does it burn, or does it pinch? How long would you say you've been hurting? And are you taking anything for it?Steven Pete has no idea how you feel. Sitting in Cassava, a café in Longview, Washington, next to a bulletin board crammed with flyers and promises —your pain-free tomorrow starts today; remember: you're not alone in your battle against peripheral neuropathy! —he tells me he cannot fathom aches or pinches or the searing scourge of peripheral neuropathy that keep millions of people awake at night...
Source: Psychology of Pain - April 22, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
In pain? Many doctors say opioids are not the answer - Salon.com
Those of you who have experienced pain, especially gnawing, chronic pain, know that it affects your happiness, outlook and ability to function.In the past couple of years, the treatment of chronic pain has undergone an earthshaking transformation as opioid addiction continues to claim — and ruin — lives.Many primary care doctors no longer liberally prescribe opioid painkillers such as oxycodone, fentanyl and hydrocodone for back pain, migraines and other chronic conditions. Instead, they are increasingly turning to alternative medications and non-drug options such as acupuncture and physical therapy."Most primary ...
Source: Psychology of Pain - April 16, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
How the opioid epidemic became America ’s worst drug crisis ever, in 15 maps and charts - Vox
With all the other news going on, it can be easy to lose track of this fact. But it's true: In 2015, more than 52,000 people died of drug overdoses, nearly two-thirds of which were linked to opioids like Percocet, OxyContin, heroin, and fentanyl. That's more drug overdose deaths than any other period in US history — even more than past heroin epidemics, the crack epidemic, or the recent meth epidemic. And the preliminary data we have from 2016 suggests that the epidemic may have gotten worse since 2015.This situation did not develop overnight, but it has quickly become one of the biggest public health crises faci...
Source: Psychology of Pain - March 30, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
Chronic pain and depression are linked by brain gene changes | New Scientist
People who have chronic pain are more likely to experience mood disorders, but it's not clear how this happens. Now a study in mice has found that chronic pain can induce genetic changes in brain regions that are linked to depression and anxiety, a finding that may lead to new treatments for pain."At least 40 per cent of patients who suffer from severe forms of chronic pain also develop depression at some point, along with other cognitive problems," says Venetia Zachariou of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.To see if there might be a genetic link between these conditions, Zachariou and ...
Source: Psychology of Pain - March 27, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
Rapid Shift to Long-term Opioid Use After Initial Prescription - Medscape
Discussions with patients about the long-term use of opioids to manage pain should occur early in the opioid prescribing process," they advise in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of March 17.More ...http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/877354 (Source: Psychology of Pain)
Source: Psychology of Pain - March 19, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
NYTimes: How to Block Out Pain
Pain is a personal experience, and success comes from self-management, " says David Tauben, clinical professor in the department of pain medicine at the University of Washington. Respond to pain calmly — worry and fear activate the neural pathways through which pain travels and can amplify the sensations that cause it in the first place. Because pain has both mental and physical components, some researchers who study it combine psychology with the physical effects. " Be careful of negative thoughts and worrying, " Tauben says. " If it ' s difficult to control them, find a professional to help you, like a psychologist or ...
Source: Psychology of Pain - March 4, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
