Is a new class of painkillers on the horizon? | Science | AAAS
Scientists are chasing a new lead on a class of drugs that may one day fight both pain and opioid addiction. It ' s still early days, but researchers report that they ' ve discovered a new small molecule that binds selectively to a long-targeted enzyme, halting its role in pain and addiction while not interfering with enzymes critical to healthy cell function. The newly discovered compound isn ' t likely to become a medicine any time soon. But it could jumpstart the search for other binders that could do the job.Pain and addiction have many biochemical roots, which makes it difficult to treat them without affecting other c...
Source: Psychology of Pain - February 28, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
NYTimes: Lower Back Ache? Be Active and Wait It Out, New Guidelines Say
Dr. James Weinstein, a back pain specialist and chief executive of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health System, has some advice for most people with lower back pain: Take two aspirin and don't call me in the morning.On Monday, the American College of Physicians published updated guidelines that say much the same. In making the new recommendations for the treatment of most people with lower back pain, the group is bucking what many doctors do and changing its previous guidelines, which called for medication as first-line therapy.Dr. Nitin Damle, president of the group's board of regents and a practicing internist, said pills,...
Source: Psychology of Pain - February 14, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
Welcome to Pain Researcher
, a community forum for anyone involved or interested in the study of pain. The major purpose of this forum is to facilitate discussion around any and all topics related to the pain research. One important gap that this forum aims to fill involves the sharing of knowledge needed to properly execute pain studies such as detailed protocols, technical tips, tool development, methodological considerations, etc. It is these crucial details that determine the quality and validity of the findings of pain studies, and so we hope that giving a space to discuss such details will improve pain research globally.More ...http://for...
Source: Psychology of Pain - February 5, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
A Bright Future for Brain Imaging of Pain | Pain Research Forum
Irene Tracey, University of Oxford, UK, summarized the contributions of neuroimaging to pain research, and directions for future investigations, during"Translating Neuroimaging Discovery Science for Patient Benefit," a plenary lecture held at the IASP 16th World Congress on Pain, which took place September 26-30, 2016, in Yokohama, Japan. Her take-home message was that findings from neuroimaging will lead to a brighter outlook for patients suffering from chronic pain."The aim, ultimately, is to use metrics [discovered by imaging studies] to guide diagnosis and therapies," she said. Tracey called for neu...
Source: Psychology of Pain - January 24, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
I ’ve seen the opioid epidemic as a cop. Living it as a patient has been even worse. - The Washington Post
A year ago, I woke in the night with pain so severe I was crying before I was fully aware what was going on. A 50-year-old cop sobbed like a child in the dark.It was a ruptured disc and related nerve damage. Within a couple of months, it became so severe that I could no longer walk or stand. An MRI later, my surgeon soothingly told me it would all be okay. He would take care of me; the pain would end.After surgery, I never saw that surgeon again. A nurse practitioner handed me a prescription for painkillers — 180 tablets, 90 each of oxycodone and hydrocodone.I was lucky: I already knew how easily opioid addiction could d...
Source: Psychology of Pain - January 11, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
How much does it hurt? | Mosaic
One night in May, my wife sat up in bed and said, " I ' ve got this awful pain just here. " She prodded her abdomen and made a face. " It feels like something ' s really wrong. " Woozily noting that it was 2am, I asked what kind of pain it was. " Like something ' s biting into me and won ' t stop, " she said." Hold on, " I said blearily, " help is at hand. " I brought her a couple of ibuprofen with some water, which she downed, clutching my hand and waiting for the ache to subside.An hour later, she was sitting up in bed again, in real distress. " It ' s worse now, " she said, " really nasty. Can you phone the doctor? " Mi...
Source: Psychology of Pain - January 11, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
Snapshots of an Epidemic: A Look at the Opioid Crisis Across the Country - The New York Times
Opioid addiction is America's 50-state epidemic. It courses along Interstate highways in the form of cheap smuggled heroin, and flows out of"pill mill" clinics where pain medicine is handed out like candy. It has ripped through New England towns, where people overdose in the aisles of dollar stores, and it has ravaged coal country, where addicts speed-dial the sole doctor in town licensed to prescribe a medication.Public health officials have called the current opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history, killing more than 33,000 people in 2015. Overdose deaths were nearly equal to the number of...
Source: Psychology of Pain - January 6, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
How scientists are hunting for a safer opioid painkiller | Science News
An opioid epidemic is upon us. Prescription painkillers such as fentanyl and morphine can ease terrible pain, but they can also cause addiction and death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 2 million Americans are abusing or addicted to prescription opiates. Politicians are attempting to stem the tide at state and national levels, with bills to change and monitor how physicians prescribe painkillers and to increase access to addiction treatment programs.Those efforts may make access to painkillers more difficult for some. But pain comes to everyone eventu...
Source: Psychology of Pain - December 27, 2016 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
Pain News Network
is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, independent online news source for information and commentary about chronic pain and pain management. Our mission is to raise awareness about chronic pain, and to connect and educate pain sufferers, caregivers, healthcare providers and the public about the pain experience. We reach over 100,000 people (unique readers) each month.https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/ (Source: Psychology of Pain)
Source: Psychology of Pain - December 25, 2016 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
An opioid epidemic is what happens when pain is treated only with pills - The Washington Post
Too many opioids. Not enough opioids. Behold the opioid paradox.The United States is in the midst of a massive opioid epidemic, as The Washington Post and other news organizations have documented extensively. In 2015, more than 33,000 people died from overdoses of opioids, meaning prescription painkillers, heroin, fentanyl or any combination. That easily keeps pace here with fatal motor vehicle accidents and gun-related deaths.Certain states have been particularly affected. The Charleston Gazette just reported that opioid wholesalers shipped 780 million oxycodone and hydrocodone pills into West Virginia over a six-year per...
Source: Psychology of Pain - December 25, 2016 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
Brain's Support Cells Could Explain Mysterious " Spreading Pain " - Scientific American
In people who suffer from pain disorders, painful feelings can severely worsen and spread to other regions of the body. Patients who develop chronic pain after surgery, for example, will often feel it coming from the area surrounding the initial injury and even in some parts of the body far from where it originates. New evidence suggests glia, non-neuronal cells in the brain, may be the culprits behind this effect.Glia were once thought to simply be passive, supporting cells for neurons. But scientists now know they are involved in everything from metabolism to neurodegeneration. A growing body of evidence points to their ...
Source: Psychology of Pain - November 13, 2016 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
A New Study Tests Marijuana's Potential to Replace Opioid Painkillers - The Atlantic
Emily Lindley's stash of marijuana is going to be very, very secure.Lindley, a neurobiologist, is about to begin the first study ever to directly compare cannabis with an opioid painkiller (in this case, oxycodone) for treating people with chronic pain. She got a grant for this research two years ago, but it has taken that much time to meet all the requirements for working with a drug the federal government still considers highly dangerous.Before it's given to patients, the marijuana will be kept inside steel narcotics lockers bolted to the wall in a room with surveillance cameras and a combination keypad on the do...
Source: Psychology of Pain - November 12, 2016 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
Why painkillers sometimes make the pain worse | Science | AAAS
Mark Hutchinson could read the anguish on the participants' faces in seconds. As a graduate student at the University of Adelaide in Australia in the late 1990s, he helped with studies in which people taking methadone to treat opioid addiction tested their pain tolerance by dunking a forearm in ice water. Healthy controls typically managed to stand the cold for roughly a minute. Hutchinson himself,"the young, cocky, Aussie bloke chucking my arm in the water," lasted more than 2 minutes. But the methadone patients averaged only about 15 seconds."These aren't wimps. These people are injecting all sorts...
Source: Psychology of Pain - November 6, 2016 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
Placebos Can Work Even If You Know It's A Placebo : Shots - Health News : NPR
Placebos can't cure diseases, but research suggests that they seem to bring some people relief from subjective symptoms, such as pain, nausea, anxiety and fatigue.But there's a reason your doctor isn't giving you a sugar pill and telling you it's a new wonder drug. The thinking has been that you need to actually believe that you're taking a real drug in order to see any benefits. And a doctor intentionally deceiving a patient is an ethical no-no.So placebos have pretty much been tossed in the"garbage pail" of clinical practice, says Ted Kaptchuk, director of the Program for Placebo Studies and...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 27, 2016 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
Opioids: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
https://youtu.be/5pdPrQFjo2o (Source: Psychology of Pain)
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 27, 2016 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
