Pain News and Research

Latest Pain News and Research

Cardiac CT offers a better, cost-effective approach to diagnose low-risk chest pain patients

Using cardiac CT to diagnose low risk patients with chest pain is significantly cheaper - 44% less than the standard of care - and can decrease the length of hospital stay up to 20 hours, according to a study performed at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA.

23 Apr 2009

In-body stem cell therapy has enormous potential for bone injuries

Rarely will physicians use the word "miraculous" when discussing patient recoveries. But that's the very phrase orthopaedic physicians and scientists are using in upstate New York to describe their emerging stem cell research that could have a profound impact on the treatment of bone injuries. Results from preliminary work being released today, patients confined to wheelchairs were able to walk or live independently again because their broken bones finally healed.

23 Apr 2009

Many teens who smoke marijuana use it as a medication, not as a means of getting high

When legal therapies let them down, some teens turn to marijuana.

22 Apr 2009

Surgeon removes a diseased kidney through the belly button

A surgeon at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago is one of the first in the Midwest to use a new surgical technique that requires only one small incision to remove a diseased kidney.

22 Apr 2009

NSAIDs do not prevent Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia

A new study shows that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as the pain relievers ibuprofen and naproxen, do not prevent Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia.

22 Apr 2009

Lilly granted preliminary injunction to prevent launch of generic Raloxifene

Eli Lilly and Company has announced that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana today issued a preliminary injunction to prevent the launch of a generic version of Lilly's medicine Evista (raloxifene HCl tablets) by Teva Pharmaceuticals until the Court renders its final ruling.

22 Apr 2009

AcelRx starts cancer breakthrough pain program

AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that it has initiated a Phase 2 clinical trial of ARX-02, a proprietary sublingual sufentanil NanoTab product candidate for cancer breakthrough pain control.

22 Apr 2009

New Dengue virus discovery could lead to development of anti-dengue drugs

Doctors have no specific drugs to treat dengue fever, a viral illness spread by mosquitoes that sickens 50 million to 100 million people worldwide each year. Instead, the only treatments they can recommend for this painful and sometimes fatal illness (20,000 deaths globally each year) are fluids, rest and non-aspirin pain and fever reducers.

22 Apr 2009

First human study of pioneering 'cell bandage' technology

A company co-founded by Professor Anthony Hollander has raised over £1.6 million to fund trials, including the first human study, of its pioneering 'cell bandage' technology, which aims to save thousands of patients from the type of knee surgery that currently leads to premature osteoarthritis.

22 Apr 2009

'Silent' heart attack prevalence revealed with new imaging technology

So-called "silent" heart attacks may be much more common than previously believed, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center.

22 Apr 2009

Early treatment for hepatitis C offers a good chance of a cure

Australian researchers say as many as 70% of hepatitis C carriers can possibly be cured of the disease with early treatment - this is excellent news as hepatitis C, if left untreated can lead to serious liver disease.

22 Apr 2009

Anxiety increases pain intensity, disability

British researchers writing in The Journal of Pain , the peer-review publication of the American Pain Society, found that individuals with high levels of anxiety due to chronic pain exhibit more emotional distress and disability, but the use of pain coping strategies can mediate this effect.

21 Apr 2009

Study findings have implications for development of pain-relieving drugs

Morphine and other opioids are widely used to treat both acute and chronic pain – yet their benefits are often limited because some people experience side effects or do not respond to them efficiently.

21 Apr 2009

Repeated VR distraction reduces pain perception

Distraction through virtual-reality technology was found to reduce pain perceptions after repeated exposures in a University of Maryland study published in The Journal of Pain.

21 Apr 2009

New drug use screening tools for physicians

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, today unveiled its first comprehensive Physicians' Outreach Initiative, NIDAMED, which gives medical professionals tools and resources to screen their patients for tobacco, alcohol, illicit, and nonmedical prescription drug use.

20 Apr 2009

Brain manufactures proteins that act like marijuana

U.S. and Brazilian scientists have just proven that one of Bob Dylan's most famous lines - "everybody must get stoned" - is correct.

20 Apr 2009

Healthcare reform should start with paying evidence-based financial incentives to doctors

Healthcare Reform should start with "evidence-based reimbursement", structuring physician payment incentives around existing empirical evidence of clinical benefit, which would improve quality and reduce the cost of healthcare, says a commentary written by two cardiologists and published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes .

20 Apr 2009

Acupuncture relieves symptoms of xerostomia

Twice weekly acupuncture treatments relieve debilitating symptoms of xerostomia - severe dry mouth - among patients treated with radiation for head and neck cancer, researchers from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the current online issue of Head & Neck.

20 Apr 2009