Pain News and Research

Latest Pain News and Research

Researchers have identified a new clinical syndrome

Researchers have identified a new clinical syndrome that produces serious and sometimes fatal symptoms in a variety of seemingly unrelated diseases. The syndrome, described in the April 6 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, is caused by hemolysis, the destruction of red blood cells.

5 Apr 2005

Endovenous laser ablation is a safe and highly effective treatment for a common cause of varicose veins

Endovenous laser ablation is a safe and highly effective treatment for a common but under-recognized cause of varicose veins -- reflux in a variety of veins collectively referred to as non-great saphenous veins -- according to results of a study presented today at the 30th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology.

4 Apr 2005

Study shows connection of varicose veins to chronic pelvic pain

Research presented today at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 30th Annual Scientific Meeting found that 16 percent of women with varicose veins in their legs simultaneously had ovarian varicose veins -- a common but often under-diagnosed cause of chronic pelvic pain.

4 Apr 2005

Pediatric use of complementary and alternative medicine

Insured pediatric and adolescent patients account for only a small part of total insurance expenditures for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) but are more likely to use these therapies if their adult family members also use CAM professionals, according to an article in the April issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

4 Apr 2005

Uterine fibroid embolization is effective treatment for uterine fibroids

Data presented today at the 30th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology found that the nonsurgical embolization treatment for uterine fibroids had a 73 percent success rate at five years.

3 Apr 2005

Chronic pain treatments more effective when taken together

People suffering from chronic, debilitating pain caused by nerve damage or disease report better pain relief at lower doses of a combined drug treatment than from either drug administered individually, a new Queen’s study funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) shows.

3 Apr 2005

Patch therapy provides similar pain relief as oral medications for patients with osteoarthritis (OA) knee pain

Researchers from the Altoona Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center have announced that data presented at the 24th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Pain Society suggest that patch therapy provides similar pain relief as oral medications for patients with osteoarthritis (OA) knee pain.

3 Apr 2005

Cannabis-based medicines given in a highly-controlled clinical environment unexpectedly lead to strong psychotic effects

Volunteers taking cannabis-based therapeutic drugs as part of a controlled trial, which had been approved by an ethics board as safe for the subjects, experienced psychotic effects just as strong as if they had smoked cannabis. These findings, highly unexpected in such a controlled environment, are published today in the peer-reviewed, Open Access journal BMC Psychiatry.

3 Apr 2005

Movie techniques, MRI/CT data combine with computer modeling of knee/patella to aid surgery

Take the kinds of movie techniques that allow animation with true-life action, throw in an anatomically-based muscle, ligament, tendon, bone and soft-tissue geometries dataset, and add individual patient MRI or CT scan data.

3 Apr 2005

First UK cases of previously rare disease reported in gay men

A previously rare disease has been reported for the first time in the UK, Lymphograunuloma venereum (LGV) is a genital/anogenital bacterial infection caused by a particularly invasive strain of Chlamydia trachomatis.

3 Apr 2005

New drug approved for treating endometriosis

Drug manufacturer Pfizer announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given approval for the release of depo-subQ provera 104 to be prescribed for the management of pain associated with endometriosis, a gynecological condition that affects one in ten women of reproductive age.

30 Mar 2005

Electroacupuncture can lower blood pressure

Dr. John C. Longhurst, director of the Susan Samueli Centre for Integrative Medicine at UC Irvine ,and researchers, have found that acupuncture using low levels of electrical stimulation can lower elevations in blood pressure by as much as 50 percent.

30 Mar 2005

CDC experts sent to Angola to help with Marburg epidemic

In an effort to control the Marburg virus outbreak in Angola, Health officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta will assist the World Health Organization by going to Angola to help with outbreak investigation, infection control and laboratory diagnosis of the disease.

30 Mar 2005

High-rise homes have the highest levels of cockroach allergens

Roaches like to live high in the sky in places like Chicago, New York City and the Bronx, according to a recent study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The study, conducted by an allergist affiliated with Children's Medical Center Dallas, found high-rise homes in Northeastern cities had the highest levels of cockroach allergens -- leading to a higher incidence of asthmatic episodes.

30 Mar 2005

Smack that bottom - it can cure everything !!

Russian scientists at the Novosibirsk Institute of Medicine are claiming a beating on the naked buttocks with a cane is the perfect way to cure everything from depression to alcoholism.

29 Mar 2005

Clinical study of mirror neurons provides insights into autism and other disorders

Seeing is doing – at least it is when mirror neurons are working normally. But in autistic individuals, say researchers from the University of California, San Diego, the brain circuits that enable people to perceive and understand the actions of others do not behave in the usual way.

29 Mar 2005

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) can successfully identify the characteristics of coronary plaques

A catheter-based imaging technology called optical coherence tomography (OCT) can successfully identify the characteristics of coronary plaques in patients with various cardiac symptoms. The report from researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) will appear in the journal Circulation.

29 Mar 2005

Benefits of lung cancer screening with CT questioned

Annual screening with helical computed tomography (CT) can help radiologists detect lung cancers at their earliest, most curable stage, but has not been shown to reduce mortality from the disease, according to a study published in the April issue of the journal Radiology.

28 Mar 2005

Marburg death toll in Angola now up to 122

Carlos Alberto, a spokesman for the Angolan health ministry, says the death toll in the Marburg hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Angola has now risen to 122, just one fewer than in the largest previous outbreak of the disease, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1998 to 200 and killed 123 of 149 people infected.

28 Mar 2005

Why it's important for older people to exercise

Researchers now have the physical evidence to show why it's important for older people to exercise. And it comes with the discovery that, in aging racehorses, regular aerobic workouts decreased the prevalence of muscle damage that can be caused by exertion.

28 Mar 2005