Pain News and Research

Latest Pain News and Research

NICE promotes use of dual-chamber pacemakers for treating bradycardia

In new medical guidance for England and Wales published today, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) promotes the expanded use of dual-chamber pacemakers for treating slow heart rhythms, called bradycardia, which affect an estimated 100,000 people in the UK.

23 Feb 2005

When breast augmentation or reduction cases are medically necessary

Traditionally, breast augmentation and reduction surgeries are defined by health insurers as cosmetic. It's a definition that often puts patients at odds with health insurers. Payers have difficulty deciding if breast augmentation or reduction cases are medically necessary.

22 Feb 2005

First study to explore the use of biofeedback as a complementary treatment to asthma medication

For the estimated 20.3 million adults and 6.3 million children in the U.S. who suffer from asthma, the primary treatment is the use of medications to help reduce the underlying inflammation in the airways.

22 Feb 2005

82 percent of women have at least one factor that puts them at risk for a future heart attack

In the second year of a Northern California-based survey conducted by Sutter Health on women and heart disease, results show that more women are aware of heart attack warning signs and the need to take action quickly.

21 Feb 2005

Better ways to heal and regenerate bones using microcomputed tomography imaging

Tissue engineers can choose from a wide range of living cells, biomaterials and proteins to repair a bone defect. But finding the optimum combination requires improved methods for tracking the healing process.

20 Feb 2005

New bone marrow model could help people with sickle cell disease

A new model showing how sickle cell blood cells operate within bone marrow is presented at a conference in Austria today. Researchers at Imperial College London, who developed the model, hope that it will eventually be used by clinicians to advance more effective treatments for sickle cell disease.

20 Feb 2005

Caution on cosmetic injections administered in non-healthcare settings

Local health departments in Northern Virginia, the District of Columbia and Maryland are investigating an outbreak of serious skin reactions among at least 16 women who have developed the condition after receiving cosmetic injections in October and November 2004.

17 Feb 2005

Nonsurgical microspheres an option for liver cancer patients

A study in February’s Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology found that patients undergoing liver cancer treatment with Theraspheres?, radioactive microspheres containing Yittrium-90, can tolerate a 150 Gy single dose or 268 Gy repeated dose without risk of radiation-induced liver disease.

17 Feb 2005

Are hormone therapy drugs safe?

The history of hormone therapy drugs – once thought of as almost magic pills to keep women healthy, vital and young – shows why it is so important to conduct research studies to identify the risks and benefits of drugs, say researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

17 Feb 2005

Early epidurals do not increase risk of Cesarean delivery

A study published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine by researchers at Northwestern Memorial Hospital refutes the popular belief that getting an epidural early in labor increases a woman's risk of cesarean delivery.

16 Feb 2005

New findings challenge one of the established views of how nerve cells communicate with one another

Every time we move, feel emotions, think or remember, the nerve cells, or neurons, in our body transmit messages to one another via chemical signals called neurotransmitters. Within neurons are tiny organelles called synaptic vesicles that sequester neurotransmitters and release them when needed into the synapse, or space between nerve cells, where the chemical signal is transmitted to other neurons.

16 Feb 2005

FDA approves medical laser for use in liposuction cosmetic surgery

Erchonia Medical has announced that their model Erchonia Neira 4L low-level laser is the first device of its kind to receive approval for use during liposuction by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

14 Feb 2005

Ebola virus outbreaks linked to infected wild animal carcasses

All recent Ebola virus outbreaks in humans in forests between Gabon and the Republic of Congo were the result of handling infected wild animal carcasses, according to a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and its regional partners

14 Feb 2005

Study sheds light on growing pains and growth spurts

The existence of growth spurts and growing pains in children may be perpetually evident to parents, but their cause has lacked scientific explanation. A new study by Emory University anthropologist Michelle Lampl, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison now sheds some light on this childhood phenomena.

13 Feb 2005

Ingestion of afterbirth appears to promote maternal behavior in mammals

A behavioral neuroscientist at the University at Buffalo holds that the ingestion of afterbirth by a mother, a feature of pregnancy in nearly all non-human mammals, not only relieves postpartum pain, but optimizes the onset of maternal behavior by mediating the activity of specific opioid activity circuits in the brain.

13 Feb 2005

Two-step approach to transform HIV into a cancer-seeking machine

Camouflaging an impotent AIDS virus in new clothes enables it to hunt down metastasized melanoma cells in living mice, reports a UCLA AIDS Institute study in the Feb. 13 online edition of Nature Medicine.

13 Feb 2005

People with severe illnesses and disabilities don't wallow in misery and self-pity

The researchers made their surprising finding by having 49 pairs of dialysis patients and healthy people report their mood every few hours for a week, using a handheld personal digital assistant (PDA) such as a Palm. The patients had all been in dialysis for at least three months, visiting a hemodialysis center three or more times a week for hours at a time to have their blood cleaned because their kidneys had failed.

10 Feb 2005

Sudden emotional stress can result in severe but reversible heart muscle weakness

Shocking news, such as learning of the unexpected death of a loved one, has been known to cause catastrophic events, such as a heart attack.

10 Feb 2005

Health risks increase in Guyana with leptospirosis

Leptospirosis has become a health concern in Guyana, as the number of cases continues to rise and 43 people were being treated for suspected cases of the bacterial disease, which is usually caused by exposure to water contaminated with the urine of infected animals.

8 Feb 2005

New way to assess the potentially damaging effects of prenatal drug exposure

Scientists have demonstrated a new way to assess the potentially damaging effects of prenatal drug exposure--a technique that could also be used to monitor a fetus's response to therapeutic drugs--using sophisticated, noninvasive medical imaging tools.

7 Feb 2005