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Search results for: chronic pain

Pain Links Fibromyalgia & RA

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Many patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) report pain despite excellent control of inflammation with immunotherapies. Variable degrees of coexisting fibromyalgia (FM) may explain this disparity. RA patients who have the highest 2011 ACR FM survey criteria scores appear to share neurobiologic features consistently observed in FM patients. This study is the first to provide neuroimaging evidence that RA is a mixed pain state, with many patients’ symptoms being related to the central nervous system rather than to classic inflammatory mechanisms…

Spine Surgery May not Be Needed to Ease Back Pain from Osteoporosis

Lisa Rapaport  |  

(Reuters Health)—Patients with acute pain from osteoporosis damage to the spine don’t experience any more relief from surgery to inject cement into cracked or broken vertebrae than they would with a sham procedure, a recent trial in The Netherlands suggests. All of the patients in the experiment had compression fractures, which can happen when osteoporosis…

What’s Driving the Pain? Alternative Approaches to Pain Management

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Patients can experience many different types of pain, and some patients with chronic pain may believe that only opioids will help them. According to Kelly Weselman, MD, the best way to begin managing pain is to determine its root cause and communicate with the patient about the best approach(es) for decreasing their specific pain…

Balancing Opioid Addiction Risk with Pain Management Needs

Larry Beresford  |  

SAN DIEGO—During a session at the ACR/ARHP 2017 Annual Meeting Nov. 3–8, three representatives from the federal government described several of the government’s varied national strategies and agencies that are tackling pain. All of these strategies are affected by the current national epidemic of opioid overdoses and the need for safer analgesic prescribing. But the…

Persistent Pain Merits Better Access to Psychosocial Care, Group Says

Will Boggs MD  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—People with persistent pain need better access to psychosocial care, according to a position statement from the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM). “Psychosocial approaches to pain management need to be available for all individuals with persistent pain in all healthcare settings,” Dr. E. Amy Janke from the University of the Sciences, in…

Social Media May Help Chronically Ill Connect to Doctors, Fellow Patients

Mary Gillis  |  

(Reuters Health)—Social media groups that bring together patients, family, friends and healthcare providers can improve patients’ outlook and reduce their anxiety and depression, a recent U.S. study suggests. In a nine-month experiment with liver-transplant patients, researchers found that participants came to rely heavily on a closed Facebook group, both for information about their condition and…

Opioid Painkiller Prescriptions May Run in Families

Lisa Rapaport  |  

(Reuters Health)—When one person in a household gets prescribed opioids, the other people who live with them are more likely to get their own prescriptions for these narcotic painkillers, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers examined data on about 12.6 million people living in a household where someone was prescribed opioids and 6.4 million individuals in…

Infiltrating the Disc: Mast Cells & Back Pain

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Mast cells may become a therapeutic target for low back pain, according to new research. Researchers found mast cells can infiltrate intervertebral disc cells and play a role in their degeneration. Specifically, mast cells and the cytokine, IL-6, were both more likely to be found in painful intervertebral discs surgically removed from patients than in control discs…