(Reuters Health)—The risk that surgery patients will become chronic opioid users may be similar after minor procedures or major operations, a U.S. study suggests. Three to six months after surgery, new chronic opioid use was about 5.9% with minor operations and 6.5% with major surgery, the study found. The rate was just 0.4% in people…
Search results for: opioids
U.S. Senator Launches Probe into 5 Top Opioid Drugmakers
(Reuters)—U.S. Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill sought on Tuesday details from the nation’s top opioid drugmakers on their sales and marketing practices, as lawmakers step up efforts to tackle the country’s deadly opioid crisis. The Missouri senator’s investigation comes amid an epidemic of opioid addiction, with 91 Americans dying everyday as a result of overdose, according…
Would Legalizing Medical Marijuana Help Curb the Opioid Epidemic?
(Reuters Health)—In states that legalized medical marijuana, U.S. hospitals failed to see a predicted influx of pot smokers, but in an unexpected twist, they treated far fewer opioid users, a new study shows. Hospitalization rates for opioid painkiller dependence and abuse dropped on average 23% in states after marijuana was permitted for medicinal purposes, the…
Pain Management Research Sheds Light on Postsurgical Pain Sensitization, Opioid Risks, Nondrug Interventions
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Successful management of pain remains a challenge for rheumatologists. Five research abstracts presented at the 2016 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in a session titled Pain—Basic and Clinical Aspects offered new insights on pain sensitization, and the risks and effects of various pain therapies. Knee Pain After Surgery Can we predict which patients will have longer-term…
Prescription-Drug Monitoring Cuts Doctor-Shopping for Painkillers
(Reuters Health)—State programs that require physicians to check drug registries before writing prescriptions appeared to slash the odds of doctor-shopping for opioid pain relievers, a new study found. “Our study shows that prescription-drug monitoring programs are a promising component of a multifaceted strategy to address the opioid epidemic,” Ryan Mutter, one of the study authors,…
Don’t Reach for Pills for Most Chronic Low Back Pain
(Reuters Health)—People should try non-drug treatment options like massage or stretching for most cases of chronic low back pain before choosing treatment with over-the-counter or prescription drugs, according to new guidelines from the American College of Physicians (ACP). If the pain began recently, the guidelines recommend superficial heat, massage, acupuncture or spinal manipulation. If patients…
Updated EULAR Recommendations for Early Arthritis; Plus FDA Approves New Abuse-Deterrent Morphine Sulfate
EULAR has updated its recommendations for the management of early arthritis, outlining aspects of diagnosis and drug treatments…
Physicians Asked to Join AMA Efforts to Reduce Opioid Abuse
In 2014, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) was one of 25 healthcare associations invited to participate in an initiative by the American Medical Association (AMA) to reduce the public health epidemic posed by the abuse of prescription opioids.1 The AMA initiative is based on the belief that physicians are professionally obligated to participate in…
Liposomal Bupivacaine Helpful in Total Knee Arthroplasty
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Local infiltration of liposomal bupivacaine in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA) curbed use of opioids and antiemetics and appeared to be both beneficial and cost effective in a recent study. As Dr. Bryan Sakamoto told Reuters Health by email, the results “suggest that liposomal bupivacaine is effective as part of a…
Racial Bias Found in Pain Assessment, Management, Treatment Recommendations by Clinicians
In the world of evidence-based medicine, basing diagnosis and treatment decisions on belief instead of data seems anachronistic. And yet … clinicians are human, and humans live in culture, and culture is formed by beliefs, and beliefs (consciously or unconsciously) drive perception and, often, action. So a new study shining a light on racial bias…
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