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Search results for: pain

Effectiveness of Steroid Injections vs. Placebo Evaluated for Knee Pain

Catherine Kolonko  |  

A two-year study among patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) showed that steroid injections for knee pain were no more effective than saline injections and actually reduced cartilage volume more than placebo. The study, conducted at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, looked at progression of cartilage loss and change in knee pain after treatment with placebo…

Sleep Therapy May Help Ease Knee Pain

Lisa Rapaport  |  

(Reuters Health)—Patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) and insomnia may be less troubled by joint pain after they get treatment to help them sleep better, a recent study suggests. Knee OA, a leading cause of pain and disability in older adults, occurs when flexible tissue at the ends of bones wears down. Although it can’t be…

Little Evidence Shows Cannabis Helps Chronic Pain or PTSD

Lisa Rapaport  |  

(Reuters Health)—Even though pain and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are among the most common reasons people use medical marijuana in the U.S., there isn’t much proof cannabis works for either one of these conditions, two research reviews suggest. That’s because there hasn’t been enough high-quality research to produce conclusive evidence of the benefits or harms…

Rheumatology Drug Updates: Opana ER Painkiller Pulled from U.S. Market; Upadacitinib to Treat RA, and More

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Opana ER Pulled from U.S. Market Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked Endo Pharmaceuticals to remove oxymorphone hydrochloride extended release (Opana ER) from the U.S. market due to public health consequences related to abuse. The agency has concerns that the risks presented by the treatment do not outweigh its benefits.1 On…

Glucosamine Supplements Don’t Help Knee or Hip Arthritis Pain

Carolyn Crist  |  

(Reuters Health)—Oral glucosamine has no more effect than placebo on joint pain, according to a new meta-analysis. The analysis of randomized controlled trials from which data have been made public found that at both three-month and 24-month follow-up points, the supplement had no effect on either hip or knee pain from arthritis. Even sub-groups, such…

Guidelines on Advice for Low Back Pain at Odds with Clinical Trial Results

Reuters Staff  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Advice is considered an effective treatment for acute low back pain (LBP), but neither clinical trials nor guidelines include adequate detail on what this advice should be, or how doctors should deliver it, according to a new review. And half of the advice topics included in guidelines were discordant with evidence from…

Mind-Body Techniques for Pain Management

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CHICAGO—Delia Chiaramonte, MD, associate director of education at the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, presented the newest thinking on pain to a gathering of rheumatologists at the ACR’s State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium in April. She began by explaining that pain is more than nociception. Nociception stimulates nerves to…

Being Active May Reduce Risk of Chronic Low Back Pain

Shereen Lehman  |  

(Reuters Health)—Regularly engaging in physical activity, from walking to intense exercise, may help to reduce the risk of chronic low back pain by, as much as 16%, according to a new review of previous studies. In the past, it hasn’t been clear whether physical activity staves off low back pain, or people without back pain…