New research evaluated the effect of depression on the cognition of fibromyalgia patients, finding that these patients have a distinct cognitive profile. Researchers note that emotional symptoms, such as depression and anxiety, are essential to the cognitive performance of fibromyalgia patients and that treating these symptoms may reduce cognitive impairment…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Solid evidence suggests that anticonvulsants provide no benefit for low back or lumbar radicular pain and a high risk of harm, researchers say. “We started the study because these drugs were increasingly being used for low back pain and radiating leg pain, without the support of strong evidence of effectiveness,” principal investigator…
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…
(Reuters Health)—Obese people with knee osteoarthritis (OA) may find greater symptom relief when they lose larger amounts of weight, a recent study suggests. Researchers examined data on 240 obese adults with pain from knee OA who were participating in an 18-month experiment to see how diet alone or diet plus exercise affected their health. Participants…
According to new research, knee OA patients reported greater pain relief from intra-articular corticosteroids, but naproxen was more effective at improving function…
After an independent review, ongoing clinical trials investigating the safety of fasinumab for treating hip or knee OA will discontinue the use of higher fasinumab doses…
Studying the way patients with knee osteoarthritis walk and changes to footwear are helping patients under the care of Najia Shakoor, MD, and colleagues take control of their pain and possibly delay disease progression…