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Treating chronic pain as a disease in its own right
A conference being held in Dublin this week will focus on chronic pain as ‘a disease in its own right’
Most people and even most doctors have trouble understanding pain as being anything other than a symptom of an illness. It was always understood that pain was a manifestation of an underlying condition and not a condition in itself.
That notion is slowly changing as doctors come to realize that chronic pain, mostly located in the lower back, is a medical condition itself. Other forms of chronic pain can be headaches lapsing into migraine, pains in the bones and pains in the stomach. It is a function of a poorly designed nervous system.
The classification of chronic pain as a disease in its own right is the theme of a conference taking place Thursday-Saturday in the Convention Centre Dublin. Entitled Chronic Pain – A disease in its own right and a major healthcare problem, it amounts to an attempt by specialists to raise awareness among the public about the status of chronic pain as a condition.
Full story of chronic pain as a disease at Irish Times
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Dr. Baremboym: Dealing with chronic neck pain
We’ve all experienced neck pain at some point in our lives. A crick in the neck is a catch-all term that’s usually described after you waking up from sleeping on the wrong side of the bed, with your head in a weird position and a stiff neck, or using a computer for several hours without a break, or abrupt neck movements.
We’re all familiar with the dull ache that accompanies neck pain, and the sharp stab of pain that comes with sudden movements. There are many causes of neck pain because many diseases and conditions that affect the vertebrae and intervertebral disc, neck muscles, arteries, veins, lymph glands, thyroid gland, parathyroid glands, esophagus, larynx, trachea, etc.
However, sometimes certain people have to endure chronic neck pain every day at almost every neck movement.
Chronic neck pain can come from numbers of disorders and diseases that may affect any tissue or bone located in the neck or near it, degenerative disc disease, neck strain, whiplash, a herniated disc, or a pinched nerve.
Full story of chronic neck pain at New Jersey On-Line
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Three Alternative Solutions for Chronic Pain
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) millions of Americans suffer from chronic pain. Pain lasting more than 24 hours is reported to affect one-quarter of American adults and is the second most common reason people seek out a doctor.
Pain is considered chronic if it persists for six months or longer. Chronic pain often continues in spite of conventional drug treatment. Drugs prescribed to reduce pain also have severe side effects. Current research reports that alternative therapies such as yoga, acupuncture, and medical marijuana (cannabis) can offer natural relief from chronic pain.
Though controversial, medical marijuana use has been approved in 18 states and Washington D.C. In November 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize marijuana for recreational use.
Yoga Helps Relieve Chronic Pain
A small but significant study from Texas Tech University found that yoga and meditation can help relieve chronic pain. Researchers from Texas Tech University Pain Center followed 67 chronic pain patients participating in the yoga and meditation program, in addition to medical treatment.
Full story of solutions for chronic pain at Huffington Post
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Men taking long-acting chronic pain meds 5xs more likely to have low testosterone levels
Low testosterone levels occur five times more often among men who take long-acting instead of short-acting opioids for chronic pain, according to a new Kaiser Permanente study published in The Clinical Journal of Pain.
While it has been known that opioids cause low testosterone in men, this study is the first to show a significant difference in risk between short-acting (immediate release) and long-acting opioids.
The 81 men in the retrospective study were between 26 and 79 years old (median age 51) and were seen in the chronic-pain clinic at Kaiser Permanente's Santa Rosa Medical Center (Calif.) between January 2009 and June 2010. All of the participants had been on a stable dose of an opioid for at least three months, and none had a previous diagnosis of low testosterone. A larger retrospective study of more than 1,500 male pain patients is currently under way.
"There's a large gap in the evidence base with regard to opioids," said Andrea Rubinstein, MD, of the Departments of Chronic Pain and Anesthesiology, Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center. "More safety and efficacy studies are needed. We need to know how we can prescribe these very useful medications in a way that brings the greatest benefits to our patients, without introducing additional risks."
Full story of pain meds and testosterone at Eureka Alert
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Chronic-pain patients at high risk of suicide
Two months ago, Gary Rager's girlfriend asked him to do the unthinkable.
The 44-year-old woman, who has suffered disabling pain for the past three years, asked Rager if he would help her end her life.
"I don't want to kill her, and I don't want to go to prison. But I don't want to see her suffer anymore either," said Rager, a 59-year-old Sanford sculptor whose work appears at area theme parks and public spaces throughout Orlando.
Such are the desperate measures that many afflicted with chronic disabling conditions — and those who love them — contemplate.
Some do more than think about it.
Like many patients in chronic pain, Karen Brooks has seen dozens of doctors over the past few years.
All take tests and discuss her physical health, but few have inquired about her mental health, said her sister, Michelle Brooks, of Maitland, who takes her sister to her doctors' appointments.
Full story of chronic pain and suicide risk at Orlando Sentinel
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Chronic neck pain patients show respiratory weakness
Chronic neck pain appears to be associated with impaired respiratory function due to weakness of the respiratory muscles, study findings indicate.
"Cervical muscle dysfunction and psychological influences appear to be the factors that are mostly associated with this respiratory function," say Zacharias Dimitriadis (Technological Educational Institute of Lamia, Greece) and colleagues.
They believe that respiratory function should therefore be included in the assessment and treatment of patients with chronic neck pain.
"This can lead to changes in clinical reasoning with potentially more optimal therapeutic outcomes for these chronic pain sufferers," they write in Manual Therapy.
The researchers compared Maximal Inspiratory Pressure (MIP) and Maximal Expiratory Pressure (MEP) in 45 patients with neck pain and 45 healthy individuals of similar age, height, weight, body mass index, and levels of physical activity.
Full story of chronic neck pain at News Medical
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Is Childbirth Linked to Development of Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain from childbirth is remarkably rare, according to a study from the January issue of Anesthesiology. Additionally, in a second study, researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, N.C., found the biologic changes after delivery may prevent the development of pain.
Childbirth is often associated with physical injury. Whether women deliver vaginally or through cesarean section, many experience unavoidable physical injury and may be at risk for the development of chronic pain. Researchers wanted to determine whether childbirth represents a major cause of chronic pain in women.
In the first study, 1,228 women were interviewed within 36 hours of delivery. Of these women, 76 percent successfully completed a telephone interview at two months, and, if they had pain, at six and 12 months after delivery.
Full story of childbirth and chronic pain at Science Daily
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Buddhist Meditations to Ease Chronic Pain
For several years now, I have been suffering from a chronic illness. Depending on the blood counts, it's either Systemic Lupus Erythematosus with Specific Immunodeficiency, or Specific Immunodeficiency with Autoimmune Features. What it really means is daily pain and fatigue and weakness.
Buddhism speaks directly about suffering. And it tells us we have a choice: to suffer or to do something to reduce that suffering. Buddhism gives me several tools to help cope.
One is "switching self and other." If I'm having a really bad day, I think about all the other people who are also suffering with this disease. And I think to myself, "May all their sufferings come to me, and my happiness go to them." The idea being that by taking on their suffering, I might lessen it for others. Now that isn't physically possible, but the idea is that I accept that suffering and it helps to burn out the karma of everyone with the disease. And it reminds me that I am not the only one suffering this way.
Full story of chronic pain at Huffington Post
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Study Finds ‘Firm Evidence’ Acupuncture Relieves Chronic Pain
As many as 3 million Americans receive acupuncture treatments, most often for relief of chronic pain. While there appears to be little consensus in the scientific community to its value, a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that relief offered by acupuncture is very real and should be considered as a viable option by the medical community .
Focusing on patients who reported chronic back and neck pain, osteoarthritis, chronic headache and shoulder pain, researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York conducted a six year, meta-analysis of data from 29 prior studies involving nearly 18,000 adults.
Study participants were randomly assigned treatment with acupuncture, standard treatments such as drugs and physical therapy, or “fake” acupuncture in which needles were inserted at points other than the traditional meridians.
Full story of chronic pain relief American News Report
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iPhone App From WebMD Helps People Manage Chronic Pain
Just days after Apple announced the iPhone 5, WebMD has introduced an application for the popular smartphone to help people manage chronic pain.
Called WebMD Pain Coach, the free app allows people suffering from chronic back pain to track their symptoms and set goals on how to manage their conditions. They can also share data with physicians on their progress.
Introduced Sept. 17, the app helps people manage chronic back pain, neck pain, nerve pain, migraines, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia (a chronic disorder consisting of widespread pain, tenderness and muscle and connective tissue stiffness usually associated with fatigue, headaches and sleep disturbances). The app also sends tips from physicians to users' iPhones on how to manage the pain.
More than 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, according to the Institute of Medicine of The National Academies, a nonprofit organization that advises the government and private sector on how to make informed health decisions.
Full story of apps help chronic pain at eWeek.com
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