Feature Channels: Pain

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Pain is the most common reason a patient sees a physician but few physicians have received adequate training to help their patients, according to a Henry Ford Hospital article published in the Journal of American Osteopathic Association. An estimated 100 million people in the United States are living with chronic pain, which accounts for up to $635 billion annually in health care costs and lost productivity. A 2011 study found that for every medical specialist, there are more than 28,500 patients with chronic pain.

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Pain is the most common and costly health problem in the United States, but allocations of public and private research dollars for pain studies lag far behind funding levels for several other diseases, which impact significantly fewer people and have far less economic impact. According to the American Pain Society (APS), just one percent of research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is dedicated to pain research, even though some 100 million Americans have chronic pain, as the Institute of Medicine has reported

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Funding for pain research remains at disproportionately low levels despite overwhelming evidence that untreated and undertreated chronic pain is the costing the nation more than $600 billion a year in medical costs and lost work time, and is expected to soar even higher as the population continues to age. Roger B. Fillingim, PhD, is president of the American Pain Society and an outspoken advocate for increased public and private funding support for basic science and clinical pain research.

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A new AACN Practice Alert, “Assessing Pain in the Critically Ill Adult,” provides evidence-based recommendations and supporting documentation on assessing pain in critically ill patients.

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Since spinal cord stimulation (SCS) was approved by the FDA in 1989 to treat chronic neuropathic pain of the trunk and limbs, word about the option is growing among primary care providers, specialists and patients -- including one advocate who found relief 12 years after the onset of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). Experts are addressing the question of how soon to offer SCS in CRPS.

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Patient care could be enhanced and the health care system could see significant cost savings if health care professionals followed published clinical guidelines to manage and treat back pain, according to researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and published in the July 29 issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.

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Management of back pain appears to be variable, despite numerous published clinical guidelines, according to a report published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

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The network of arteries supplying blood flow to the brain is more likely to be incomplete in people who suffer migraine, a new study by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania reports.

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An animal study in the August issue of Anesthesiology suggests that higher-frequency electric current stimulation of the spinal cord reduced pain quicker and better reached nerves not affected by traditionally used frequencies.

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University of Washington engineers have developed a device that tracks how much a person's limb swells and shrinks when inside a prosthetic socket. The data could help doctors and patients predict how and when their limbs will swell, which could be used to build smarter sockets.

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Researchers have developed a reliable way to use a finger-stick blood sample to detect fibromyalgia syndrome, a complicated pain disorder that often is difficult to diagnose.

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Data detail birth outcomes in difficult-to-treat population.

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Studies examine disparities in sociodemographics, headache-related disability, psychiatric, chronic pain and medical comorbidities.

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According to a study of physicians’ attitudes about pain drugs published in The Journal of Pain, negative physician attitudes about opioid medications are closely associated with lower rates of prescribing and more favorable attitudes are linked with higher prescribing levels.

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For treating the estimated 100 million Americans with chronic pain -- a population larger than those with heart disease, cancer and diabetes combined -- researched reported in The Journal of Pain shows that primary care physicians overwhelmingly prefer to prescribe non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDS), in accordance with published clinical practice guidelines.

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A single dose of the antibiotic ceftriaxone given for antimicrobial prophylaxis prior to surgery enhanced patient pain thresholds after the procedure, according to a study published in The Journal of Pain, the peer review publication of the American Pain Society, www.americanpainsociety.org.

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Testosterone therapy is associated with decreased pain perception in men with low testosterone levels related to opioid (narcotic) pain relievers (analgesics), a new study finds. The results were presented Monday at The Endocrine Society’s 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

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Adolescents can have chronic pain, just like adults. As patients, their parents and physicians search for solutions, there is one increasingly available option they should avoid, Mayo Clinic researchers say: medical marijuana.

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Reducing levels of nerve-growth factor may be a key to developing better pain treatments.

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Expert physicians and neuroscientists look to the future of "digital drugs," implantable devices for the treatment of pain. Exciting new options include focus on dorsal root ganglion; new frequencies of neurostimulation; and new devices for peripheral nerve stimulation.