A comprehensive guide on chronic pain, its causes, symptoms, and effective management strategies to improve your quality of life.
Addiction to opioids often begins in the doctor’s office. These drugs are typically the only option to manage pain after an operation or in patients with serious injuries. They’re also frequently prescribed to patients with chronic pain, and it’s these patients who are most at risk for opioid addiction. Ted Price is an associate professor of neuroscience at the University of Texas at Dallas. His work focuses on the molecular mechanisms that cause pain to persist…
Fibromyalgia is a condition known as the widespread and state with debilitating pain. It results in a negative impact on an individual’s energy levels along with adverse effects on comfortable sleep. It is easy to appreciate the fact that why people suffering from fibromyalgia opt for all the possible treatments which might help them relieve extreme pain along with the sadness associated with it. Many individuals have been attracted to kratom strains for treating fibromyalgia,…
People who live with chronic pain need options beyond prescription opioids, and it’s up to the British Columbia government to provide more services such as physiotherapy, says the head of a group that supports patients and their families. “There has really been a lack of any appropriate response to chronic pain in our province and in our country,” said Maria Hudspith, executive director of Pain BC, the only non-profit society in Canada to bring together…
The Food and Drug Administration has just issued what’s called a “Medwatch Alert” warning that Epidural steroid injections or “ESIs” for back and neck pain can be extremely dangerous. The alert says: “Injection of corticosteroids into the epidural space of the spine may result in rare but serious adverse events, including loss of vision, stroke, paralysis, and death.” Epidural steroid injections – and catastrophic injuries from them – were the subject of my debut investigation for The Dr.…
If you aren’t on this medication, chances are you know someone who is. It’s used to treat everything from pain to mood disorders and can be just what the doctor ordered for many. But now, there is mounting research uncovering misuse of and even a black market for this popular prescription. We’re talking about gabapentin. It’s approved for some types of seizures and nerve pain. Doctors also use it off-label to treat everything from insomnia…
We have received so many complaints about duloxetine side effects that we have lost count. Far more disturbing is the number of people who tell us how hard it is to discontinue this drug. Decades ago doctors might have told patients taking a drug like Cymbalta that if they experienced anxiety, irritability, or strange sensations after stopping the drug, it was probably their underlying psychological problem returning. Now we know it is withdrawal from the medicine.…
You’re Getting Older As you age, your cartilage — the spongy material that protects the ends of your bones — begins to dry out and stiffen. Your body also makes less synovial fluid, the stuff that acts like oil to keep your joints moving smoothly. The result: Your joints may not move as freely as they used to. It sounds a little crazy, but the best thing you can do is keep on trucking. Synovial…
A research project focused on developing an objective measure of pain-related interference with cognitive performance in people with fibromyalgia is one of three awarded research grants recently by Purdue Pharma. An independent steering committee oversaw the competition and selection of the three recipients of Purdue’s research grants to study chronic pain and the assessment of pain. Robert R. Edwards, Ph.D., of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, will lead the project…
Shoulder pain is really just pain in the joints and muscles in the shoulder area that may or may not limit what your arm can do. Much of this pain originates in the tissues and bones in the shoulder, and you might also only feel the pain in the middle of physical activity or when you move your arms. Other times you might feel pain in your shoulder nonstop. There are multiple questions you probably…
Fibromyalgia, a widely misunderstood illness, confuses and frustrates both patients and doctors alike. I know because I’ve seen it from both sides—as both a physician and a woman with the illness myself. This common chronic disease is characterized by widespread muscle pain, fatigue, and brain fog. It’s estimated that 5 million Americans currently suffer from the disorder, and close to 90 percent of those diagnosed are women. Still, there remains a lot of confusion about what the…