Grant Innes MD Departments of Emergency Medicine and Community Health Sciences University of Calgary, Calgary Editor-in-Chief, The Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Opioid prescriptions for acute pain have been identified as a possible factor in opioid epidemic mortality. The proposed causal model is that physicians provide opioid prescriptions for acute pain, which lead to prescription opioid misuse followed by illicit opioid use, subsequent overdose and death.
This paradigm has driven widespread describing initiatives, including the elimination of opioids from emergency care (“opioid free emergency departments”), but there is no research describing the link between an opioid prescription for acute pain and downstream opioid-related harm.
Our objectives were to quantify for emergency patients filling an opioid prescription the likelihood of adverse outcomes as well as the incremental risk to opioid-treated patients vs. propensity-matched controls.
PainRelief.com Interview with: Mathieu Roy PhD Associate Professor, Dept. of Psychology, McGill University Canada Research Chair (tier 2) on brain imaging of pain
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: While it is well-established that music can reduce pain, the selection of music for pain relief has largely been based on intuition rather than scientific principles. This study aimed to investigate the role of tempo in music-induced analgesia, ie, pain reduction. Specifically, we hypothesized that a tempo matched to an individual’s spontaneous production rate (SPR)—the natural pace at which a person produces music through singing, clapping, or playing an instrument—would yield stronger pain-reducing effects.
Spontaneous production rate reflect the output of an internal neural oscillator, with frequencies that vary between individuals. Essentially, everyone has a unique internal rhythm. According to theoretical models of temporal dynamics, entrainment to music should be most effective when the external rhythm aligns with an individual’s SPR. Based on this, we predicted that music presented at a person’s SPR would optimize pain relief.
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings of the underlying studies?
Response: On January 30, 2025, the FDA approved JOURNAVX, a new medicine developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals which represents the first new class of acute pain medicine in more than 20 years. In our clinical trials, which were the largest double blind, placebo-controlled trials ever conducted in acute pain, JOURNAVX was shown to be effective, safe and well-tolerated. It led to clinically meaningful reductions in pain that were rapid and sustained, acting faster than placebo with fewer side effects than an opioid comparator and in many cases even the placebo arm. Based on its MOA and clinical/pre-clinical data we’ve seen to date, we also know JOURNAVX is non-addictive.
Given this combination of efficacy, safety and non-addictive potential, we expect JOURNAVX to become the first line prescription medicine for the treatment of moderate-to-severe acute pain. We’re excited to bring this medicine to patients and expect JOURNAVX will be on shelves in retail pharmacies within a month.
PainRelief.com Interview with: Christopher Williams PhD University Centre for Rural Health School of Health Sciences University of Sydney, Lismore Research and Knowledge Translation Directorate Mid North Coast Local Health District, Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Other research has linked unhealthy lifestyle habits to low back pain (such as being inactive, overweight, smoking and consuming a poor diet, or too much to low back pain). However, until our study we didn’t know if changing these lifestyle habits led to improvements in a person’s back pain disability.
PainRelief.com: What are the main findings?
Response: Our clinical trial found that focusing care on lifestyle had a slightly bigger impact on back pain related disability, weight, and quality of life compared to the current recommended physiotherapy treatment for back pain (advice to stay active and exercise). The results show that helping people understand how lifestyle habits contribute to back pain and supporting them to make changes to these habits is better than the current recommended care.
PainRelief.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: Managing back pain is about more than the (bio)mechanics of what is going on in your spine. There are lots of things that may affect how your back feels. Lifestyle factors – activity, nutrition, weight, smoking or alcohol use, and sleep – are some of those things. Any person dealing with back pain should expect to get some help to figure out how their lifestyle habits can improve their back pain, as part of a comprehensive back pain management plan.
PainRelief.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: There are many ways to support lifestyle changes related to back pain. We aren’t quite sure which are the best for different people, and the best way to support people with pain make such changes. For example, while digital or virtual ways of accessing care seem promising, we aren’t sure if these are more or less effective/cost effectives as traditional ‘in-person’ models of care.
Disclosures: The study was supported by funding the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.
Citation: Mudd E, Davidson SRE, Kamper SJ, et al. Healthy Lifestyle Care vs Guideline-Based Care for Low Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2025;8(1):e2453807. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.53807
The information on PainRelief.com is provided for educational purposes only, and is in no way intended to diagnose, cure, or treat any medical or other condition. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health and ask your doctor any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. In addition to all other limitations and disclaimers in this agreement, service provider and its third party providers disclaim any liability or loss in connection with the content provided on this website.
PainRelief.com Interview with: Prof. John Moraros Ph.D. Dean, Department of Biological Sciences, School of Science Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University Suzhou, Jiangsu, China; Institute of Population Health University of Liverpool Liverpool, United Kingdom
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?
Response:Across the world, women are twice as likely as men to experience depression, often with more severe physical symptoms. This difference is especially noticeable during their reproductive years and affects hundreds of millions of women. While links between mental and reproductive health are known, they are not fully understood.
In our study, we wanted to figure out the relationship and directionality between depression and menstrual pain (dysmenorrhea). It is kind of like trying to solve a very complex puzzle. Instead of doing experiments directly on people, we used a clever approach called Mendelian Randomization. This method works like nature’s experiment. It uses genetic data, like tiny instructions in our DNA, to see if having certain genes linked to depression also makes people more likely to have menstrual pain. This helps us find patterns and identify cause-and-effect without the need to test it directly on people. It is like looking for clues to see how the pieces of this complex puzzle all fit together.
PainRelief.com Interview with: Prof. Dr. Frank Huygen Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, the Netherlands
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a widely accepted therapy for people who have chronic pain that has been difficult to treat with conventional medical management (CMM) such as analgesics, physical therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Yet despite its clinical success, there is still debate about aspects of SCS therapy.
This systemic review and network meta-analysis aimed to improve upon prior evidence reviews by including more up to date randomized clinical trial data and using more advanced analytical methods. We evaluated the efficacy associated with SCS, including modern RCTs that compared novel forms of SCS compared to traditional SCS, or compared with CMM.
PainRelief.com Interview with: Hallie Tankha, Ph.D., Research faculty Department of Wellness and Preventive Medicine Cleveland Clinic, and first author of the study
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Numerous studies have highlighted the benefits of yoga for individuals with chronic low back pain, including reductions in pain intensity, improvements in daily functioning (such as walking or climbing stairs), and better sleep quality. However, these studies used in-person yoga sessions. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare delivery had to adapt quickly, and yoga was no exception. As virtual healthcare options continue to expand, this led us to wonder: could virtual yoga offer the same benefits as in-person classes for chronic low back pain?
PainRelief.com Interview with: Jooa Norha, MSc (Health Sciences), PT Doctoral researcher Turku PET Centre University of Turku, Finland
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The previous evidence linking sedentary behavior (or sitting to simplify) and back pain is surprisingly scarce. Therefore, we wanted to investigate whether reducing sitting could help with back pain among adults who sit for major parts of the day. And indeed, we did find that reducing sitting for about 40 min/day for six months kept back pain from worsening.
PainRelief.com Interview with: Benjamin Oldfield, MD MHS Vice President of Clinical Affairs Program in Addiction Medicine Department of Medicine Yale School of Medicine New Fair Haven Community Health Care New Haven, Connecticut
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Stricter opioid prescribing guidelines have been associated with more prescriptions of other (non-opioid) classes of medicines for pain, and particularly for chronic pain. Muscle relaxant medications (a class of medications that includes, for example, cyclobenzaprine, tizanidine, and others) have gotten very popular in the last several years.
By some measures, prescriptions for this class of medicines doubled between 2005 and 2016, and physician visits for continuing muscle relaxant medications tripled during the same period. However, this class of medications is generally indicated for acute pain, in short courses (not for chronic pain, in longer courses). So, we set out to analyze all the literature to ask—what is the safety and efficacy of this class of medications for chronic pain, in longer courses (1 month or more)?
PainRelief.com Interview with: Marc D. Succi, MD Strategic Innovation Leader | Mass General Brigham Innovation Associate Chair of Innovation & Commercialization | Mass General Brigham Enterprise Radiology Co-Director, Innovator Growth Division, Mass General Brigham Innovation Attending Radiologist | Mass General Emergency Radiology Assistant Professor of Radiology | Harvard Medical School Executive Director, Mass General Brigham MESH Incubator
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: This study investigates whether large language models (LLMs), such as GPT-4 and Google’s Gemini, introduce racial, ethnic, or sex-based bias when recommending opioid treatments for pain management. Existing literature highlights racial disparities in pain treatment, with Black patients often receiving less aggressive pain management compared to White patients.
LLMs, as AI tools trained on large datasets, may either perpetuate these biases or help standardize treatment across diverse patient groups. This study analyzed hundreds of real-world patient cases, representing various pain conditions, to assess if race, ethnicity, or sex influenced the LLMs’ opioid treatment recommendations.
The information on PainRelief.com is provided for educational purposes only, and is in no way intended to diagnose, endorese, cure, or treat any medical or other condition. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health and ask your doctor any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. In addition to all other limitations and disclaimers in this agreement, service provider and its third party providers disclaim any liability or loss in connection with the content provided on this website. None of the content on PainRelief.com is warranted by the editors or owners of PainRelief.com or Eminent Domains Inc.
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Senior Editor, Marie Benz MD.
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