Category Archives: Pain-Relief

CMAJ Study Evaluates Risk of Health Outcomes after Opioids Prescribed in ER

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PainRelief.com Interview with:

Dr. Innes

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.

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Better Pain Relief When Music Keyed to Patient’s Individual Rhythm

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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.

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FDA Approves JOURNAVX, First New Non-Addictive Oral Medication for Moderate to Severe Pain Relief

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Ashley Mahoney–
Vertex Spokesman

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.

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Study Identifies Link Between Depression and Menstrual Pain

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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

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.

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Mass General Study Evaluates AI Models of Pain Management For Racial, Ethnic or Sex Bias

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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.

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Mindfulness-Based Interventions Delivered via Telehealth Improved Pain and Well-Being Among People with Chronic Pain

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Diana Burgess, PhD
Director of the VA Advanced Fellowship Program in Health Services Research
CCDOR: Center for Care Delivery and Outcomes Research
Director of the VA QUERI Complementary and Integrative Health Evaluation Center (CIHEC)
Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Mindfulness is being aware and paying attention in a kind, non-judgmental way, to what is happening in the present moment. Mindfulness-based interventions teach people mindfulness skills, through a variety of practices, such as meditation and mindful movement. Although mindfulness interventions are evidence-based treatment for chronic pain and conditions that often accompany pain, like anxiety and depression, many MBIs are difficult to implement at scale in healthcare systems as they require trained mindfulness instructors, dedicated space and pose barriers to patients due to the time commitment involved. We wanted to develop MBIs that were relatively low resource, scalable and more accessible for patients. 

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Study Finds Sex Bias in Pain Management in Emergency Departments

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Mika Guzikevits
Doctoral Student
Prof. Choshen-Hillel’s Decision-Making lab
School of Business Administration & Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality 
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Although pain is one of the most common reasons for seeking medical help, providing adequate treatment can be challenging due to its subjective nature. When healthcare providers’ pain management decisions rely on subjective judgment, they are susceptible to biases.

PainRelief.com: What are the main findings?

Response: Our study, which analyzed over 21,000 patient records from the United States and Israel, found a significant sex bias in pain management at emergency departments. We found that female patients are consistently less likely to receive pain relief prescriptions compared to male patients with similar complaints (around 10% difference). This bias persists across different ages, pain levels, and physician sex, indicating a systemic issue. Female patients’ pain scores are less frequently recorded, and they spend more time in the emergency department than male patients. In a controlled experiment involving 109 nurses, we found that pain was rated as less intense if the patient was said to be female rather than male, which supports our hypothesis that healthcare providers are susceptible to stereotypical beliefs about women’s pain and expect them to act “hysterically” and exaggerate their pain reports.

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UNC Scientists Identify Specific Brain Circuits Mediating Placebo Pain Relief

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Grégory Scherrer, PharmD, PhD
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Depts of Cell Biology and Physiology, of Pharmacology
UNC Neuroscience Center

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: The placebo effect is a fascinating phenomenon where a person’s positive expectations can lead to real changes in their physical or psychological state, even without active treatment. A specific aspect of this phenomenon is placebo analgesia, where the expectation of pain relief results in an actual reduction in pain perception. Placebo analgesia demonstrates the intricate power of the human brain that can be harnessed for pain control. However, despite extensive research, the neural mechanisms underlying placebo analgesia remain largely unclear.

Our study aimed to explore the neural circuits mediating placebo analgesia, using an innovative mouse model to mimic the human placebo analgesia. By doing so, we hoped to uncover how certain brain regions interact to produce pain relief through expectation alone, potentially opening new avenues for pain control by manipulating these circuits.

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Experimental “bitopic” Opioid Suppresses Pain With Fewer Side Effects

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PainRelief.com Interview with:

Susruta Majumdar, PhD
Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology
Washington University School of Medicine
Nokomis Ramos-Gonzalez, PhD
Postdoctoral Trainee in the Majumdar Lab
Washington University School of Medicine
Balazs R. Varga PhD
Center for Clinical Pharmacology
University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy at St. Louis
Department of Anesthesiology and Washington University Pain Center
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, Missouri 63110

Jay McLaughlin, Ph.D
Professor of Pharmacodynamics
College of Pharmacy
University of Florida

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response:    Opioid medications tap into the body’s natural system for mitigating pain by activating pain-suppressing opioid receptors on neurons. Although meant to help, sometimes these medications do harm.  Opioid medications offer people relief from debilitating pain, but these drugs come with dangers: the risk for addiction, miserable withdrawal symptoms and the potential for fatal overdose.  New mechanistic insights into the function and regulation of the opioid receptors present the opportunity to design new, safer opioid painkillers. The team’s previous research utilized a strategy to design functionally selective “bitopic” opioids by targeting the sodium binding allosteric site in the opioid receptor.

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CMAJ Study Suggests Clinicians Adapt Opioid Prescriptions to Specific Types of Acute Pain

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Raoul Daoust MD CSPQ MSc
Professeur titulaire/ full professor
Département Médecine de Famille et Médecine d’Urgence
Université de Montréal
Clinicien chercheur / Clinician Researcher
Médecine d’Urgence / Emergency Medicine
CEMU-HSCM (Centre d’Étude en Médecine d’Urgence)
SCEM-HSCM (Study Center in Emergency Medicine)
Hôpital Sacré-Coeur de Montréal
CIUSSS Nord-de-l’ile

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Overprescribing is linked to opioid misuse and overdose, with household supplies of opioids associated with an increased risk of overdose as many people do not dispose of unused medications safely. In Canada, more than 7570 people died of opioid overdoses in 2021, and more than 68 000 people died in the United States in 2020 from these same drugs.

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