NEJM: Study Recommends Hip Implants Be Fixed with Bone Cement

PainRelief.com Interview with:
Matthew Costa
Professor of Orthopaedic Trauma Surgery
University of Oxford 
Honorary Consultant Trauma Surgeon
John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford

Dr. Costa

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

Response: The number of patients sustaining a fracture of the hip is increasing rapidly as patients all around the world live into older age. It estimated there will be over 6 million hip fractures by 2050. Approximately half of hip fractures occur at the neck of the thigh bone (femur) and the majority of patients over 60 years with such a fracture are treated with a partial hip replacement in which the head of the femur is replaced with a metal implant (hemiarthroplasty).

There is controversy about how best to fix the hemiarthroplasty implant to the bone of the femur. If the implant is not securely bonded to the patient’s bone it can loosen causing pain and restricting movement and activities of daily living. This study was about the best way to fix the implant to the patient’s bone.

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Many Young Adults and Adolescents Vape Both Tobacco and Cannabis

PainRelief.com Interview with:
Ruoyan Sun PhD
Assistant Professor
School of Public Health
The University of Alabama at Birmingham

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

Response: Many people consider vaping as just nicotine vaping, but these vaping devices can be used to vape cannabis as well. We are curious about how many e-cigarette users are vaping cannabis. Using the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study from 2018 to 2019, we investigated the proportion of current (past 30-day) e-cigarette users (ages 12-24) who vaped cannabis and their frequency of cannabis vaping.  

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Identification of the Muscle-Relaxant Carisoprodol (Soma) and Non-Controlled Prescription Substances in Drug-Arrests

PainRelief.com Interview with:
Maaz Siddiqui, BS
Department of Medical Education
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Scranton, Pennsylvania

Maaz Siddiqui

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

Response: Over the last twenty years, the rise of deaths due to drug overdoses have been mainly and rightfully attributed to opioids. However, many investigations identify non-opioid drugs and drug classes that additionally contribute to deaths due to polysubstance overdoses. Through the Maine Diversion Alert Program (DAP) data, we examined drugs that often escape the attention of healthcare providers and directly or indirectly contribute to substance misuse, arrests, addiction, and deaths due to overdose.

The goal of this study was to utilize a novel dataset to uncover and identify the noncontrolled drugs that have shown potential to be misused.

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About 1/3 North Americans Self Medicate with Cannabis, Mostly for Pain

PainRelief.com Interview with:
Janni Leung, PhD
Senior Research Fellow
National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research (NCYSUR)
The University of Queensland

Dr. Leung

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

Response: There is increasing interest in cannabis use for medical reasons, and we want to find out how many people are using it and for what.

PainRelief.com:  What are the main findings?

Response: Almost 1 in 3 of North Americans self-reported that they have used cannabis for medical reasons, with higher use reported by young adults, although chronic conditions are less prevalent in this group.

Most common reasons were to help with pain, sleep, depression and anxiety, but some reported using it to manage their drug or alcohol use and psychosis.

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More Kids Poisoned by Cannabis Since Legalization

PainRelief.com Interview with:
Daniel Myran, MD, MPH, CCFP, FRCPC
Family and Public Health and Preventive Medicine Physician 
CIHR Fellow, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute 
Department of Family Medicine Innovation Fellow
University of Ottawa 

Dr. Myran

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

Response: Canada legalized recreational, or non-medical, cannabis in October 2018. Canada took phased approach to legalization initially only allowing flower-based cannabis products and oils and after one year permitting the sale of commercial cannabis edibles (e.g. THC containing candies, baked goods, and drinks). In this study we took advantage of this phased roll out of legal cannabis to understand the impact of legalization on cannabis exposures or poisonings in children aged 0-9 years and the contribution of different types of cannabis products to these events. 

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Risk of AMA Hospital Discharge High Among Patient with Opioid-Related Conditions

PainRelief.com Interview with:
Peggy Compton, RN, PhD, FAAN
Professor and van Ameringen Endowed Chair
Program Director, Hillman Scholars in Nursing Innovation
Department of Family and Community Health
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Dr. Compton

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

Response: Patients with substance use disorders are highly likely to leave the hospital against medical advice (AMA) or self-discharge, putting them at risk for poorer health outcomes including progressing illness, readmissions, and even death. Inadequate pain management is identified as a potential motivator of self-discharge in this patient population.  The objective of these secondary analyses was to describe the association between acute and chronic pain and AMA discharges among persons with opioid-related conditions.

PainRelief.com:  What are the main findings?

Response: The main findings were that 16% of the 7,972 admissions involving opioid-related conditions culminated in an AMA discharge, which was more than five times higher than in the general population. Self-directed discharge rates were positively associated with polysubstance use, nicotine dependence, depression, and homelessness. Among the 955 patients with at least one self-directed discharge, 15.4% had up to 16 additional self-directed discharges during the 12-month observation period. Those admitted with an acutely painful diagnosis were almost twice as likely to have an AMA discharge, and for patients with multiple admissions, rates of acutely painful diagnoses increased with each admission coinciding with a cascading pattern of worsening infectious morbidity over time. Chronic pain diagnoses were inconsistent for those patients with multiple admissions, appearing, for the same patient, in one admission but not others; those with inconsistent documentation of chronic pain were substantially more likely to self-discharge. 

PainRelief.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: These findings underscore the importance of aggressive and effective pain care in disrupting a process of self-directed discharge, intensifying harm, and preventable financial cost and suffering. Each admission represents a potential opportunity to provide harm reduction and treatment interventions addressing both substance use and pain.  

PainRelief.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this work?

Response: Future research should be aimed at evaluating approaches for effective pain management in patients with opioid related disorders.  These patients may present with high levels of opioid analgesic tolerance and opioid-induced hyperalgesia, suggesting that non-opioid analgesic approaches may be warranted to effectively manage their pain.  Regardless of the specific pain management approach employed, patients with opioid-related disorders should believe that their complaints of pain are taken seriously and managed aggressively to maximize duration of hospital stay.

Citation:

Compton, P., Aronowitz, S.V., Klusaritz, H. et al. Acute pain and self-directed discharge among hospitalized patients with opioid-related diagnoses: a cohort study. Harm Reduct J 18131 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-021-00581-6

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Acupuncture for Pain Relief: Insurance Coverage Increasing But Most Still Self Pay

PainRelief.com Interview with:
Molly Candon, PhD
Research Assistant Professor, Center for Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Care Management
Director, Associate Fellows Program, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics
Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania

Molly Candon, PhD Research Assistant Professor, Center for Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry Assistant Professor, Department of Health Care Management Director, Associate Fellows Program, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Candon

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

Response: Insurance design for pain care, including whether treatments are covered and how generously they are covered, is an important element of access and adherence. Acupuncture therapy is a safe and evidence-based treatment for numerous pain conditions, and our team was curious if acupuncture coverage has changed in recent years given the need for non-opioid treatments during the ongoing opioid epidemic. 

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Older Adult Black Men at Disproportionate Risk of Fatal Opioid Overdose

PainRelief.com Interview with:
Maryann Mason, PhD
Department of Emergency Medicine
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics,
Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois

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

Response: This study came about because we were looking at data for Cook County, Illinois and saw an increase in older adult opioid overdose deaths.  That made us wonder if there was a national trend or the observation was limited to our local area.  We undertook the research to determine that and found that it is indeed a national phenomenon.

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Total Knee Replacement: Outcomes by Age vs Co-Morbidities

PainRelief.com Interview with:
Juan Ignacio, Teves
Agustin, Garcia-Mansilla

Italian Hospital of Buenos Aires

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

Response: It is well known that the increased life expectancy of the general population leads to an increase in the number of prosthetic replacement surgeries in the years to come. A concern of patients who consult for this type of procedure is whether age alone is a risk factor for this surgery and the literature is not conclusive about whether age or comorbidities are more important in postoperative results.

For this reason, we decided to compare two series of patients, some older than 80 years and others younger, to determine whether or not age influences the result of total knee replacement.

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Migraine: Genetic Factors May Differ Between Men and Women

PainRelief.com Interview with:
Matthew S. Panizzon, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Psychiatry
Center for Behavior Genetics of Aging
University of California San Diego

Dr. Panizzon

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

Response: Migraine is a severe neurological disease that affects over 12% of the population.  Women are also much more likely to suffer from migraine then men.  Despite how common it is, the factors that contribute to migraine are poorly understood.

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