PainRelief.com Interview with: David Andreu, PhD Professor of Chemistry Department of Experimental & Health Sciences Pompeu Fabra University Barcelona Biomedical Research Park Barcelona, Spain
Prof. David Andreu (right) Maria Gallo, (first author) Prof. Rafael Maldonado
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Background is the (earlier) finding of a cross-talk between CB1 and 5HT2A receptors (two GPCRs forming a heterodimer) that can be acted upon (disrupted) by peptides that allow to dissociate analgesic (CB1-mediated) from (unwanted) cognitive effects ( CB1/5HT2A heterodimer-mediated, memory impairment etc); this is reference 18 of our paper.
PainRelief.com Interview with: Youssef Labib PharmD Candidate University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy
Youssef Labib
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Compounded pain medication price data was gathered from over 30 community pharmacies for the sole purpose of directing our patients to both the most accessible and affordable compounding pharmacy.
A drastic variation in price was noticed and this report was published to comment on potential implications.
PainRelief.com Interview with: Erika A. Petersen, MD, FAANS, FACS Professor of Neurosurgery Residency Program Director UAMS Department of Neurosurgery
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Painful diabetic neuropathy is a common occurrence for patients with diabetes and can have a tremendous negative impact on their quality of life. Currently, the best available treatments include several types of medications and topical solutions, but there are many patients who do not achieve adequate pain relief or cannot tolerate side effects from these treatments. We need new options for patients who have tried the recommended first- and second-line treatments but still suffer with severe pain.
PainRelief.com Interview with: John Traynor, PhD Edward F Domino Research Professor Professor and Associate Chair for Research Department of Pharmacology, Medical School Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, College of Pharmacy University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI
Dr. Traynor
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Response: Morphine and related drugs acting at the mu-opioid receptor are the most effective treatment for moderate to severe pain, yet their use is limited by serious on-target side effects including respiratory depression, and physical and psychological dependence that has led to the opioid crisis. Current opioid drugs are required because our own endogenous pain relieving chemicals, the enkephalins and endorphins opioid peptides, cannot efficiently relieve pain.
We have discovered a class of drugs (positive allosteric modulators, PAMs) that bind to the mu-opioid receptor to enhance the activity of endogenous opioids. These “enkephalin amplifiers” afford pain relief in mouse models without the need for morphine-like compounds and do so with a much reduced side-effect profile.
Kao-Ping Chua, MD, PhD Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center Department of Pediatrics, University of Michigan Medical School Ann Arbor MI 48109.
Dr. Kao-Ping Chua
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Prior studies suggest that opioid prescriptions for surgical procedures are associated with increased overdose risk in patients. Additionally, studies suggest that opioid prescriptions are associated with increased overdose risk in patients’ family members, who often have access to patients’ opioids. However, studies have not specifically assessed whether opioid prescriptions for dental procedures are associated with increased overdose risk in patients and their family members.
PainRelief.com Interview with: Jim Whedon DC, MS Director of Health Services Research SCU Health System Southern California University of Health Sciences Whittier, CA
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Current evidence-based guidelines for clinical management of chronic low back pain (cLBP) include both pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches.
Both Opioid Analgesic Therapy (OAT and Spinal Manipulative Therapy (SMT) are effective treatments for cLBP and are provided under Medicare for older adults with cLBP, but the long-term safety of OAT is uncertain, and the dangers of opioid misuse are well known. Older adults are at particularly high risk of adverse drug events (ADEs),but they nevertheless receive more opioid analgesics than any other age group. SMT is established as an effective non-pharmacologic treatment for cLBP, but little is known about the safety of long-term treatment with SMT.The objective of our study was to compare SMT and OAT to determine the impact of SMT on the risk of ADEs among older adults receiving long-term care for cLBP.
PainRelief.com Interview with: Eric Roseen, DC, MSc Director of the Program for Integrative Medicine and Health Disparities Boston Medical Center Assistant Professor of Family Medicine Boston University School of Medicine
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: More than 80 percent of Americans will experience back pain at some point in their lives. Back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide, and disability and inactivity are generally associated with greater mortality. Women and older adults, and those that experience more severe or persistent back pain, have an elevated risk of back-related disability. We were interested in whether back pain, in general or in these potentially at-risk subgroups, is associated with mortality. Thus, we conducted the first systematic literature review and meta-analysis of the association of back pain and all-cause mortality.
PainRelief.com Interview with: Ana M Valdes MA PhD Professor in Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre – Research Area Lead Associate Editor European Journal of Clinical Nutrition School of Medicine University of Nottingham
Dr. Valdes
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Knee osteoarthritis and knee pain affect a large proportion of middle age and aging individuals and this are an increasing problem. Physical exercises aimed at strengthening and stabilising the muscles in the legs and hips are known to be highly effective in reducing pain and improving the ability to walk and get on with life. But a key challenge is how to deliver such gradual exercises in a way that does not require people to travel to see a physiotherapist or a doctor, particularly given the issues raised by lockdown both in terms of the Covid-secure challenges face to face visits and also given the strain that the pandemic has put on health services.
Our study was the first randomised controlled trial in the UK where we were had people with painful knee osteoarthritis either do only what their doctors normally recommend or, in addition, follow a programme of exercised developed in Sweden delivered via smartphone app. The research participants were assessed for knee inflammation, knee pain, pain sensitivity around the knee, muscle strength, and ability to walk and get up from a chair both before and after the 6 week smartphone delivered intervention (or a 6 week period simply following any advice they had from their family doctor).
PainRelief.com Interview with: Kao-Ping Chua, M.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center University of Michigan
Dr. Kao-Ping Chua,
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Persistent opioid use occurs when opioid-naïve patients prescribed opioids after procedures continue to fill opioid prescriptions well past the time that acute post-procedural pain typically resolves. Studies have shown that privately insured adolescents and young adults undergoing wisdom tooth removal are more likely to develop persistent opioid use if they fill opioid prescriptions after the procedure than if they do not. However, it is unknown whether these findings generalize to a broader variety of dental procedures or to publicly insured patients covered by Medicaid.
PainRelief.com Interview with: Janet Currie, PhD Henry Putnam Professor of Economics and Policy Affairs Co-Director, Center for Health and Wellbeing Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544
Janet Currie, PhD
PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: There has been a great deal of discussion and media reports of disrupted access to care because of the pandemic, as well as reports (including the most recent numbers from the CDC which were just released) about increases in drug overdoses linked to opioids.
We wondered how this might be related to changes in patterns of opioid prescribing and also the prescribing of buprenorphine for opioid-use disorder.
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