Fibromyalgia: Imaging Studies Find Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Reduces Pain Catastrophizing

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Jeungchan Lee, Ph.D.,
Instructor
MGH/HST Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical ImagingSpaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Charlestown, MA 024129

Jeungchan Lee, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow MGH/HST Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical ImagingSpaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Harvard Medical School Charlestown, MA 024129

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

Response: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has shown promise in alleviating fibromyalgia (FM) symptoms by targeting pain-related catastrophizing, which comprises negative cognitive and emotional processes amplifying pain perception.

However, the neurological mechanisms underlying CBT’s impact on pain catastrophizing in FM patients have remained unclear.

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Smaller Portions of Pain Relievers After ER Visits May Be Sufficient for Pain Relief

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Raoul Daoust, MD, CSPQ, MSc
Clinical Professor and researcher
Departments of Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine
Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal

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

Response: Usually patients are prescribed too large a quantity of opioids and unused opioids are available for misuse. The tendency in the USA is to not prescribe opioids at all, leaving some patient in agonizing pain. I wanted to provide a tailored approach to prescribing opioids so patients have enough to manage their pain but almost no unused opioids available for misuse.

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Unequal Access to Chiropractic Pain Relief Care for Back Pain in Patients with Opioid Use Disorder

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Patience Moyo, Ph.D
Assistant Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice
Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research
Department of Health Services, Policy, and Practice
Brown University School of Public Health

Patience Moyo, Ph.D Assistant Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research Department of Health Services, Policy, and Practice Brown University School of Public Health

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

Response: Clinical practice guidelines recommend nonpharmacologic treatments as first-line therapies for managing chronic pain. However, little is known about the use of guideline-recommended pain therapies and whether use varies in demographic subgroups. Individuals with co-occurring chronic pain and opioid use disorder deserve particular consideration because of their increased risk of harm from opioids and other pharmacologic therapies combined with their susceptibility to social and structural barriers to accessing health care.

We sought to understand whether the well-established racial and ethnic inequities in pain management extend to individuals with opioid use disorder and to nonpharmacologic pain treatments, specifically physical therapy and chiropractic care.

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Study Assesses Quality of Life After Cannabis Prescribed for Chronic Pain and Other Health Symptoms

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Margaret-Ann Tait | PhD candidate
Project Manager, The QUEST Initiative
Research Manager, Faculty of Medicine and Health
Sydney Nursing School, Cancer Care Research Unit
University of Sydney

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

Response: In 2016 Australia passed legislation that allows cannabis use for medicinal purposes. Since then, an estimated 800,000 patients have received medicinal cannabis prescriptions. We wanted to know if patients with chronic health conditions in Australia are reporting their health outcomes differently after being prescribed medicinal cannabis. We used validated questionnaires to assess their health-related quality of life, levels of fatigue, pain, sleep disturbance, anxiety, and depression before starting therapy and then at regular intervals for three months after. 

We had 2327 patients participating from across Australia aged between 18 and 97 (the average age was 51), and nearly two thirds were female. Half of our participants were prescribed medicinal cannabis for more than one condition, with chronic pain conditions reported more frequently, followed by insomnia, anxiety, and mixed anxiety & depression.

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Hypertension Drug May Decrease Both Inflammation and Need for Knee Replacement

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PainRelief.com Interview with:

Iskandar Tamimi MD, PhD
Hospital Regional Universitario de Málaga
Faculty of Medicine, University of Málaga
Hospital HM
Málaga, Spain

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

Response: Knee osteoarthritis is a painful and limitting condition that affects a significant percentage of the world’s population. The treatment of end stage knee osteoarthritis is a undergoing a total knee replacement. This procedure is considered a major surgery and it’s associated with a significant number of complications, such as infections, deep vein thrombosis, residual knee pain, etc,,

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Cannabis Use May Expose Users to Lead and Cadmium

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Tiffany R. Sanchez, PhD (she/her)
Assistant Professor
Environmental Health Sciences 
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

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

Response: We’ve known that the cannabis plant is good at accumulating metals, like lead and cadmium, and long-term exposure to these metals carry important health risks. What was unclear before our study was whether or not people who use cannabis actually have higher metal levels in their body compared to non-users.

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Gabapentin in Overdose Patients Not Necessarily the Cause of the Overdose

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Matthew S. Ellis, PhD, MPE
Department of Psychiatry
School of Medicine
Washington University in St. Louis

Kevin Xu MD, MPH
Instructor in Psychiatry
Co-Director, PGY2 Substance Use Disorders Rotation
Department of Psychiatry
School of Medicine
Washington University in St. Louis

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

Response: Gabapentin is one of the most commonly prescribed psychotropic medications, as it is used (primarily off-label) to treat a myriad of conditions, ranging from anxiety disorders and insomnia to chronic pain, seizure disorders, and substance use disorders.
This is even more true for individuals receiving treatment for opioid use disorder, who often have multiple physical and mental co-morbid conditions.

Unfortunately, it  has increasingly been found in people who overdose, causing physicians and policymakers to consider restricting access to gabapentin and tapering/deprescribing it in stable patients taking it in the long-term.

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Venous Embolism Risk Increased With Hormonal Contraceptions, Especially with NSAIDs for Pain Relief

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Amani Meaidi, Postdoc, MD, Ph.D.
Danish Cancer Society
Danish Cancer Society Research Center
Copenhagen

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

Response: Use of birth control formulations containing estrogen (combined hormonal contraception) is an acknowledged risk factor for venous thromboembolism.

NSAID use has also been shown to increase risk of thrombosis

NSAID use is likely to be the most common co-medication to hormonal contraception use – still, no study has looked at the effect of concomitant use of hormonal contraception and NSAID on venous thromboembolic risk.

Thus, we decided to study the thrombosis safety of using hormonal contraception and NSAIDs simultaneously. 

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Buprenorphine Prescriptions for Opioid Use Disorder Increased During Pandemic, with Regional Variations

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Zhi-Shan Hsu
Abigail Geisinger Scholar
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Scranton, PA.

Zhi-Shan Hsu MD Abigail Geisinger Scholar Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine Scranton, PA.

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

Response: The opioid buprenorphine is a mu and nociceptin receptor partial agonist and serves as an antagonist to kappa and delta receptors. These properties contribute to this medication being an evidence-based and first-line agent in Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) treatment. Brand names of buprenorphine include Suboxone, Zubsolv, Butrans, and Sublocade. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and continued annual increases in drug overdoses, modifications to payment, privacy, and licensing regulations that were designed to improve access to telehealth services have likely had an impact on prescribing practices of buprenorphine.

The objective of this study (1) was to expand upon existing knowledge regarding geographic disparities in the distribution and access to buprenorphine (2) as well as consider coinciding modifications to Medicaid, Medicare, and telemedicine regulations. Data was obtained from Drug Enforcement Administration’s Automated Reports and Consolidated Ordering System (ARCOS),(3) a comprehensive drug reporting system of controlled substances from their point of manufacturing to point of sale and distribution and also Medicaid and Medicare.

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Nerve Pathway Identified That May Mitigate Pain from Endometriosis

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Robert N. Taylor, MD PhD
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Investigator, Clinical and Translational Research Center
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
University at Buffalo

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

Response: Our laboratory has been interested in the hormonal modulation of endometriosis-associated pain for decades. This disease and its manifestations are multifactorial. In the current study we focused on the role of nerve growth factors and their receptors, interactive proteins that direct the growth of new nerves and allow their circuits to communicate to regions of the brain that sense pain.

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