Tag Archives: pain

NSAID Ibuprofen Arginate Provides More Rapid Pain Relief Than Standard Ibuprofen

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Dr. Perez Cajaraville MD EDPM
Clinical Director Pain Unit
HM Hospitales
Madrid. Spain

Dr. Cajaraville

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

Response: The addition of L-arginine to the molecule of ibuprofen, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), in the salt form of ibuprofen arginate has the rationale to enhance the absorption rate of the active S-(+) enantiomer of ibuprofen to achieve a rapid onset analgesic action. Despite availability of ibuprofen arginate in the market for many years, a comprehensive review of the evidence of the analgesic efficacy, tolerability and safety in different pain models has not been previously reported.

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Do NSAIDs Accelerate Progression of Knee Osteoarthritis?

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Dr Thomas Perry PhD| Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Versus Arthritis Centre for Sport, Exercise and Osteoarthritis Research 
Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology & Musculoskeletal Sciences

Dr Thomas Perry PhD| Postdoctoral Research Fellow Versus Arthritis Centre for Sport, Exercise and Osteoarthritis Research Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology & Musculoskeletal Sciences
Dr. Perry

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

Response: Management of knee osteoarthritis (OA) is multi-factorial and routinely involves the use pharmacological interventions; with most medications aimed at alleviating painful symptoms and improving function.

Little is known of the long-term effects of such medications on the structural progression of radiographic knee OA. Through examining the relationship between pharmacological interventions and the disease pathway, this may, in turn, identify potential areas for disease-modifying treatment development.

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Does Medical Marijuana Prevents Opioid Overdoses?

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PainRelief.com Interview with:

Daniel Kaufman, MS Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Daniel Kaufman

Daniel Kaufman, MS
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine

Brian J. Piper, PhD, MS
Department of Medical Education
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Scranton, PA 18510

Dr. Piper










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

Response: The opioid epidemic has stricken the United States and caused thousands of deaths nationally. Researchers continue to search for a solution to the ongoing escalation in opioid related deaths, with some states turning to medical cannabis as a potential alternative treatment for chronic pain. The objectives of this study were to:

  1. To determine if medical cannabis program implementation had any effect on opioid overdoses at a state-wide level
  2. To contribute to the discussion of researchers searching for a solution to the opioid epidemic facing the United States
  3. Begin the discussion on the standardization of autopsy procedures, including death/overdose determination
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Hand Arthritis: Supplement Did Not Provide Pain Relief

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Xiaoqian Liu
Clinical research fellow (Wednesday/Thursday)
Rheumatology Department| Royal North Shore Hospital
Institute of Bone and Joint Research | Sydney Medical School

hand arthritis

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

Response: Hand osteoarthritis (HOA) is a prevalent joint disease, causing symptoms in up to 10% of the general adult population worldwide. Hand pain is the most common symptom in addition to functional disability and decreased quality of life. Due to the modest effects and/or potential harms, current traditional treatment such as exercise, non-inflammatories and analgesics frequently do not meet patients’ demand. More and more people are turning to complementary and alternative medicines for pain relief.

In our previous work, we identified four dietary supplements with promising treatment effects for relieving pain which are Boswellia serrata extract, curcumin, pine bark extract and methylsulfonylmethane (MSM). The hypothesis was that combining these supplements to generate an enhanced benefit for people with HOA. The aim of the RADIANT study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of a 12-week course of this supplement combination in people with painful HOA who were confirmed with the diagnosis on their hand x-ray.

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Omega-3 fatty Acid Supplementation May Reduce Muscle Soreness After Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Yvoni Kyriakidou, BSc, MSc, RD, ANutr, AFHEA 
Dietitian-Sports Nutritionist
Doctoral Researcher in Exercise Physiology
Translational Physiology Research Group
School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, England, UK

Yvoni Kyriakidou

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

Response: Exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) results in transient muscle inflammation, strength loss, muscle soreness and may cause subsequent exercise avoidance. Omega-3 (primarily found in oily fish) supplementation may minimise EIMD via its anti-inflammatory properties. However, its efficacy remains unclear.

In our study, we gave people omega-3 capsules three times a day for four weeks to build up their levels, or a matching placebo. They then took part in a very intense exercise aimed at causing severe muscle pain and physiologically safe muscle damage. We then measured blood levels of inflammation and muscle damage markers, physical pain and the ability of the participants to do forceful muscle contractions every day for the next three days.

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High and Low Intensity Weight Training May Reduce Pain From Knee Osteoarthritis

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Stephen P. Messier, PhD
.B. Snow Biomechanics Laboratory
Department of Health and Exercise Science
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Stephen P. Messier, PhD .B. Snow Biomechanics Laboratory Department of Health and Exercise Science Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Dr. Messier

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

Response: Thigh muscle weakness is associated with knee discomfort and osteoarthritis disease progression. Little is known about the efficacy of high-intensity strength training in patients with knee osteoarthritis and whether it may worsen symptoms.

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Opioids Not Only Option for Pain Relief After Cesarean Delivery

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Cristina Wood, MD
Obstetric and Fetal Anesthesiologist
Children’s Hospital Colorado

Dr. Wood

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

Response: ​We all know that opiate abuse is a national crisis, but also is one of the top causes of maternal mortality in the state of Colorado. At the Colorado Fetal Care Center at Children’s Hospital Colorado, we wanted to see what we could do to reduce the need for opiate medications after cesarean delivery. We started by using wound soakers to reduce the opiate requirement and demonstrated an almost 30% reduction in postoperative opiate use. Then, when the Society of Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) published guidelines for Early Recovery

After Cesarean (ERAC), we incorporated these into our practice to determine if these interventions would decrease the opiate requirements further. We were so pleased to see that we could further reduce the opiate need for our moms postoperatively. In fact, we reduced it by approximately 80%, with 1/3 of our patients never taking a single narcotic medication after cesarean delivery. 

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Back Pain Relief: Skin Impedance Measurements Can Help Identify Trigger Points

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Giovanni Barassi PhD
Center for Physiotherapy, Rehabilitation and Reeducation
Center of Sports Medicine
“G.d’Annnunzio” University
Chieti, Italy

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

Response: Our research started with the observations made during standard clinical practice concerning the inefficiency of standard physiotherapeutic procedures used for pain relief in chronic nonspecific low back pain, a scourge of modern times, particularly in industrialized countries. Therefore, the need has arisen to search for new approaches in the evaluation and treatment of musculoskeletal problems.

Chronic low back pain is clinically manifest as the pain between rib margins and folds of the inferior gluteus muscle. It usually results from an incorrect lifestyle, typical of modern society having too little physical activity, too much psycho-physical stress, and poor management of body weight. On the background of osteopathic medicine, we developed a concept of the dysfunctional flow of body fluids as a plausible underlier of low back pain, referring by and large to spine bony structures.

It has been shown that alterations in afferent activity coming from visceral, structural, and emotional nociception converge in the same metamers of the spinal cord, resulting in information noise and jam. The final motor output of the reflex arc encompasses somatic, myofascial, and connective tissue responses, with the inevitably added influence of the autonomic nervous system. There also are studies demonstrating the importance of interpreting myofascial dysfunction, not as an isolated local phenomenon but rather as an expression of the central nervous activity. Therefore, a concept has been shaped of somatic and myofascial dysfunction, currently gaining increasing recognition among physicians, osteopaths, and physiotherapists, the professionals dealing with tissue and joint manipulation. The practical crux of the issue is the identification of the “major dysfunction” site, expressing the specific spinal information jam.

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No Decrease in Pain Relief With Less Opioids After Surgery

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Ryan Howard, MD
Academic Development Time Year 1
Resident, General Surgery
University of Michigan

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

Response: Opioids are commonly prescribed to control pain after surgery, but they also carry significant risks such as overdose, long-term dependence, and diversion into the community. While some have advocated for decreasing or eliminating opioids from postoperative pain control regimens, others are concerned that this would lead to uncontrolled pain and dissatisfied patients. To study whether that’s true, we compared two groups of patients undergoing the same surgical procedures. One group received “opioid-sparing” prescriptions after surgery and the other group received “normal-sized” prescriptions.

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Conditioned Open-Label Placebos Provide Pain Relief in Some Post-Surgical Patients

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Kristin Schreiber, MD, PhD
Neuroscientist and Clinical Regional Anesthesiologist
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Anesthesia
Harvard Medical School

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

Response: Traditionally, the placebo effect has involved deceiving patients, where they think they may be taking a real medication. “Open-label placebos” are when placebos are given to patients, and patient are told that they are in fact a placebo. Recent research has suggested that these open-label placebos may actually reduce a number of symptoms in patients, including chronic low back pain. We were interested whether this strategy could be used to help reduce pain and opioid use around the time of surgery. We decided to combine the use of OLP with a conditioning approach, so that anytime a patient took an opioid analgesic, they would take the open-label placebo, so that the OLP pills would be associated with pain relief. That way when patients took them on their own, it would serve to trigger an expectation of pain relief, which is thought to at least partially explain the placebo effect.  

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