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The mission of Pain Treatment Topics is to serve as a noncommercial resource for healthcare professionals and their patients, providing open access to clinical news, information, research, and education for a better understanding of evidence-based pain-management practices. Commercial advertising is not accepted.

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Pain Medicine News: Special Edition

This Special Edition of Pain Medicine News, available online, features a compendium of recently published educational reviews, including the following:

2009 Overview of Analgesic Agents
David Lussier, MD; Angela Huskey, PharmD; Pierre Beaulieu, MD, PhD; Russell K. Portenoy, MD; David Fishbain, MD, FAPA

Current Treatments for Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathic Pain
Louis Kuritzky, MD; George P. Samraj, MD

Fibromyalgia: Diagnosis, Pathogenesis, and Treatment
Cheryl Bernstein, MD; Dawn Marcus, MD

Anesthetic Techniques For Minimally Invasive Total Joint Arthroplasty
Scott S. Reuben, MD; Asokumar Buvanendran, MD; Commentary by Louis Kuritzky, MD

Recent Advances in Managing Chronic Low Back Pain
Bill H. McCarberg, MD; Gladstone C. McDowell II, MD

Methadone Analgesia: Balancing Risks And Benefits
Frederick W. Burgess, MD, PhD; Jayne Pawasauskas, PharmD, BCPS

Opioid Analgesics for Postoperative Pain
Asokumar Buvanendran, MD; Scott S. Reuben, MD

Percutaneous Vertebroplasty for Vertebral Compression Fractures
Paul J. Lynch, MD, DABA; Nicole E. Beradoni, MD

Go to the Articles at:

http://www.painmedicinenews.com/index.asp?show=specialed
(Free registration and login required. Access checked 12/27/08.)

FDA Web Page Provides Drug Safety Information for Patients, Healthcare Professionals

Consumers and healthcare professionals can now go to a single page on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's website to find a wide variety of safety information about prescription drugs. The web page, titled “Postmarket Drug Safety Information for Patients and Providers,” has links to information in these categories:

> Drug labeling, including package inserts;
> Drugs that have a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS);
> A searchable database of postmarket studies;
> Clinicaltrials.gov searchable database;
> Drug-specific safety information;
> Quarterly reports of drugs being evaluated for safety issues;
> Warning Letters, Import Alerts, Recalls, Market Withdrawals;
> Regulations and guidance documents;
> Consumer information about using medications safely;
> Instructions for report problems to the FDA MedWatch program;
> Consumer articles on drug safety.

Go to web page at: http://www.fda.gov/cder/drugSafety.htm

Persons interested in a specific drug may still find it easier to go to one of these pages at the FDA website:

Index to Drug-Specific Information:
http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/DrugSafety/DrugIndex.htm

Drugs@FDA site:
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/drugsatfda/index.cfm

(Access to FDA sites checked 12/26/08.)

Sponsor News...

Pain Treatment Topics provides news from our sponsors for the information and convenience of our audience and it is not intended for promotional purposes. This also should not be considered as an endorsement or recommendation of the products or services offered by our sponsors.

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What/Who are Pain Treatment Topics Affiliates?
These are associations, foundations, societies, journals, government agencies, educational institutions, and service organizations that are deemed to excellently serve the special interests and needs of the pain management community. By mutual agreement, Pain Treatment Topics affiliates or partners with such organizations for purposes of reciprocal promotion in order to achieve more effective and widespread communication of each organization's offerings and mission. There is no financial relationship or formal obligation binding Pain Treatment Topics and the Affiliate organization.

Watch for New Entries Here

Opioid Painkillers Sometimes Make Pain Worse, According to Evidence Review

This evidence-based review examines how ongoing opioid therapy for chronic pain can paradoxically worsen the pain in some patients, a phenomenon called Opioid-Induced Hyperalgesia or OIH. The differential diagnosis of OIH form other conditions – worsening disease, opioid tolerance, withdrawal, pseudoaddiction, or addiction – is described and strategies for avoiding or managing OIH, if it occurs, are recommended.

Download press release:   PDF

See the article <Click Here>

Vitamin D a Surprising 'Analgesic' for Chronic Pain

Helping patients to overcome their chronic musculoskeletal pain and fatigue syndromes may be as simple, well tolerated, and inexpensive as an extra daily supplement of vitamin D. A comprehensive Report and a shorter Practitioner Briefing review the clinical evidence and provide clinical guidance for healthcare providers. A special Brochure for patients explains what vitamin D is, how it works, and how it can help them. <Released June 2008>

Vitamin D Provides Relief From Chronic Back Pain, Report Says

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Aches? Pain? An Extra Dose of Vitamin D May Provide Relief

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See the documents <Click Here>

Telltale Signs of Severe Pain Separate Legitimate Patients from Drug Seekers

In this brief, ground-breaking paper, Forest Tennant, MD, DrPH, tells how uncontrolled severe pain can almost always be identified by objective physical signs that help practitioners to differentiate between drug-seekers and relief-seekers, as well as to determine if opioid dose is adequate. The fact is, he says, this sort of pain “usually produces more objective physical evidence of its presence than does the average case of diabetes or coronary artery disease. <Released June 2008>

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See the article <Click Here>

Sexual Dysfunction - A Common Problem With Opioid Pain Relievers; Treatment Helps

Sexual dysfunction is a common problem in patients with chronic pain. Ironically, considerable evidence suggests that long-acting opioids used on a daily basis for more than a month to help relieve chronic pain can have a number of adverse effects on human endocrine function leading to sexual dysfunction. This commentary by practitioner Stephen Colameco, MD, MEd, examines the causes and diagnosis of endocrine disorders related to opioid therapy. Recommended clinical approaches for the treatment of associated sexual dysfunctions are discussed. <Released April 2008>

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See the article <Click Here>

Safety Stressed in Updated Guidance on Methadone for the Relief of Chronic Pain

Essential guidance for practitioners on safely prescribing methadone for patients with chronic pain, along with special instructions for patients on how to avoid methadone adverse events or overdose, are available in two new documents exclusively from Pain Treatment Topics:

• “Oral Methadone Dosing for Chronic Pain”
• “Methadone Safety Handout for Patients” (in English and Spanish).

Both documents are available for free download. <Released March 2008>

Download press release:   PDF    MSWord

See the documents <Click Here>

Pain Patients Should Not Be Punished for Opioid Medication Abuse or Addiction

According to this special report -- Should Opioid Abusers Be Discharged From Opioid-Analgesic Therapy? by Peggy Compton, RN, PhD -- practitioners prescribing opioids for pain should be prepared to deal with patients’ problems in using the medicines. Patients should not be discharged from treatment if opioid abuse or addiction occurs. Instead, pain practitioners should continue treatment for pain while also playing a role in addiction treatment. Compton outlines specific steps for any healthcare provider to follow. <Released January 2008>

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See the report <Click Here>

Pain-Topics.org Offers Safety Tips for Avoiding Opioid Analgesic Risks in Patients With Kidney or Liver Disease

Patients with kidney or liver disorders often need opioid analgesics for effective pain relief. However, there is a risk of opioid overdose or other adverse events in these patients due to the possibility of altered drug pharmacokinetics and toxic accumulation of the parent opioid and/or its metabolites. This evidence-based report exclusively from Pain Treatment Topics provides a comprehensive list of clinical cautions and dosing recommendations relating to various opioids. <Released June 2007>

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See the report <Click Here>

Pain-Topics.Org Addresses Oxycodone Safety Concerns

The misuse and abuse of oxycodone have been of great concern. A special peer-reviewed report exclusively from Pain Treatment Topics provides guidance on the safe prescribing of immediate release (IR) and controlled release (CR) oxycodone. Additionally, patient instructions handouts in English and Spanish emphasize medication compliance and safety to help prevent accidental misuse and avoidable adverse events. <Released June 2007>

Download press release:   PDF    MSWord

See the report and handout <Click Here>

First-Ever Guide Available for Helping Patients With Intractable Pain

Pain Treatment Topics offers the new Intractable Pain Patient's Handbook for Survival to help those suffering the constant, severe, and disabling distress of intractable pain, or IP. This condition might be simply described as “chronic pain run amok,” and it afflicts up to 70,000 patients in the U.S., who often have difficulty receiving proper treatment. Until now, there has been little guidance for practitioners or patients in managing IP. And, since IP is often undertreated, this unique guidebook also is a “must read” for healthcare providers. <Released May 2007>

Download press release:   PDF    MSWord

See the handbook <Click Here>

"Taking the Pain Out of Pain Research"

Pain-Topics.org Featured in U.S. Pharmacist

"A recent Google search on the word 'pain' produced an astounding 190 million hits--a daunting amount of data for just about anyone to navigate, let alone harried physicians or pharmacists. This is the challenge that led to the creation of www.Pain-Topics.org, an evidenced-based pain management Web site designed as an unbiased clearinghouse of free-of-charge news, information, research, and education covering the causes and effective management of pain." <Released May 2007 [US Pharm. 2007;32(5):73]>

Download article PDF: <Click Here>

Report Tackles Methadone Analgesia Safety Concerns

Pain Treatment Topics identifies methadone as effective and safe; provides guidance on prescribing and patient-use for preventing methadone-associated overdoses and deaths.
<released November 2006>

Download press release:   PDF    MSWord

See the guidance report <Click Here>

Special Report Addresses Major Problem with
Opioid Pain Relievers

Constipation, a troublesome side effect of opioid analgesics, can be prevented and should be considered whenever these agents are prescribed. <Released August 2006>

Download press release:   PDF    MSWord

See the report <Click Here>

Pain-Topics.org: Bringing Order to Chaos in the
Pain Management Field.

New noncommercial website provides clinical news, information, research, and education for healthcare providers to help the millions of pain sufferers. <Released July 2006>

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