Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Opioid analgesics are the drugs of choice for the treatment of moderate to severe acute and cancer pain. Although their role in the management of chronic pain not related to cancer is controversial, there is increasing evidence for their benefit in certain patient populations. ⋯ Wisconsin physicians who responded to this survey held many misconceptions about the prescribing of opioids. Such views, coupled with a lack of knowledge about laws and regulations governing the prescribing of controlled substances, may result in inadequate prescribing of opioids with resultant inadequate management of pain.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Safety and Efficacy of Dietary Agmatine Sulfate in Lumbar Disc-associated Radiculopathy. An Open-label, Dose-escalating Study Followed by a Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Trial.
Objective. Agmatine, decarboxylated arginine, was shown in preclinical studies to exert efficacious neuroprotection by interacting with multiple molecular targets. This study was designed to ascertain safety and efficacy of dietary agmatine sulfate in herniated lumbar disc-associated radiculopathy. ⋯ Dietary agmatine sulfate is safe and efficacious treatment for alleviating pain and improving quality of life in lumbar disc-associated radiculopathy. Study Registration. ClinicalTrials.gov Protocol Registration System Identifier: NCT00405041.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Comparison of cutaneous anesthetic effect of 8% lidocaine spray with lidocaine patch using current perception threshold test.
A lidocaine patch is often used for topical anesthesia prior to venipuncture, but needs to be applied for several hours before the puncture, and the site is fixed. A metered-dose lidocaine pump spray could be used to produce cutaneous topical anesthesia. In this study, we compared the anesthesia between the spray and the patch. ⋯ Similar to the lidocaine patch, the lidocaine spray produces cutaneous weak anesthesia at 30 minutes after treatment. The spray seems to produce local anesthesia faster than the patch.
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The aim of this study is to assess the discriminative value of all tender points, alone and in combination, that are designated as criteria for fibromyalgia diagnosis by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), by investigating the appropriate pressure magnitude that should be applied during tenderness examination. ⋯ Fibromyalgia syndrome can have potential to be recognized simply by pressing fewer tender point areas but with various pressure cutoff levels identified for each tender point areas.
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Most patients with advanced stage cancer report moderate to severe pain. The leech (Hirudo medicinalis) is commonly used in traditional medicine for relief of localized pain. ⋯ This is the first report indicating possible activity of leeches in cancer pain.