Journal of pain & palliative care pharmacotherapy
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On September 13, 2007, the United States Food and Drug Administration posted a safety alert for fentanyl buccal tablets (Fentora). The announcement and hyperlinks to the Dear Doctor and Dear Healthcare Professional Letters that were distributed by the sponsor are presented.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jan 2008
Access to pain relief: an essential human right. A report for World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2007. Help the hospices for the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance.
In observance of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, October 6, 2007, the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance developed a comprehensive publication advocating access to pain relief as a basic human right. The British Charity help the Hospices distributed this publication, which describes the current state of pain relief in advanced disease throughout the world, availability and lack of access to opioid analgesics, clinical case examples of how pain can be managed, governmental and private initiatives and barriers to pain relief, and statistics to support the position that pain relief is a basic human right.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jan 2008
Randomized Controlled Trial of Acupuncture for Chronic Neck Pain.
Timely and important studies are reviewed and commentaries provided by leading palliative care clinicians. Symptoms, interventions, mechanisms of action, and treatment-related adverse events addressed in this issue are: acupuncture for neck pain, role of IL-10 in neuropathic pain, treatments for diabetic neuropathy, probiotics for antibiotic-related diarrhea, and risk of fatal drug poisoning with opioid analgesics.
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The various institutes and offices of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) publish a range of public information articles on pain and its management. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) updated its public information on chronic pain last august. That information is available to the public and clinicians will find it useful to learn what the information to which their patients have ready access via the World Wide Web. The most recent NINDS description of chronic pain is presented.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jan 2008
ReviewOpioid side effects and their treatment in patients with chronic cancer and noncancer pain.
Opioids are the foundation of standard analgesic regimens for moderate to severe pain due to life-threatening illnesses such as cancer, and are increasingly employed in chronic noncancer pain of the same severity. Opioids are frequently used for long periods in these populations, sometimes for years. However, side effects are common and may reduce quality of life, or become life threatening, and frequently cause patients to discontinue opioid therapy. ⋯ General management strategies include switching opioids ("opioid rotation"), discontinuation of concurrent medications that exacerbate side effects, and symptomatic treatment. In addition, recently recognized adverse events that occur after long-term opioid therapy are discussed. High-quality evidence is lacking for the treatment of most side effects, and the true incidence, underlying mechanisms, and clinical implications of long-term responses to opioid therapy are not yet fully understood.