News by Subject Medicine & Health

New Zealand media reports on chronic pain are focusing on treatments involving opioids and cannabis at the expense of best practice non-drug treatments, researchers have found.

Initial results from treating endometriosis in mice with cannabinoids suggest they can alleviate some symptoms of the disease, according to a new study in the open-access journal eLife.

A large, multicenter study led by researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) compared the genomic data of more than 100,000 people of European ancestry and discovered how relatively rare, albeit recurrent, genetic variations can influence a variety of common diseases. In addition, existing drugs could be repurposed to target these conditions now that the genetic underpinnings of these conditions are known.

A dMRI study suggested that structural strengthening of connections involving subcortical regions associated with pain processing and weakening in connections involving cortical regions associated with hyperexcitability may coexist in migraine. Also, migraine attacks may impose plastic adaptations in the brain.

The expansion of Medicaid coverage for low-income adults permitted by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was associated with a 6% reduction in total opioid overdose deaths nationally, according to new research from NYU Grossman School of Medicine and University of California, Davis.

Imagine living with unwanted sexual arousals, occurring unexpectedly and repeatedly, unrelated to any sexual desire or pleasure. That's the situation for women with a rare and disabling condition called persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD), according to a case series in PAIN Reports®, the official open-access journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

New research shows how second-degree burns cause hard-to-treat chronic pain, and this understanding may be key to treating these complications, common in war veterans This research, published in Physiological Reports, suggests that burns cause changes to neurons in multiple parts of the spinal cord, even far from the injury site, which can contribute to chronic pain and other long-term complications.

At a family medicine clinic in the Boston area, a team led by faculty from Tufts University School of Medicine conducted a five-year case study where they found medical facilities can help physicians to treat chronic pain in a way that will deter opioid misuse, while creating better processes to identify and treat patients who develop an opioid use disorder.

A review and meta-analysis found predictors of chronic migraine. Depression, high frequency attacks, medication overuse and allodynia increased the chances for new onset chronic migraine, while annual income -- US$ 50,000 showed a protective effect.