Pain Management News & Features

In a poll of medical marijuana patients in Michigan, more than half acknowledged having driven within two hours of consuming a cannabis treatment at least once during the prior six months. About 20 percent they had done so while "very high," while about half described being "a little high" while driving.

The list of states approving medical or recreational use of marijuana and CBD keeps growing. Thirty-three states have passed medical marijuana laws. Twelve states have enacted CBD-explicit medical laws.

Hundreds of clinics touting unapproved stem cell treatments have sprung up across the United States. But shoddy oversight may have led some hopeful patients to be seriously harmed, not helped, by these therapies, the FDA says.

Researchers said the findings add to evidence that for most people with chronic pain, opioids should be a last resort, if they're prescribed at all.

A study,of nearly 89,000 U.S. patients found that people given physical therapy for their pain were 7 percent to 16 percent less likely to fill a prescription for an opioid.

While formal research into the benefits of aromatherapy poses many challenges, some evidence does suggest that the alternative treatment may help relieve nausea, anxiety, various types of pain, and a number of other conditions.

A mountain climber from Maine is scaling rock walls again after having a new type of amputation surgery that eliminates the “phantom limb” effect.

An FDA advisory committee did recommend for approval of Dsuvia in a 10-3 vote last month.  But the committee's chair took the highly unusual move of voicing his opposition at that time. Dr. Raeford Brown, a professor of anesthesiology and pediatrics at the University of Kentucky, urged the FDA to reject the drug.

The company says there's a need for opioid pain medicines that don't require swallowing, because some patients have difficulty taking oral medication and may not have access to IV opioids. The FDA had earlier flagged two safety concerns.

The survey, of more than 500 patients scheduled for surgery, found that more than three-quarters expected to get opioids afterward. Most also thought opioids were the most effective treatment for post-surgery pain.

Chronic pain and high-impact chronic pain – the kind that keeps people from life’s daily activities – affect 1 in 12 Americans, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New research suggests that a good many back pain patients might find relief in a "dummy" sugar pill, eliminating their need for strong medication.

The researchers said there's been a sharp rise in opioid prescriptions in the past 20 years -- an increase that exceeds actual rates of pain in the population. It's possible that too often, opioids are being prescribed for conditions that don't warrant treatment with the drugs, researchers said.

In this study, researchers led by Dr. Emiko Petrosky from the U.S. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control analyzed data on more than 123,000 suicides in 18 states between 2003 and 2014.

AT-121 provided the same level of pain relief as a typical opioid, but at a 100-times lower dose than morphine, according to the research team from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Researchers found that most older Americans who are prescribed opioids aren't advised about the dangers of the drugs, how to use fewer of them, when to use non-opioid alternatives, or what to do with leftover opioids.

Nearly nine out of every 10 adults -- 85 percent -- believe that marijuana should be legalized for medical use, a new HealthDay/Harris Poll has found. And more than half, 57 percent, support the legalization of recreational marijuana.

The study included a 20-question survey of nearly 150 seniors who had used medical marijuana for chronic pain. The seniors had received their medical marijuana from dispensaries in New York or Minnesota.

Congress May Soon Make CBD From Hemp Legal June 18, 2018 -- Legislation that includes a measure to legalize hemp, rich in the compound used to produce numerous CBD oil products, made significant progress last week. The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee overwhelmingly endorsed the Farm Bill, known also as the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, by a vote of 20 to 1 on June 13.Although it’s a type of cannabis plant like marijuana, hemp does not produce the ''high" of THC. It’s often used in industrial products and also contains cannabidiol, or CBD; much more, in fact,

A driving force behind this is the growing effort to find a long-term replacement for opioids, an addictive painkiller that has plunged the country into an epidemic of death and addiction.

Sales of CBD products are expected to hit $1 billion by the year 2020, yet research into the marijuana-derivative's actual usefulness remains light. Advocates say it will cure what ails you. Some have doubts.

Opioid prescribing in the United States rose 350 percent between 1999 and 2015, and the rate of overdose deaths from both prescription opioids and heroin also increased exponentially during that time.

Last month, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel unanimously recommended approval of the CBD medication Epidiolex to treat two rare forms of childhood epilepsy.

The top five drugs in shortest supply are opioids like hydromorphone (Dilaudid), fentanyl and morphine, the local anesthetic bupivacaine, and the lifesaving allergy drug epinephrine, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) survey found.

Researchers found that pricey devices were generally no better than inexpensive store-bought inserts -- or any other "conservative" treatment -- when it came to managing plantar fasciitis.