Pain Management News & Features

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.

With opioid overdose deaths rising in the United States, the findings suggest addictive medications like oxycodone (OxyContin) or morphine don't have to be the first choice against crippling arthritis pain or chronic backache.

The research showed that a gluten-free diet may help reduce nerve pain in some people with gluten sensitivity.

The researchers found that length of time on opioids didn't affect people's success at reducing the drugs. Neither did the dose they took prior to the study.

Nearly all of kratom's major compounds bind to opioid receptors in the human brain, and two of the top five most prevalent compounds activate those receptors, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement.

Tamper-resistant opioid pills -- one attempt to curb prescription painkiller abuse -- aren't stopping overuse and overdosing, at least in Australia, new research shows.

The study of more than 1.5 million older Americans found that people were no more likely to visit the doctor with joint or back pain during rainy weeks than sunny ones.

When patients received a non-opioid medication called gabapentin before and after surgery, the need for continued opioid painkillers was reduced by 24 percent, said researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Nearly 92 million Americans used a powerful prescription painkiller in 2015, survey shows

Opioid Prescriptions Fall, But Still High: CDC

Doctors say it can treat intense pain, but patients should stay on the drug for shortest time possible

Sharpest declines seen in states like New York with strict rules for doctors

Over-the-counter drugs like Aleve and Advil linked to higher odds, researchers say

New technology stimulates a nerve in the neck to help ease the rare but painful syndrome

The new version of the opioid painkiller Opana was reformulated to reduce the risk of abuse

But degree of impairment tied to acetaminophen and ibuprofen was modest, researchers say

But custom-made foot orthotics might help, researchers report

But more patients prescribed powerful painkillers were still taking them 6 weeks later