Researchers have designed an artificial intelligence model that can determine whether lower back pain is acute or chronic by scouring doctors' notes within electronic medical records, an approach that can help to treat patients more accurately, according to a new study.
Merely a brief introduction to mindfulness helps people deal with physical pain and negative emotions, a new study shows. The effect of mindfulness was so pronounced, they found, that even when participants were subjected to high heat on their forearm, their brain responded as if it was experiencing normal temperature.
Researchers have discovered that a protein found in the membrane of our sensory neurons are involved in our capacity to feel mechanical pain, laying the foundation for the development of powerful new analgesic drugs.
How and where receptors touch at the surface of a cell may influence the strength of neuronal connections and contribute to identifying better medical interventions for pain, cancer other diseases.
About 80 percent of Americans will experience low back pain at some point. Patients are often advised to manage their back pain with exercise and mind-body interventions. But, do they really help? Researchers compared and contrasted yoga, tai chi and qigong, and found them to be effective for treatment of low back pain, reporting positive outcomes such as reduction in pain or psychological distress such as depression and anxiety, reduction in pain-related disability, and improved functional ability.
About 29 million Americans use over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to treat pain. Every year in the US, NSAID use is attributed to approximately 100,000 hospitalizations and 17,000 deaths. All of these drugs have benefits and risks, but deciding which one to use is complicated for health care providers and their patients. To assist in clinical decision-making, researchers address cardiovascular risks and beyond, which include gastrointestinal and kidney side effects of pain relievers.
Painful hypodermic needles may not be needed in the future to give shots, inject drugs and get blood samples. With 4D printing, engineers have created tiny needles that mimic parasites that attach to tissues and could replace hypodermic needles, according to a new study.
The fight against Urinary Tract Infection pain, discomfort and a constant urge to urinate has taken a step forward with scientists identifying how the immune systems defence against bladder infection causes nerves to magnify sensations felt by patients. Flinders University researchers at SAHMRI in collaboration with Griffith University on the Gold Coast, have analysed how the immune system responds to urinary tract infections and the direct link this response has to magnifying bladder pain.
Approximately one-quarter of patients who are prescribed opioids for chronic pain misuse them, with five to 10 percent developing an opioid use disorder or addiction. In a new study, researchers found that opioid dependence produced permanent changes in the brains of rats.
Researchers have used human stem cells to make pain-killing neurons that provide lasting relief in mice, without side effects, in a single treatment. The next step is to perform extensive safety tests in rodents and pigs, and then move to human patients suffering chronic pain within the next five years.
A team of psychologists has carried out a meta-analysis to identify psychosocial work factors that pose a risk for the development of chronic low back pain (CLBP). Their study clearly indicates that not only physical but also psychological and social factors exert considerable influence on the development of the disease.
If you have just had knee, shoulder or hip surgery, you may want to take anti-inflammatories in the morning or at noon, but not at night. A new study shows, for the first time, that circadian clock genes are involved in healing from surgery. Indeed, the researchers demonstrated that anti-inflammatory medications are most effective in promoting post-operative healing and recovery when taken during the active periods of our biological clocks.
Medicinal cannabis might not ease sleep problems in people with chronic pain over the long term, because frequent users might build up tolerance to its sleep-inducing effects, suggests preliminary research.
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.
In experiments with genetically engineered and old mice, researchers say they have added to evidence that the vast majority of low back pain in people may be rooted in an overgrowth of pain-sensing nerves into spinal cartilaginous tissue.
Researchers offer the first real hope for the treatment of lupus, a disease which affects 1.5 million people in the US and more than 5 million globally, 90% women and for which there is no cure.
