Archive for March, 2011
by Pamela Katz Ressler, RN, BSN, HN-BC, MS-PREP graduate student, PREP-AIRED blog moderator and administrator, Tufts University School of Medicine
Chronic pain is elusive, often impossible to visualize or describe, and a continuing challenge for patients and health care providers alike. The National Center for Health Statistics estimates that 76.5 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, an all encompassing term which includes pain that persists for months or years, often with no visible evidence of underlying injury. A recent Time Magazine Health Special featured an informative series of articles on the issue of chronic pain with new insights from the bench and the bedside, as well as patient stories reflecting on the challenges of living with pain.
Leading voices in pain management are quoted extensively in the Times Magazine health special focusing on chronic pain, one of whom is Dr. Rollin M. Gallagher, editor of Pain Medicine and the American Academy of Pain Medicine’s Past President. The Tufts University Pain Research, Education and Policy Program is honored that Dr. Gallagher will be presenting the annual Sackler Lecture at Tufts Medical Center on April 21. Dr. Gallagher will be addressing the complex pain management issues of today’s combat veterans.
For more information about the 2011 Sackler Lecture, please click here.
March 27th, 2011
by Pamela Katz Ressler, RN, BSN, HN-BC, MS-PREP graduate student and PREP-AIRED blog moderator and administrator, Tufts University School of Medicine
The American Pain Foundation has produced a number of helpful online videos for patients, families and health care professionals highlighting the
complex nature of pain, especially chronic pain. It is essential that pain care be a multidisciplinary process with the patient an active participant in care. You may want to check out the American Pain Foundation’s selection of online videos on their YouTube site. Take a look at “Health Professionals Making a Difference in Pain Care” to listen to health professionals and pain patients share their message.
March 17th, 2011
Pamela Katz Ressler, RN, BSN, HN-BC, MS-PREP graduate student and PREP-AIRED blog moderator and administrator, Tufts University School of Medicine
Beliefs and expectations of a medication’s pain reducing ability may influence
the amount of pain relief a patient receives from the drug, suggests a study recently published in the journal Science Translational Medicine Science. In the study, The Effect of Treatment Expectation on Drug Efficacy: Imaging the Analgesic Benefit of the Opioid Remifentanil, investigators observed that the expectation of efficacy or lack of efficacy of the potent opioid Remifentanil shaped both therapeutic and adverse effects of the medication. Those participants who believed that the drug would have a positive effect on the experimental pain condition had double the pain relief benefit as compared to those who believed that the drug would have a negative or exacerbating effect on their pain. Evidence from behavioral and neuroimaging data suggest a multifocal expression of pain in the study participants with brain activity changes correlated to the expectation of efficacy of the analgesic. The study authors conclude that integrating patients’ beliefs and expectations into pain management may produce better treatment outcomes in the future.
March 6th, 2011
Chronic pain is elusive, often impossible to visualize or describe, and a continuing challenge for patients and health care providers alike. The National Center for Health Statistics estimates that 76.5 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, an all encompassing term which includes pain that persists for months or years, often with no visible evidence of underlying injury. A recent Time Magazine Health Special featured an informative series of articles on the issue of chronic pain with new insights from the bench and the bedside, as well as patient stories reflecting on the challenges of living with pain. 
