News

Caring for patients with pain during the COVID-19 pandemic: Consensus recommendations from an international expert panel. Chronic pain causes significant suffering, limitation of daily activities and reduced quality of life. Infection from COVID-19 is responsible for an ongoing pandemic that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, leading to systemic complications and death. Led by the World Health Organization, healthcare systems across the world are engaged in limiting the spread of infection. As a result all elective surgeries, procedures, and patient visits, including pain management services, have been postponed or cancelled. This has impacted the care of chronic pain patients. Most are elderly with multiple comorbidities, which puts them at risk of COVID-19 [...]

Perception of Older Adults Toward Smartwatch Technology for Assessing Pain and Related Patient-Reported Outcomes: Pilot Study. Chronic pain, including arthritis, affects about 100 million adults in the United States. Complexity and diversity of the pain experience across time and people and its fluctuations across and within days show the need for valid pain reports that do not rely on patient's long-term recall capability. Smartwatches can be used as digital ecological momentary assessment (EMA) tools for real-time collection of pain scores. Smartwatches are generally less expensive than smartphones, are highly portable, and have a simpler user interface, providing an excellent medium [...]

Prevalence of Patient Diseases Expected to boost the Global Pain Management Market Pain management is a major branch of medical science which includes the role of minimizing or managing the pain of the patients. The global pain management devices market valuation is expected to jump from USD 3.58 billion in 2016 to USD 5.81 billion by 2023 with a calculated CAGR of 7.2% over the forecast period (2017-2023). Pain management devices market is driven by a number of factors. This includes, the high percentage of patients suffering from different forms of diseases, growing government efforts in increasing the pain rehabilitation centers, [...]

The group of white-haired folks — some pushing walkers, others using canes — arrive right on time at the gates of Laguna Woods Village, an upscale retirement community in the picturesque hills that frame this Southern California suburb a few miles from Disneyland. There they board a bus for a quick trip to a building that, save for the green Red Cross-style sign in the window, resembles a trendy coffee bar. The people, mostly in their 70s and 80s, pass the next several hours enjoying a light lunch, playing a few games of bingo and selecting their next month’s supply [...]

Abstract Immersive virtual reality (VR) can provide a high level of engagement and distraction analgesia to address pain. However, community-based applications of this technology for older adults have not been studied. The objective of this study was to examine the applicability and effectiveness of an immersive VR intervention for pain, depression, and quality of life (QOL) in older adults. This pretest-posttest, mixed-methods design included senior center members ( n = 12) with pain that interfered with daily functioning. The outcomes included the NumericPain Rating Scale, Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) depression scale, World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale [...]

Shari Horne broke her toes a decade ago, and after surgery, “I have plates and pins and screws in my feet, and they get achy at times,” she said. So Horne, 66, applies a salve containing cannabidiol, derived from the cannabis, or marijuana, plant. It eases the pain. The salve didn’t help when she developed bursitis in her shoulder, but a tincture of cannabidiol mixed with THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, provided relief. Using a pipe, she also smokes “a few hits” of a cannabis brand called Blue Dream after dinner, because “I think relaxing is healthy for you.” Many [...]

A federal advisory panel known as the Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force has released a draft report listing its recommendations for improving pain care in the United States. The content is both revealing and promising, because its recognizes the complex nature of chronic pain and the difficulty in treating it effectively. The task force was formed as a result of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) of 2016. Its mission is to identify gaps and inconsistencies in acute and chronic pain management and to propose possible solutions. Article by Roger Chriss, PNN Columnist. To read the full article, [...]