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Many individuals believe that opioids are the strongest pain medications, but a recent study of chronic pain patients has showed that after 12 months of treatment, the opioid group and the non-opioid group had similar pain-related function. Additionally, the non-opioid group had a significantly lower pain intensity and…
If you look at the advertising for antidepressants, you could conclude that antidepressants work well. However, a study recently reported a large meta-analysis that looked at the effectiveness of 21 antidepressants. The analysis did show that all of the antidepressants performed better than placebos, but unfortunately the effect…
Stress can have an impact on how much pain you have. Several studies have found that individuals become more sensitive to pain when they feel stressed. One study showed that fibromyalgia patients had increased hyperalgesia (increased sensitivity to pain) and allodynia (pain response from non-painful stimuli) response…
Neurological Pain Signatures Most people with chronic pain wish that there was some way that others could see their pain. Researchers have come a step closer to this goal by identifying the brain activity patterns related to chronic pain. MRI scans of patients with…
Up to now, deep-brain stimulation has used an invasive technique to regulate the neural activity in targeted areas. However, recent advancements have targeted deep brain tissue using electromagnetic fields without surgery. This means that one can target brain areas using electromagnetic waves. This type of intervention is receiving a…
If you want to know if a medication is truly working for you, you often have to continue it for a considerable amount of time. The goal of chronic pain therapy is to bring your pain to a tolerable level and improve your quality of life. However, in some…
What fibromyalgia treatments will work best for you is currently more trial and error than science. Our goal is to identify which fibromyalgia patients will best respond to what treatments using sophisticated neuro-sensory testing. We want to use a simple neuro-sensory test that would eliminate the trial and error…
There are three FDA approved medications for the treatment of fibromyalgia: Lyrica, Cymbalta, and Savella. These three medications have been shown to reduce pain and increase function in some people with fibromyalgia, but they don’t work well for everyone, or even for the majority of the people who take…
A study recently published The BMJ evaluated the cognitive effects of drinking with a long-term observational study. This study categorized 550 people based on their alcohol consumption into abstainers, light, moderate and heavy drinkers. They found higher alcohol consumption was associated with a stronger decline in mental skills and…
