Pain medicine

US research has highlighted the risk for continued use of opioids and sedative-hypnotic drugs after mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

Opioid use is not associated with an increased risk for infections in immunocompromised patients with cancer and chemotherapy-induced neutropenia, suggests a case–control study.

Naproxen and low-dose colchicine are similarly effective in the reduction of pain associated with gout flares, but patients receiving colchicine tend to experience more side-effects, show results from the multicenter, open-label CONTACT trial.

Chronic pain is prevalent among US survivors of cancer, reveals research published in a letter to JAMA Oncology.

Patients who undergo video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for stage I non-small-cell lung cancer are less likely to become long-term opioid users than their counterparts undergoing the conventional open procedure, findings suggest.

A Canadian population-based study shows higher prescribing rates for opioids among cancer survivors than in individuals without a prior cancer diagnosis.

Worsening of headache during intravenous dihydroergotamine treatment for chronic migraine does not mean that the therapy will be unsuccessful, say researchers.

Psychosocial factors are important and potentially modifiable determinants of persistent pain in patients with multiple sclerosis who are taking pain medication, research shows.

Prolonged-release combined oxycodone/naloxone may provide relief for patients with severe pain related to Parkinson’s disease, a double-blind randomised trial shows.

A systematic review and meta-analysis reveals that current treatments for neuropathic pain achieve only a moderate response in patients.

Researchers advise caution when using cutoff points on the visual analogue scale (VAS) to classify mild, moderate or severe pain in clinical practice.

Bone mineral density does not contribute to musculoskeletal pain, researchers report in findings that shed light on the controversy over whether osteoporosis is a painless disease.

Research findings do not support the use of needle or laser acupuncture for treating chronic knee pain in patients older than 50 years.

Research from Finland shows an increase in the prevalence of frequent musculoskeletal symptoms in young adults, which suggests the need for early intervention.

Some patients with knee osteoarthritis may experience neuropathic-like symptoms associated with central pain processing, reflecting a discrete phenotype, study findings suggest.

People with high fat mass could be at an increased risk of musculoskeletal pain, say researchers.

The catechol-

O

-methyltransferase rs4680 single nucleotide polymorphism could affect postoperative opioid consumption, study findings show.

Patients with knee osteoarthritis requiring analgesic therapy are often not receiving adequate pain relief, researchers report.

Experts have developed an evidence-based tool to help doctors in secondary and tertiary care decide how best to manage patients with chronic low back pain, a condition with the highest societal burden in Western Europe.

Feeling knee pain during weight-bearing activities involving knee bending, such as using stairs, could be an early sign of osteoarthritis and the need for intervention, research indicates.