Pain - Chronic

Patches sold by Actavis South Atlantic are being recalled because of a defect that could cause them to leak, putting patients or caregivers at risk of overdose.

The recalled patches have the company's name on the outer carton, and the company's old name, Abrika Pharmaceuticals, is printed on the pouches containing the patches. Damaged patches should not be handled.

This is the second recall involving fentanyl patches within a week. On February 12, PriCara recalled patches made by its affiliate, ALZA Corporation.

What are the most poisonous creatures you can think of? Cobras? Scorpions? Japanese puffer fish? Now mix all these together and add 100 or so other nerve toxins. It sounds like a black magic witch's brew straight out of a fairy tale. Shockingly, it's a potion actually found in nature — in the venom of marine cone snails.

These snails live in the coral reefs surrounding Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. They use their venoms to hunt worms, other snails, or fish — some larger than themselves.

Did you realize that within a very small section of skin, you have various nerve cells. Some cells only ‘light up’ or work when you apply pressure. Some are sensitive to temperature. Some are sensitive only to pain. The nerve cells which are sensitive to pain are called nociceptor cells.

Currently, no drug works directly on nociceptor cells; but on nerve pathways which lead to the nociceptor cells. Or a drug may work on all the different types of cells, not solely nociceptor pain cells. Or a drug may totally anesthetize you, in which case you are paralyzed, unconscious, and pain free.

While acute pain is a normal sensation triggered in the nervous system to alert you to possible injury and the need to take care of yourself, chronic pain is different. Chronic pain persists. Pain signals keep firing in the nervous system for weeks, months, even years. There may have been an initial mishap -- sprained back, serious infection, or there may be an ongoing cause of pain -- arthritis, cancer, ear infection, but some people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of body damage. Many chronic pain conditions affect older adults.

Biofeedback is a technique that has been used for generations. Biofeedback enables a person to control a select biological function which is usually controlled automatically. Usually, the body dynamics which can be monitored in this manner are temperature, pulse, blood pressure, and muscle tension. The exercises one uses to control these functions are both mental and physiological and based on the premise that your brain can only perform one action at a time. For instance, it is impossible to feel rage, if your body is totally relaxed. Lamaze courses for pregnant women are built on this premise: by reducing anxiety the associated pain is also reduced.

Chronic pain syndromes, such as arthritis, have a long term history of causing sleep disturbances.

The usual treatment has been to use medications and other alternative therapies at least 3-4 hours prior to the desired sleep time.

Now a new study indicates that taking long acting opiates in the morning, increases the total amount slept during the night by one hour, and reduces the time getting to deep sleep from 2 to 1 hours.

Sleep and Pain

Fifteen percent of the adult population reported having chronic pain; however, that rate rose to 50% when looking at older adults.

Of those people experiencing chronic pain, almost 70% reported disruptions to their sleep cycle, or inadequate sleep.

The problem with pain and sleep increased, as opiates were prescribed to control the pain.

As it turns out the “hot” in chiles can relieve pain under certain circumstances.

For example, it reduces pain in arthritis patients when topically applied as a cream repeatedly over several weeks and can be used to treat the neuropathic pain of post-surgical neuralgia. It has also been used to treat nerve pain due to sores inside the mouth from cancer therapy.

28 Dec 2005  Following a review of safety information, Health Canada is informing the public that Bextra, an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat arthritis and pain, will not return to the market.