Chronic pain was originally defined as pain that has lasted 6 months or longer. More recently it has been defined as pain that persists longer than the temporal course of natural healing, associated with a particular type of injury or disease process.
Study highlights an audio-guided relaxation CD with background sounds of ocean waves and a calming voice may lower blood pressure in elderly people. – An audio relaxation program lowered blood pressure more than a Mozart sonata in a group of elderly people with high blood pressure, researchers reported at the American Heart Association’s 62nd Annual Fall Conference of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research.
Researchers in the Department of Medicine and Department of Neurosciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered that chronic pain can be successfully treated with novel targeted gene therapy. – Now, chronic pain can be successfully treated with novel targeted gene therapy. In an effort to find a more effective treatment for chronic pain, researchers at Mount Sinai developed a gene therapy technique that simulates the pain-killing effect of opiate drugs.
In adults with sickle cell disease, pain can occur daily and is much more severe than previously believed. – Sickle cell disease pain can occur daily, and is far more prevalent and severe than previous large studies have indicated. Patients are at home mostly struggling with their pain rather than coming into the hospital or emergency department.
The FDA warned, for the second time in two years, that improper use of the fentanyl patch, a painkiller, is still claiming lives. – The US Food and Drug Administration issued its second safety warning about the fentanyl transdermal system, an adhesive patch that delivers a potent pain medicine through the skin. In July 2005, the agency issued a similar warning to the public and to health care providers, saying that the directions on the product label and on the patient package insert should be followed exactly in order to avoid overdose.
