Tag Archives: Conditions

Risk of addiction

I had written before about addiction risk in patients who take opioids for chronic pain. An excellent review conducted  by  David Fishbain et al. (Department of Psychiatry at the University of Miami) published in Pain Medicine (Volume 9, Number 4, … Continue reading

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Alcohol intake and increased cancer risk in women

Naomi Allen at al. published an excellent study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI) in the March 4th, 2009 issue. They followed almost 1.3 million women in Great Britain for 7.2 years looking for the incidence (new … Continue reading

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Interesting Article in the NYT Magazine

I just came a across a very interesting article in the New York Times Magazine titled: What’s wrong with Summer Stiers? It describes in detail the new NIH (National Institutes of Health) Undiagnosed Diseases Program. The focus is Summer Stiers, … Continue reading

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Doctor, should I have back (or neck) surgery?

This is one of the most commonly asked questions: Should I have surgery for my back (or neck) pain? There are many factors that have to be considered to give an informed answer. In some situations undergoing an operation is … Continue reading

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IDET Outcome Meta-Analysis

Intradiscal electrothermal therapy is a modality to treat low back pain caused by annular tears in lumbar intervertebral discs. A meta-analysis (pooling of data from multiple comparable studies to achieve greater statistical significance) published in Pain Medicine (2006;7:308-316, PMID: 16898940) … Continue reading

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Addiction – The 900 lb gorilla of medical pain management!

This is one of the most commonly voiced concerns in pain management. A search at dictionary.com shows 7 different definitions from various references. The definition from the Random House Unabridged Dictionary (c) 2006 states: “the state of being enslaved to … Continue reading

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Zygapophysial (Facet) Joint Pain

Many patients can understand and visualize low back and leg pain that is due to a disc prolapse (herniation or extrusion). It makes intuitively sense that if you have disc material mechanically pushing on a nerve root it would cause … Continue reading

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Does the weather influence pain due to arthritis?

This is a question that many patients with osteoarthritis bring up especially now that it is starting to get cold in the Dallas area. Finally we have a very good answer to this age-old question. There is a new study … Continue reading

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Smoking increases cartilage loss and knee pain

According to a study in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2007;66:18-22, PMID: 17158140) smoking increases cartilage loss and knee pain in men. 159 men with symptomatic osteoarthritis (OA) underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at baseline and at 15 and … Continue reading

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