Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2013
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyOnce-daily gastroretentive gabapentin for postherpetic neuralgia: integrated efficacy, time to onset of pain relief and safety analyses of data from two phase 3, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies.
Treatment options for postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), a complication of herpes zoster, are commonly unsatisfactory and associated with adverse events. ⋯ PHN pain reduction after G-GR treatment can be observed as early as the second day of dosing and continues for at least 10 weeks.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2013
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyAn open-label extension study to investigate the long-term safety and tolerability of THC/CBD oromucosal spray and oromucosal THC spray in patients with terminal cancer-related pain refractory to strong opioid analgesics.
Chronic pain in patients with advanced cancer poses a serious clinical challenge. The Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)/cannabidiol (CBD) oromucosal spray (U.S. Adopted Name, nabiximols; Sativex(®)) is a novel cannabinoid formulation currently undergoing investigation as an adjuvant therapy for this treatment group. ⋯ This study showed that the long-term use of THC/CBD spray was generally well tolerated, with no evidence of a loss of effect for the relief of cancer-related pain with long-term use. Furthermore, patients who kept using the study medication did not seek to increase their dose of this or other pain-relieving medication over time, suggesting that the adjuvant use of cannabinoids in cancer-related pain could provide useful benefit.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2013
Randomized Controlled TrialDoes assessing patients' expectancies about chemotherapy side effects influence their occurrence?
Increasing evidence suggests a link between patients' expectancies and post-chemotherapy side effects. However, it remains unclear whether asking patients about their expectancies might actually increase side effects. ⋯ These findings suggest that patient expectancies might be a useful point of intervention for attempting to reduce the burden of chemotherapy-related side effects, as there do not appear to be any detrimental effects of asking patients to report their expectancies and their expectancies do appear related to the occurrence of post-treatment side effects.