Current medical research and opinion
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Editorial
Introduction: Recognition and management of some possible consequences of stopping smoking.
While stopping smoking has a range of profoundly beneficial consequences, the immediate aftermath of smoking cessation often generates at least some negative effects. This collection of review articles covers both sides of this often difficult equation to provide clinicians with guidance on recognising and managing a range of short-term sequelae of smoking cessation.
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Editorial Comment
Ezetimibe/simvastatin single tablet versus rosuvastatin in patients with hypercholesterolemia.
Recent guidelines recommend strict goals for low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (70-100 mg/dL; 1.8-2.6 mmol/L). These goals were set following the publication of several trials. ⋯ This editorial comments on the potential disadvantages of using monotherapy with high-dose statins and considers the issue of statin-induced proteinuria. Combination therapy may need to be increasingly used to achieve the LDL-C targets set by recent guidelines.
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Editorial Comment
The involvement of professional medical writers in medical publications.
In this editorial, we comment on the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) guidelines and the accompanying Delphi study published in this issue of Current Medical Research and Opinion. These articles deal with 'ghost writing' and the role of professional writers. We propose that the interaction between professional writers and authors is defined along the following principles: Guarantee: are the authors guarantors of the article? Advice: was the professional writer 'advised' by the author(s) before, as well as after, starting the assignment? Were the overall conclusions defined by the author(s)? Transparency: the contribution of professional writers should be acknowledged (we provide a draft statement). ⋯ Therefore, we called them the ' GATE principles '. We also discuss suggestions for the accreditation of professional writers in specific fields. Professional writers play a useful role but this has to be clearly defined so as to achieve high ethical and scientific standards.
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Many chronic pain patients have multiple etiologies for their pain, and accurate characterization of pain qualities and pain relief is essential for managing their pain. The ability to utilize a validated tool for assessing pain qualities and for identifying unique analgesic therapy effects on different pain qualities may assist clinicians in devising an appropriate treatment regimen. The Neuropathic Pain Scale (NPS) is a novel pain metric for characterizing pain in 10 dimensions. ⋯ Significant reduction in the intensity of commonly reported pain qualities in patients with neuropathic and non-neuropathic chronic pain due to low-back pain, osteoarthritis, post-herpetic neuralgia, and painful diabetic neuropathy were achieved. The NPS offers clinicians a reliable means to accurately identify pain qualities associated with each individual patient and to target and assess the efficacy of various therapeutic options on those pain components. Utilizing the NPS, the lidocaine patch 5% was effective in treating chronic pain of both neuropathic and non-neuropathic origins suggesting that a given treatment's effect on various pain qualities may be consistent across pain types.
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Editorial
Introduction: chronic pain studies of the lidocaine patch 5% using the Neuropathic Pain Scale.
The manifestation of pain in any individual patient may result from a variety of underlying mechanisms that also may vary from one disease state to another. Global measures of pain intensity and relief are inadequate for characterizing specific pain qualities or identifying the unique effects of pain treatments on different pain qualities. The Neuropathic Pain Scale (NPS) is a recently developed measure designed to assess distinct pain qualities and may allow differentiation of therapeutic effects, even in cases where global pain response may be similar. Three studies are presented that provide preliminary evidence for the utility of the NPS for characterizing distinct pain qualities and changes in pain qualities in patients treated with the lidocaine patch 5% for a variety of neuropathic and non-neuropathic chronic pain conditions, including low-back pain, osteoarthritis, post-herpetic neuralgia, and painful diabetic neuropathy.