Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
-
Opioid specialty clinics have emerged as an approach for mitigating the risks associated with opioid therapies. Many opioid specialty clinics within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have been described in the extant literature, yet veterans' experiences of these remain absent. This research study was undertaken to describe veterans' responses (e.g., knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs) toward being evaluated in an opioid specialty clinic. ⋯ For veterans prescribed opioid therapies, this clinic served as an adjunct service for ensuring appropriate and safe prescribing. Data from this study can be used to inform interventions to promote veterans' understanding across the total opioid safety clinic experience-referral, actual visit, and follow-up.
-
Complementary and integrative medicine (CIM), including mind-body medicine (MBM), is a treatment option that has been proved to alleviate symptoms in patients with low back and neck pain. ⋯ MBM is a popular treatment option for people with low back and neck pain. Practitioners of CIM are also being sought out by people with such complaints. Further research in this direction is relevant.
-
To examine the prevalence and duration of skeletal muscle relaxant (SMR) treatment among commercially insured adults in the United States. ⋯ SMRs are widely used in the United States. Their use slightly increased in recent years, but trends varied among individual agents, patient groups, and geographic regions. Despite limited evidence to support efficacy, a sizable number of U.S. adults used SMRs for long-term and off-label conditions. Further study is needed to understand determinants of treatment as well as outcomes associated with such use.
-
Since the pioneering reports of the so-called leonine face in cluster headache (CH) patients, cranial and facial features of these patients have been poorly investigated with conflicting results. We aimed to investigate whether abnormalities in craniometric measurements could characterize male CH patients and represent reliable and reproducible diagnostic biomarkers able to identify CH patients. ⋯ The craniometric evaluation by means of brain 3D computed tomography could represent a widespread, noninvasive, and accurate tool to support CH diagnosis to avoid frequent misdiagnosis or delay in the diagnostic process.