News | Chronic pain

Opinion

Sir Munir Pirmohamed: ‘Now is the time to implement pharmacogenomic testing into the NHS’

UK lead of the PREPARE study and NHS chair of pharmacogenetics at the University of Liverpool Sir Munir Pirmohamed discusses how to safely utilise pharmacogenomics in routine patient care.…

Published: 14 December 2022

News

Wales is first UK nation to publish guidance on analgesic stewardship

The guidance aims to improve patient outcomes, reduce analgesic-related harm and ensure cost-effective use of analgesics.…

Published: 17 November 2022

News

Patients in most deprived areas are 50% more likely to be prescribed dependency-forming drugs, finds NHS report

In 2021/2022, 1.80 million patients were prescribed dependency-forming medicines, such as opioids and gabapentinoids, in England's most deprived areas, 1.66 times more than the 1.09 million in the least deprived areas.…

Published: 8 September 2022

News

Prescribing of cannabis-based medical products increased almost ten-fold in 2021

Despite the increase in the private healthcare sector, data on the number of cannabis-based medical products prescribed on the NHS were so low they could not be reported.…

Published: 6 July 2022

Feature

Opioids: what can be done about long-term prescribing?

Recent data show the number of patients taking long-term opioids has increased significantly, suggesting there is still progress to make in this area of prescribing.…

Published: 30 June 2022

News

Long-term opioid prescribing rates rose by almost a third during the COVID-19 pandemic

Exclusive: "Worrying" NHS data show a dramatic escalation in the number of patients prescribed opioids for longer than three months.…

Published: 29 June 2022

Feature

In figures: the rise in long-term opioid use

Although overall opioid use in primary care has fallen in England, there has been a worrying increase in the number of patients taking them long term, and opioid deaths overall continue to rise.…

Published: 29 June 2022

News

NICE has ‘failed to listen to patient evidence’ on prescription drug withdrawal, claims parliamentary group

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence has criticised the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on its new guidance on tapered withdrawal of dependency-forming drugs.…

Published: 21 April 2022

Opinion

Why pairing up with a psychologist helped to reduce risky opioid prescribing

Pharmacist Lis Farquhar has found that working with psychologist Vivienne Laidler has allowed them to better approach their patients' reliance on opioids.…

Published: 11 April 2022

Feature

Getting back on track: management of lower back pain

Lower back pain is one of most common reasons for seeking medical advice or missing days at work and it often recurs. However, in most cases, it is not serious and can be managed at home.…

Published: 16 December 2021

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