Pain management

Legalise cannabis for medical use, MPs say

An influential committee of MPs has called on the government to make cannabis legal for medical use.  The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Drug Policy Reform wants the drug reclassified from its Schedule 1 — which puts it in the same class as ecstasy and LSD — to Sched…

How a pharmacist made a career in pain and anaesthesia

Roger Knaggs is the first pharmacist to be appointed as a Fellow of the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. He tells Julia Robinson about his journey into pharmacy and pain management.…

We need to reassess how we measure and treat pain as opioid addiction grows

Removing official pain measures will not alleviate the rising number of patients addicted to opioid drugs — a better way to determine pain is required.…

Paracetamol use in pregnancy linked to childhood behaviour problems

Prenatal exposure to paracetamol (acetaminophen) is associated with an increased risk of behavioural problems among children by the age of seven, according to a study.…

Long-acting opioids increase risk of death by 64%

Compared with other pain management drugs, long-acting opioids increase the risk of death from any cause by 64% and from a cardiovascular event by 65%.…

Teva’s biological drug improves chronic migraine symptoms

A monoclonal antibody developed for chronic migraine can improve patients’ symptoms within a few days, results of a study carried out by the drug’s manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals show.…

Morphine prolongs neuropathic pain in rats

Administration of morphine following nerve injury can prolong the duration of pain, even after treatment has stopped, a study in rats has found.…

Meet the regional finalists of I Love My Pharmacist: Midlands and East

The public has until 21 July 2016 to vote for their favourite regional finalist of the 2016 I Love My Pharmacist Award. The pharmacist with the highest number of votes in each region will then meet with the judging panel who will decide the 2016 champion.…

Paracetamol ineffective in treating osteoarthritis, meta-analysis finds

Paracetamol is not clinically effective for alleviating pain and improving physical function in patients with osteoarthritis, the largest analysis of randomised trials of analgesics for osteoarthritis published to date has found. …

A new channel for pain treatment

Following intriguing genetic discoveries in people with extreme sensitivity to pain, as well as some families who feel no pain at all, researchers and drug companies are optimistic that blocking a sodium channel called Nav1.7 may lead to a new generation of more sophisticated painkillers. Meanwhile,…