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This post is a search for the knowledge of the community. Since December 2000 one of my friends has had pain in the lower left quadrant of my mouth always in one particular tooth. The pain is a dull, deep, gnawing, crushing pain that he describes as being with him 24 hours a day. Its intensity varies, but it is always there. It is completely ruling his life. The pain started with a crown preparation of tooth #20 in December of 2000. After tooth #20 was extracted (July 2003) the pain immediately jumped to tooth #19. Two years later (July...

Even short-term use of some painkillers could be dangerous for people who've had a heart attack, according to research published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers analyzed the duration of prescription non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) treatment and cardiovascular risk in a nationwide Danish cohort of patients with prior heart attack. They found the use of NSAIDs was associated with a 45 percent increased risk of death or recurrent heart attack within as little as one week of treatment, and a 55 percent increased risk if treatment extended to three months. The study was limited by its observational...

Researchers have made a discovery that could lead to a brand new class of drugs to treat chronic pain caused by inflammatory conditions such as arthritis and back pain without numbing the whole body. The team, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and working at UCL (University College London), have shown for the first time that genes involved in chronic pain are regulated by molecules inside cells called small RNAs. This mechanism is so different from what has already been discovered about the biology underpinning pain that it could be the Achilles heel of chronic inflammatory...

(CNN) -- When Carol Weiher was having her right eye surgically removed in 1998, she woke up hearing disco music. The next thing she heard was "Cut deeper, pull harder." She desperately wanted to scream or even move a finger to signal to doctors that she was awake, but the muscle relaxant she'd received prevented her from controlling her movements. "I was doing a combination of praying and pleading and cursing and screaming, and trying anything I could do but I knew that there was nothing that was working," said Weiher, of Reston, Virginia. Weiher is one of few people...

With all the medical miracles scientists have discovered, pain management is still one area with a lot of holes. Most heavy duty pain killers make you unconscious or just dopey. Then there is that other problem of stomach distress and kidney problems which sometimes accompany use of pain killers and anesthesia. Dr. Alexander Binshtok of Tel Aviv University's Sackler School of Medicine might have found the key to killing pain without any of those side effects and its a really hot idea. Binshtok found a way to use chili peppers as a base for a revolutionary new pain killer:

Lovelle Svart woke up Friday knowing it was the day she would die. There was much to do. Her family and closest friends would be gathering at 11 a.m. in her mother's apartment in the Southwest Portland assisted-living center where they both lived. She directed trips to the grocery store and even called AAA to jump-start the dead battery of her 2006 Scion. She double-checked delivery of food platters from Fred Meyer: turkey sandwiches, strawberries and grapes, pretzels, almonds and sparkling water. There would be pink roses on the dining table and a boombox in the corner to play music,...

Ronald McIver is a prisoner in a medium-security federal compound in Butner, N.C. He is 63 years old, of medium height and overweight, with a white Santa Claus beard, white hair and a calm, direct and intelligent manner. He is serving 30 years for drug trafficking, and so will likely live there the rest of his life. McIver (pronounced mi-KEE-ver) has not been convicted of drug trafficking in the classic sense. He is a doctor who for years treated patients suffering from chronic pain. At the Pain Therapy Center, his small storefront office not far from Main Street in Greenwood,...

Pakistani boy leads scientists to pain discovery By Patricia Reaney Wed Dec 13, 1:25 PM ET A young Pakistani street performer and members of three related families have enabled scientists to make a genetic breakthrough that could lead to more effective painkillers. During his short life, the unnamed boy never felt pain. He was a local celebrity in northern Pakistan where he astonished crowds by plunging knives through his arms and walking on burning coals. He died on his 14th birthday after jumping from a roof. By studying his case, and other individuals from families in the same clan, researchers...

Remember the girl who received a five-day suspension for bringing Tylenol to school? If that punishment seems excessive, how about a 25-year prison sentence for having Tylenol at home? In 2004 a Florida jury convicted Richard Paey of drug trafficking involving at least 28 grams of the narcotic painkiller oxycodone, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years. But there was no evidence that Paey, who has suffered from severe chronic pain for two decades, planned to do anything with the pain reliever except relieve his pain. And since he was taking Percocet, a combination of oxycodone and acetaminophen,...

Euthanasia Robs Dying of Opportunities for Reconciliation, Family Connections, Says Leading Ethics Professor Fr. Robert Spitzer speaks at pro-life conference in Vancouver The last stages of life serve as a vital “wrap-up” period that provides opportunities for important developments in relationships with family and friends, said Fr. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., ethics expert and co-founder of the Center for Life Principles, at a B.C. pro-life conference on Saturday. He said the end of life period should never deliberately be cut short.  Speaking at the International Pro-Life Conference held in Vancouver Nov. 16-18, Fr. Spitzer identified dominant myths put forward by...

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s War on Prescription Painkillers Since 2001, the federal government has accelerated its pursuit of physicians it alleges are contributing to an increase of prescription-drug addiction. These highly publicized indictments and prosecutions have frightened many physicians out of the field of pain management, exacerbating an already serious health crisis—the widespread undertreatment of severe chronic pain.

Associated Press WASHINGTON — The dog hopped on three legs, pain from bone cancer so bad that he wouldn't let his afflicted fourth paw touch the floor. His owner was bracing for euthanasia when scientists offered a novel experiment: They injected a fiery sap from a Moroccan plant into Scooter's spinal column — and the dog frolicked on all fours again for several months. The chemical destroyed nerve cells that sensed pain from Scooter's cancer, not helping the tumor but apparently making him no longer really feel it. The dramatic effect in dogs has researchers from the National Institutes of...

Today, Richard Paey sits in a wheelchair behind high walls and razor wire in a high-security prison near Daytona Beach. Paey is a 46-year-old father of three, and a paraplegic. His condition is the result of a car accident, a botched back surgery, and a case of multiple sclerosis — three setbacks that have left him in a chronic, debilitating state of pain. After moving to Florida from New Jersey, Paey found it increasingly difficult to get prescriptions for the pain medication he needed to function normally — to support his family, and to be a parent to his children....

DRUG WAR HURTING LEGITIMATE PAIN SUFFERERS November 20, 2003 The Kentucky Post By Ronald Fraser The very same federal agency that has repeatedly failed to slow the flow of illegal cocaine from abroad -- with help from its state partners -is now waging an alarmingly successful war against legal prescription drugs here at home. Problem is, the Drug Enforcement Agency's efforts to keep legal drugs off the black market has a nasty side effect. Terrified of DEA and its state counterparts, many hometown physicians no longer give 15 million Americans struggling with chronic pain the medicines they need. In 2002,...

TALLAHASSEE · The head of the Florida Senate's health committee said Tuesday he is requesting a legislative investigation into doctors who overprescribe the powerful prescription painkiller OxyContin. -snip- Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday directed his drug czar James McDonough to "lay the groundwork for a comprehensive solution to this fatal and expensive form of drug abuse" during a meeting set for Dec. 12 with several state agency heads and Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist. Among the issues Bush cited in a letter to McDonough was "doctor shopping and pharmacy hopping," suspect Internet pharmacy sales, adulteration and illegal importation of prescription...