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Safety concerns related to the widely used painkiller diclofenac may be tied to a little-studied drug-metabolizing enzyme whose expression can vary as much as 3,000 times from one individual to the next. Used to combat pain and inflammation associated with arthritis, diclofenac was an over-the-counter drug. The FDA restricted it to prescription-only use following reports of the drug causing heart damage. Previous findings by the WSU team had found a high degree of variability in the expression of UGT2B17, an enzyme that is a known player in diclofenac metabolism. That study showed that the enzyme is present at much lower...

Officials in San Diego County have issued an alert after three people have suffered documented fatal overdoses from a new form of the drug fentanyl know as carfentanil. It would only take 2 mg of the drug to cause a deadly overdose meanwhile it would only take .02 mg of carfentanil to have the same fatal results, CBS Sacramento reported. Langdon Fielding is an emergency veterinarian at Loomis Basin Equine. He said he uses fentanyl on horses for pain relief. "Basically it's super strong morphine-like a really strong drug to control pain," said Fielding. Carfentanil is similar to fentanyl but...

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Got a few aches and pains? Before you head to the medicine cabinet and reach for those over-the-counter painkillers, consider drinking a few beers. A new study, led by Dr. Trevor Thompson from the University of Greenwich, and published in The Journal of Pain, suggests that throwing back a few cold ones actually relieves your pain better than Tylenol. The study, reported by Lifehacker, found that raising your blood alcohol content to the legal limit of .08%, or about three or four beers deep, elevates your pain threshold significantly. The research involved 18 studies and more than...

Maybe you’ve never heard of kratom — a plant from Southeast Asia with large, green leaves that are dried, powdered and taken as a drug with mild, opioid-like effects. Kratom has been used in Asia for generations — usually chewed or brewed into a tea — as a tonic, painkiller and an aid for people weaning themselves off opium. It can be bought in powder or capsule form at smoke shops across the country. But dedicated kratom users might want to stock up. As soon as Friday, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says it will classify kratom as a...

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A team of researchers led by Michel De Waard, Inserm Research Director at the Grenoble Institute of Neurosciences (Inserm, University Joseph Fourier, CNRS), has discovered that an African medicinal plant produces large quantities of molecules with analgesic properties. Even more surprising, analysis show that the molecule is identical to Tramadol, a wholly synthetic medication that is used world-wide as a painkiller. According to the research team, this is the first time ever that a synthetic medication produced by the pharmaceutical industry has been discovered in strong concentrations in a natural source. This unexpected discovery had just been published in the...

Much has been said about developing cultural competencies among clinicians in recent years. However, there are many cultural contexts not addressed in such workshops, books, and training resources. Perhaps the most influential is the culture of addiction, itself. http://nativehc.com http://ASCS-OKC.com http://KCTXS.COM

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Sources tell CBS 3 that blood tests on the crane operator involved with Wednesday’s deadly building collapse in Center City detected the presence of a prescription painkiller and marijuana. The blood, along with urine, was taken from 42-year-old Sean Benschop at the hospital approximately two hours after the collapse at 22nd and Market Streets, which killed six people and injured 13. (See Related Story) Sources say investigators also noticed that Benschop, who has a history of 11 prior arrests, including a conviction for possession and dealing drugs, was speaking in what police considered an unusually slow, quiet...

Despite low-quality evidence supporting practice change, use of opioids for chronic pain increased dramatically over the past two decades. Concurrently, there has been a sharp increase in opioid analgesic overdose deaths, addiction, misuse and diversion. Opioids may provide modest, variable short-term pain relief for some patients with chronic pain. Long-term benefits for chronic pain have not been established. Potential medical and behavioral harms of opioids are an important concern, particularly at higher dosage levels and in higher risk or medically complex patients. While opioid therapy at lower doses may be a useful treatment for some patients, it should only be...

How do I know when a prescription becomes an addiction? This is a critical question. Many Oklahomans have a legitimate need for prescription painkillers for the relief of pain from surgery or an injury. Unfortunately, even legitimate reliance on medication can easily and unintentionally turn into physical dependence. That can be confusing, as the medications ARE prescribed by a doctor, so doesn’t that mean that they are needed and safe to use? Alarmingly, the most commonly prescribed drugs including OxyContin, Vicodin, hydrocodne, hydrocodone, Darvocet, Lortab, Lorcet and Percocet can cause one to start "needing" the drugs in order to feel...

Three tribes lead the best practice initiative treating the epidemic of painkiller addiction in Native America, Oklahoma, the nation's leader in painkiller addiction. Treating all adults, Medicaid. Last month the Center for Disease Control called prescription painkiller addiction an epidemic in the country, identifying Oklahoma as leading the nation in both the addiction and related deaths. It is only fitting that the battle against such addiction in "Native America" be led by three tribal owned clinics, Absentee Shawnee Counseling Services, OKC; Keetoowah Cherokee Treatment Services, Tulsa; and Quapaw Counseling Services, Miami. Generally speaking, prescription painkillers are opiates. There are 14...

A neurosurgeon, vetted by Levin's staff, calls Mark and talks about what he knows about Obamacare Death Panels. From 11/22/11

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...

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:

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Fifty-six government employees -- including a police officer, a felony court clerk, two corrections officers and 27 school bus drivers and attendants -- were arrested in a scam that used health insurance information to fraudulently obtain prescriptions for the painkiller OxyContin, authorities said Wednesday. Sixty-two people were arrested in total and all face charges including racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering and grand theft, according to the Miami-Dade state attorney's office. Authorities estimate 130 medically unnecessary prescriptions for OxyContin -- more than 12,000 tablets -- were presented to pharmacies. The drugs have an estimated street value of...

Natural-born painkiller found in human saliva 22:00 13 November 2006 NewScientist.com news service Andy Coghlan Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Saliva from humans has yielded a natural painkiller up to six times more powerful than morphine, researchers say. The substance, dubbed opiorphin, may spawn a new generation of natural painkillers that relieve pain as well as morphine but without the addictive and psychological side effects of the traditional drug. When the researchers injected a pain-inducing chemical into rats’ paws, 1 gram of opiorphin per kilogram of body weight achieved the same painkilling effect as 3 grams of morphine....

WASHINGTON - Sometimes the numbing effect of TV can be helpful. Especially if you're a kid being stuck with a needle at the hospital. Researchers confirmed the distracting power of television — something parents have long known — when they found that children watching cartoons suffered less pain from a hypodermic needle than kids not watching TV. Especially disturbing to the author of the scientific study was that the cartoons were even more comforting than Mom. While it's good to have a powerful distraction for children getting painful medical procedures, it is also troubling "because we have demonstrated the excessive...

A NEW painkiller based on the venom of a sea snail will be available in Britain from today. Prialt, or ziconotide, is the result of more than 20 years’ research by a scientist born in the Philippines, Baldomera Olivera, who is a professor at the University of Utah. It is 1,000 times more potent than morphine but, unlike that drug, is not addictive. It is aimed at people suffering from severe, chronic pain who would normally require morphine. Given by injection into the fluid around the spine, it is the first non-opioid painkiller using this method of administration to be...

March 28, 2006 India's Vultures Fall Prey to a Drug in the Cattle They Feed On By AMELIA GENTLEMAN NEW DELHI, March 27 — Until recently the vulture was an integral part of the Indian landscape. Vultures were so abundant that ornithologists never even thought to monitor their population. But conservationists are now warning that a drug used to treat sick cows in South Asia is killing the scavenging vultures by the millions. They say the drug is responsible for a 97 percent decline in the species in India during the past decade. Wildlife experts have criticized what they call...

'Safe' painkiller is leading cause of liver failure 08 December 2005 NewScientist.com news service Alison Motluk A POPULAR over-the-counter painkiller is now the leading cause of acute liver failure in the US - and almost half of those cases are accidental overdoses. Paracetamol (or acetaminophen as it is known in the US) is used by millions of Americans each year, and is commonly thought to be safe. Until 1980, paracetamol was not even listed as a cause of acute liver failure. But between 1998 and 2003, the proportion of cases of liver failure caused by the drug nearly doubled. William...