Thursday, November 13, 2008
Just Say NoBuse!
Prescription-drug abuse continues to be a problem, and it appears teens are "picking-up" at an alarming rate. The availability of drugs to abuse is just one of the reasons for this disturbing reality. Obviously, many other factors are involved, including the ability to extract medications from long acting drug-delivery systems in order to achieve a more immediate effect.
TrisPharma, a New Jersey pharmaceutical company, has just announced the launch of its NoBuse™ technology which "...allows companies to provide pain relief responsibly." Also applicable to ADHD products and other drugs of abuse, TrisPharma claims their system is "nearly impervious to abuse."
The company offers sparse details about its technology, but here's what we know:
NoBuse™ is an innovative and patent pending technology utilized in the formulation of drugs with abuse potential. The abuse deterrence is attained by physical means and works at two levels: the technology forms a complex of a drug with very fine polymeric particles; then coating the drug-polymer complex with a highly flexible non-breakable coating. This makes the product resistant to prevalent drug extraction approaches used on conventional formulations without the need of additional ingredients. The products based on NoBuse technology can be formulated in any oral dosage forms, such as tablets, liquid suspensions, oral dissolving tablets (ODT), and films or strips in either immediate release or 12 to 24 controlled release profiles..."Abuse of prescription drugs is a fast-growing problem-being able to limit this liability is a real benefit to society," says Thomas Newton, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at the Baylor College of Medicine. "Other methods can be breached-but the data for NoBuse(TM) shows that it is virtually impossible for abusers to get around. I also like the fact that the abuse deterrence is not contingent on the patient being forced to take added active ingredients such as the antagonist naloxone. The vast majority of patients aren't abusers and there is no reason for them to ingest an additional drug they don't need."
The technology works across a range of oral dosage forms including tablets, liquid suspensions, orally disintegrating tablets, and drug strips. It can also be used to formulate an immediate-release product with a built-in abuse deterrent. In doing so, Tris Pharma's NoBuse(TM) technology provides important value and a competitive advantage against competing delivery technologies.
Press release: Tris Pharma's New Tool Fights Against Prescription Drug Abuse...
Product page: NoBuse™...
Image credit: bayat @ Flickr: Rough days
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Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Using Mirrors to Treat Phantom Limb Pain
Returning Iraq veteran amputees using an odd neural pathway to trick the brain to treat phantom limb pain...
Dr. Jack Tsao, a Navy neurologist with the Uniform Services University, was looking for ways to help soldiers like Paupore. He remembered reading in graduate school a paper by Dr. V.S. Ramachandran that talked about an unusual treatment for amputees suffering "phantom limb pain," using a simple $20 mirror.The mirror tricks the brain into "seeing" the amputated leg, overriding mismatched nerve signals.
Here's how it works: The patient sits on a flat surface with his or her remaining leg straight out and then puts a 6-foot mirror lengthwise facing the limb. The patient moves the leg, flexing it, and watches the movement in the mirror. The reflection creates the illusion of two legs moving together.
They say necessity is the mother of invention. While improvements in armor technology have kept more soldiers alive than ever before, many of those saved are coming home as amputees. We've explicitly asked the question before, and the number of posts we've done on the subject serves as evidence: for better or worse, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are driving major advancements in medical research and technology.
More from CNN...
Photo Credit: michiyoemi
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Monday, November 5, 2007
PatchPump™: PCA in a Button
SteadyMed Ltd. is an Israeli startup developing the PatchPump™, a subcutaneous medication delivery button, that the company describes as "light and inexpensive patch-sized miniature infusion pump." What's more is that the device promises to be able to inject both basal rates and user-initiated boluses of meds.
The company says that its PatchPump™ works using a "novel solid-state battery cell which gradually expands in a stable manner under electronic control."
A couple of nuggets about the technology and capabilities of device as provided by the company:
The ECell™ merges the two major components of disposable pumps -- the power source and the motor -- into one simple miniature part, enabling the fabrication of very flat and simple devices.The key advantages of the technology are as follows:
Rock-steady drug-delivery using non-gassing mechanism
Self-powered as battery cell expands as it is depleted
Unaffected by changes in temperature or pressure
Very low cost
Lightweight
No MEMS or other exotic manufacturing technologies required
The expanding battery cell will be produced on a battery production line
SteadyMed's product range enables:
Delivery of basal and bolus combinations as required
A range of drug volumes: 5cc, 3cc, 2cc, 1cc, 0.5cc
Typical operation time 48 hours to 7 days
Penetration methods include SubQ, IV and microneedles
Integration of soft cannula insertion mechanism into the device
No MEMS or other exotic manufacturing technologies required
Varying levels of sophistication of electronic controller, from simple and disposable to re-usable and sophisticated
Videos: How the Patch Works; How the Battery Works
Product page: PatchPump ...
(hat tip: ISRAEL21c)
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Monday, October 29, 2007
ReliefInsite Introduces First Patient Health Record on Facebook
We have learned that ReliefInsite, a pain tracking service covered by us in September, just launched its service on Facebook. Users can choose between free and premium online pain management services, by keeping diaries of their pain, its intensity, location, and responses to therapies. Those willing to shell a whopping $4 per month will be able to produce standard or fully customizable reports that one can view, print or save on the computer, or share with a doctor. Unlike the ReliefInsite.com's service, the Facebook-based application is not HIPAA compliant.
The press release is to follow later on today.
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Tuesday, September 25, 2007
The Trouble with Acupuncture
The Associated Press is reporting about research conducted in Germany with the headline "Study: Acupuncture Works for Back Pain". Strangely enough, what is found right below the headline reveals a somewhat different truth: "Fake acupuncture works nearly as well as the real thing for low back pain, and either kind performs much better than usual care..." Judging by the words themselves, it would seem that acupuncture actually does not do a better job than a placebo, unless AP's editors think that acupuncture and "fake" acupuncture are really the same thing. Regardless, the study was done and here is the summary for those on either side of this debate:
In the largest experiment on acupuncture for back pain to date, more than 1,100 patients were randomly assigned to receive either acupuncture, sham acupuncture or conventional therapy. For the sham acupuncture, needles were inserted, but not as deeply as for the real thing. The sham acupuncture also did not insert needles in traditional acupuncture points on the body and the needles were not manually moved and rotated.After six months, patients answered questions about pain and functional ability and their scores determined how well each of the therapies worked.
In the real acupuncture group, 47 percent of patients improved. In the sham acupuncture group, 44 percent did. In the usual care group, 27 percent got relief.
More from the AP article...
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ReliefInsite.com: AJAX-based Pain Diary
We learned about ReliefInsite.com at a recently held Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco. The website is touted as a secure online pain management service, for both the physician and the patient.
Here's how it works. A patient logs in to keep a record of his pain with all kinds of associative descriptions, factors and modifiers: standard pain score, pain distribution, terms describing his/her pain, modifiers like meds taken, physical activity performed, etc. The site is based on AJAX, the same technology that GMail is using, hence there is a two way communication with a server without many page reloads. The interface is intuitive on both patient and physician's ends. It should also be noted, that Fred Eberlein, founder and CEO of ReliefInsite.com, tells Medgadget that their service is in full compliance with HIPAA, and is extremely secure.
During the conference and at home, we checked out all of the ReliefInsite service modules:
The website also features reminders, as well as powerful standard and fully customizable reports that one can view, print or save on the computer.
In terms of expense, the site is free for MDs/DOs. Everything is included: case management, reports, etc. The basic patient diary is also free. Premium service for patients is a reasonable $6.95 for 1 month; $29.95 for 6 months; or $49.95 for 1 year.
Your correspondent, an anesthesiologist, felt that such a service can simplify your clinical life, whether by improving patient care through improved productivity, or by allowing patients to take charge and record a very subjective vital sign, pain. Also, what I liked was the ability to run reports and always to come back in time and to show a patient's previous pain levels, drugs taken, etc, and to adjust meds or therapies based on hard data from the past.
We highly recommended this sophisticated service for pain docs, surgeons, OB-Gyn specialists, spine care docs, oncologists, and everyone in between.
Take the tour: ReliefInsite ...
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007
SnowWorld VR for Pain
HITLab at the University of Washington has been working on the SnowWorld project, a virtual reality simulation of a frozen world, in which burn patients can play games involving snow, which actually lets them forget the pain.
SnowWorld, developed at the University of Washington HITLab in collaboration with Harborview Burn Center, was the first immersive virtual world designed for reducing pain. SnowWorld was specifically designed to help burn patients. Patients often report re-living their original burn experience during wound care, SnowWorld was designed to help put out the fire. Our logic for why VR will reduce pain is as follows. Pain perception has a strong psychological component. The same incoming pain signal can be interpreted as painful or not, depending on what the patient is thinking. Pain requires conscious attention. The essence of VR is the illusion users have of going inside the computer-generated environment. Being drawn into another world drains a lot of attentional resources, leaving less attention available to process pain signals. Conscious attention is like a spotlight. Usually it is focussed on the pain and woundcare. We are luring that spotlight into the virtual world. Rather than having pain as the focus of their attention, for many patients in VR, the wound care becomes more of an annoyance, distracting them from their primary goal of exploring the virtual world.In our preliminary case study (Hoffman, Doctor, Patterson, Carrougher and Furness, 2000), two patients with severe burns went into SpiderWorld. They saw a virtual kitchen complete with kitchen countertops, a window with a partly cloudy sky, as well as 3-D cabinets, and doors that could be opened and shut.
Patients could pick up a teapot, plate, toaster, plant, or frying pan by inserting their cyberhand into the virtual object, and clicking a grasp button on their 3-D mouse. Each patient also physically picked up a virtual wiggly-legged spider possessing solidity and weight, using a mixed-reality force feedback technique developed by one of our team members. Patient 1 had 5 staples removed from a burn skin graft while playing Nintendo, and six staples removed from the same skin graft while in VR. He reported dramatic reductions in pain during VR.Patient 2 showed a similar large but less extreme pattern (reduction of pain during wound care while in VR compared to while playing a video game). The results of these two patients are described in a clinical note in the March 10th, 2000 issue of the medical journal PAIN. Clinical notes are inconclusive by nature, and larger studies are needed (and underway).
In a related preliminary clinical study that is now completed, (Hoffman, Patterson and Carrougher, 2000), have found additional support for the efficacy of VR for pain control. Twelve patients with severe burns at Harborview reported highly significant reductions in pain levels during physical therapy when in VR compared to no VR (conventional treatment). In addition to distracting the patients, VR can likely be used to motivate patients to perform desired stretching motions, using behavioral reinforcement techniques (e.g., they could get more gas for their jet by gripping and ungripping their healing hand 10 times).
More from the HITLab...
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Friday, May 25, 2007
The Neurovasc Might Have Saved Anna Nicole Smith
We were intrigued to learn about a novel pain management device, just recently announced. The device, which seems to function as a vacuum, a neurostimulator, and a happy pill, is described further below:
A direct result of this research program was the development of the Neurovasc, a unique vacuum device that restructures the superficial components of the body. The Neurovasc eradicates pain by lifting and separating the layers of injured tissue, releasing entrapped nerves that cause pain. According to Brooks, the treatment also influences patients' brain chemistry and allows them to regain control over their lives when acute and chronic pain is relieved. With lower pain levels, patients report reduced stress, depression and anxiety levels; this also facilitates reducing patients' dependency on caffeine, alcohol and/or medication."Pain and stress compounded with substance abuse will eventually kill you," Brooks says. "The very tragic event involving Anna Nicole Smith focused public attention on this issue."
Alas, there are no pictures of this incredible technology, just a link to the Brooks Center -- dedicated to "Pursuing the Dynamic Fusion of Human Potential" -- whatever that means.
We learned a little more about this device from the "Articles" tab at the Brooks Center website (only one article is listed). The Article is not exactly peer reviewed, and rests heavily on a series of press releases from University of Michigan (though elsewhere on in the paper, the researchers are said to work at Michigan State).
A pseudoscience spectacular awaits as we begin reading the paper, which was written by Ron Brooks -- and Michael Prior, who is listed as a PhD but labeled as "General Council" -- it sounds like he was going for "General Counsel" but got the wrong doctorate. The paper opens with tripe like this:
In early 2007 we all witnessed what we consider a very tragic event involving Anna Nicole Smith. She gave birth to a daughter and lost her son all in a moment. There is no greater trauma than a loss of a child. This was obviously compounded by the abuse of some powerful medications; can you imagine what the poor woman's brain chemistry was doing? Perhaps this explains some of the bizarre behavior we saw before her subsequent overdose and death. This sequence of events is being played out in our country on a daily basis.Every day, another Anna Nicole Smith. Cable news reporters would stroke out. The paper goes on to 15 citations, including the American Heritage Dictionary. Nothing of what they describe suggests anything more than a high-school level understanding of neurology (although if we had written this in high school we'd be embarrassed):
We now know that the brain has neurons that are correctly programmed to produce, send, and receive a specific biochemical. Each biochemical, called neurotransmitters, travels along a different nerve pathway, resulting in a variety of physical processes. The pain signal comes into the brain and is processed by different parts of the brain for responses. The body's anti-pain system is activated and at the same time the chemical dopamine is released which acts as interface between stress and emotions.
Finally, they get to the point:
At this time in our research program we began to look at all of the available mechanical devices used for soft tissue manipulation. We tried these without success. Finally, we discovered an existing vacuum device used in the esthetics business, called Eureduc. At the time this device was used to reduce irregular bumps (cottage cheese) on women's thighs. We began to use this device in conjunction with cryotherapy and vasopump, and immediately found we could reduce the "Hydraulic Effect". This made it much easier to decompress the tissue. The upward force of the vacuum was also considerably more comfortable for the patient than the pressure from manipulating the tissue by hand.
We love how the term "cellulite" is too scientific for this article, and so the "irregular bumps" are parenthetically identified as "cottage cheese." The Eureduc is similarly unscientific, but was patented in 1973 and sells on Ebay for several thousand dollars.
We look forward to the clinical trials that demonstrate how decades-old anti-cellulite device can provide lasting changes to brain chemistry and the body's perception of pain. But we won't hold our breath. Perhaps the secret is that the Brooks Center researchers apply the vacuum directly to the patient's brain, sucking out all the neurons responsible for signaling pain. To continue to fool the public, however, these charlatans will have to target our brains' centers of reasoning.
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Friday, March 16, 2007
A Microjet System for Intradermal Drug Delivery
Researchers from UC Santa Barbara, UC Berkley and in collaboration with California based StrataGent Life Sciences, developed a novel pulsed microject system engineered for protein drug delivery without any needle pain. Here's an excerpt from UCSB:
The researchers felt that the pain and bruising caused by previously-developed jet injectors was caused by the deep penetration of jets into the skin, creating negative reactions of nerves and capillaries. The pulsed mircrojets engineered by the researchers combine high velocity (more than 100 meters per second) with very small jet diameters (between 50 and 100 micrometers), delivering only 2 to 15 nanoliters of liquid drug at a time. The research showed that the pulsed microjet system could be used to effectively deliver drugs for local and systemic applications without using needles."The microjet system delivers precise doses into superficial skin layers, thereby mitigating pain," says Samir Mitragotri, a professor of chemical engineering at UCSB and a lead author of the paper. The system was designed as an alternative to the macro-scale systems that had been causing pain and bruising. "We realized that we had to find a way to stop the jets from going deep into the skin," says Mitragotri. "Speeding the delivery, combined with using extremely small jet diameters and less liquid per pulsation, was shown to be more effective."
Link @ UC Santa Barbara
Flashback: Vitajet™ 3
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Thursday, March 15, 2007
Could Crocodiles Hold the Key to New Pain Medication?
In recent years, researchers have learned a lot about the science of pain from the animal kingdom. Sea snails have led to the discovery of new anesthetics, leeches have helped suck the pain from osteoarthritis, and cute little butterflies have made needle-sticks a bit more bearable. Now researchers are studying the temperature control mechanisms of the crocodile in hopes of finding new targets for pain relieving pharmaceuticals.
Dr Frank Seebacher and Dr Shauna A Murray from Sydney University's School of Biological Sciences have shown that reptiles possess a family of genes that code for proteins which act as external heat sensors as well as providing an internal thermometer. These proteins, 'transient receptor potential ion channels', are closely linked with sensory nerves at the animal's surface as well as in their liver, heart, and muscles.In the paper, entitled Transient Receptor Potential Ion Channels Control Thermoregulatory Behaviour in Reptiles, published in the most recent issue of the online journal PLoS ONE, the Sydney team say that information about internal temperatures and environmental conditions is fed back to the brain via these receptors. The brain is then able to direct the behaviour of the animal depending on how warm or cold it is relative to the environment.
'Until now it was unknown exactly how cold-blooded (ectothermic) animals sensed heat in their environment, which is an important step in our understanding of the biological functions governing an animal's ability to regulate their body temperature,' said Dr Seebacher. 'This capacity to sense environmental and internal temperatures is a prerequisite for the evolution of the kind of thermal regulation we find in warm-bodied (endothermic) animals, such as ourselves.'
'The functioning of all organisms depends on temperature, and we as humans know very well that when our body temperature deviates by only 3-degrees centigrade from normal we are in serious trouble. Other animals are more tolerant, but must still regulate their body temperature so that their cells and organs can function effectively,' said Dr Seebacher.
'Interestingly, similar proteins exist in mammals where among other things they are responsible for "tasting" the heat in chillies. Hence, the detection of environmental heat and "hot" chillies depends on the same mechanism, and both are closely linked to perception of pain,' said Dr Seebacher. 'Transient receptor potential ion channels are therefore of enormous interest to medicine because they could be the target for new pain relieving drugs,' he said.
Read more @ Sydney University: Discovery of crocs temperature regulator could lead to major pain relief . . .
Research Publication . . .
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Thursday, January 4, 2007
Virtual Reality Helps Young Burn Patients
Virtual reality has been used for everything from phantom limb pain, to post-traumatic stress disorder, to phobia of public speaking, and training surgeons for laparoscopic surgeries. Now Hunter Hoffman, who is the director of the Virtual Reality Analgesia Research Center for the University of Washington, has helped to design a VR game called SnowWorld to help pediatric burn patients control their pain.
The game is called SnowWorld, and when young burn victims put on its high-tech helmet and get involved in playing, they lose sight of the nurses, equipment and other fearful sights and sounds around them. Instead, they're immersed in an Arctic world where they lob virtual snowballs at penguins, snowmen and roaring woolly mammoths while speeding through hairpin turns in a canyon of ice.SnowWorld's designer, Hunter Hoffman, the director of the University of Washington's Virtual Reality Analgesia Research Center in Seattle, explained that burn victims often re-experience the sensation of getting burned as their wounds are handled during daily care.
"So, our idea was to create this 'cool' scenario -- imagery of snowflakes, an icy world of snowmen and penguins -- things that are the antithesis of fire," he said.
Pediatric burn victims, especially, need some form of non-medicinal pain control during their treatment. That's because methods commonly used in adult patients -- drugs like morphine, or artificially induced comas -- are simply too risky for use in children.
"In fact, all they could give Nathan was a light dose of oxycontin," Heidi Neisinger said.
Hoffman knew from his own research, and others' as well, that pain requires sustained attention from the brain. He figured, then, that distraction might help ease it. That's the theory behind SnowWorld, the first-ever use of virtual reality to help treat severe pain.
Hoffman, a psychologist, teamed up with Seattle-based virtual reality designers Ari Hollander and Howard Rose to perfect the latest version of the game.
"Designing a great virtual world is all about maximizing presence," Hollander explained. "Trying to make you feel like you are really in that virtual environment."
Helping kids block out their immediate environment to avoid the anticipatory aspect of pain is key, the experts said.
Read more from The Washington Post . . .
More from the American Pain Society . . .
Homepage . . .
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Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Novel Anesthetic Discovered in Sea Snail
Dr. Jenny Ekberg and colleagues at the University of Queensland have discovered that a toxin from marine snail Conus marmoreus has interesting analgesic properties, similar to local anesthetics but without any motor blockade.
From the interview Dr. Ekberg gave to the press office of University of Queensland:
"The patient experiences severe pain because their nerve cells that are responsible for pain transmission are overactive," she said."This is primarily due to abnormal activity of voltage-gated sodium channels in the nerve cells.
"Conventional drugs, such as local anaesthetics, block all types of sodium channels, causing severe side-effects.
"Our toxin only blocks a specific channel -- the first time a toxin like this has been shown to work-- therefore providing pain relief without severe side-effects."
More...
Full article at PNAS...
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Monday, November 13, 2006
3D - Computer Based Pain Visualisation Tool
Of all the vital signs, pain is the most subjective one. Ways to standardise it are half-successful (visual analog pain scale being an example.) Now researchers from Brunel University in the UK have developed a PDA-based pain recording and monitoring system:
Brunel University today unveils the World's first computer based, three-dimensional (3D) solution for pain visualisation. The tool will help patients record their own pain, as well as providing practitioners with a way to collect information on patient experience of pain and allows greater insight into the way pain travels around the body...The innovative pain visualisation tool is displayed via a web browser as a 3D body. Users can log pain data on an easy-to-use PDA monitor at regular intervals. Pain can be classified as: burning, aching, stabbing, pins and needles and numbness with each pain type allocated a colour, which is represented on the 3D rotating tool.
The data is collected and the pain entries can be stored and replayed over an extended period as a rotating multimedia image, providing physicians with more detailed understanding of surface pain journeys.
Using a PDA sized device, a physician now has the ability to:
Gain accurate, detailed insight into pain through the rotating 3D image with pain information captured. Additionally, the physician can use the zoom, rotate and drag functions over the 3D patient avatar for pain depth perception
Select individual regions of the body to describe symptoms
Observe the 3D model from various viewpoints over various time lengths
Identify different types of pain as patients code pain type by colour on the PDA (burning, aching, stabbing, pins and needles and numbness). In addition the tool will enable practitioners to save the details of patients consultations allowing records to be retained for later analysis and research.
Link...
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Monday, October 9, 2006
RestoreADVANCED™, PrimeADVANCED™ Neurostimulators
Two new neurostimulators from Medtronic been just announced:
The RestoreADVANCED device is based on Medtronic's RESTORE™ neurostimulator platform. Introduced in April 2005, the RESTORE neurostimulator emerged as the most powerful and longest-lasting rechargeable device of its kind approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)... The PrimeADVANCED device is based on Medtronic's RestorePRIME™ neurostimulator, a non-rechargeable device introduced earlier this year that offers the same coverage, customization, and advanced therapy options of the RESTORE neurostimulator; it is the only 16-electrode, non-rechargeable neurostimulator on the market today.Both systems are even easier to program with the revolutionary TargetSTIM™, Optimizer™, and AutoFILL™ capabilities, which will greatly aid physicians in targeting each individual patient's specific stimulation area on the spinal cord that provides optimal pain relief, commonly referred to as the "sweet spot."
The RestoreADVANCED and PrimeADVANCED neurostimulation systems are indicated to manage chronic, difficult-to-treat pain in the trunk and/or multiple limbs that is associated with failed back syndrome, post-laminectomy pain, unsuccessful disc surgery, or degenerative disc disease, among others. The device, about the size of a stopwatch, is implanted under the skin. Up to two leads - with eight electrodes each - deliver electrical pulses to the spine. Based on individual patient need, the positioning of the electrodes can be customized to deliver stimulation directly to the target area on the spine, and in doing so, block pain signals from reaching the brain.
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Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Leeches Drain Pain Out of Osteoarthritis
It's been a while since we've heard from our friendly blood-sucking medgadget, the leech. Armed with its mysterious powers, the leech has a place in technological jumble of modern medicine. We missed the little guy, so we decided to dig up a little research and found some interesting info on treatment for osteoarthritis.
Osteoarthritis of the knee is a painful inflammatory disease that can severely limit a patient's mobility. Leeches to the rescue! Here's an excerpt from a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine:
...4 to 6 medicinal leeches (Hirudo medicinalis, ZAUG GmbH, Biebertal, Germany) were applied once to the periarticular soft tissue of the affected knee, with preference to maximally painful points during examination and palpation. Leeches were left in place until they detached by themselves, after a mean of 70 minutes. The patient's knee was then bandaged, and the patient was cautioned not to be physically active for the next 12 hours. The patient returned the next day (study day 1) for a change of dressing and a repeated blood count. Control group patients were given 300 g of diclofenac gel (diclofenac-natrium 10 mg- 1 g gel, Pharmacia, Erlangen, Germany), and the proper use was demonstrated. Patients were instructed to apply the gel at least twice daily for days 0 through 28 and to discontinue application thereafter. Adherence to diclofenac gel treatment was assessed from the diaries and crosschecked by counting used gel tubes and interviewing the patients....In summary, traditional leech therapy seems to be an effective symptomatic treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee.
If only other blood-sucking monsters could be so useful... Yeah, I'm talking to you mosquitoes!
Read the article here...
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Monday, August 21, 2006
Cute Needles: A Cognitive Therapy
Our favorite blogging psychiatrist tipped us off to this cutting-edge research -- the University of New Mexico's Health Sciences Center shows that using needles with colorful drawings significantly reduces the level of stress in patients:
A fear of needles, syringe procedures, intravenous therapy and medical devices is given the overall term of needle phobia.The UNM study focused on the specific psychological components of stress - aversion, fear and anxiety - induced by exposures to needles and medical devices. Some 80 percent of the subjects experienced moderate to severe aversion, 63 percent suffered moderate and to severe fear and 62 percent showed moderate to severe anxiety on exposure to conventional syringes.Using decorated syringes resulted in significant stress reduction, and reduced aversion by 68 percent, fear by 53 percent and anxiety by 53 percent. Significant reductions were also found when IV bags and scalpels were decorated.
Researcher Wilmer L. Sibbitt, Jr., M.D., Professor, Internal Medicine, Rheumatology, and Neurology at the UNM School of Medicine, said it is likely that decorating a medical device is a neurophysiologic intervention, resulting in stimulation of brain areas not usually associated with fear, anxiety and aversion.
There you have it! A neurophysiologic explanation. We look forward to applying this thinking to its logical conclusion: surgeons with funny hats, emergency rooms with carnival music, and claustrophobic MRI scanners with pretty, pretty lights.
The press release...
More...
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Friday, June 23, 2006
AquaSonix: Making Waves in the Pool
A company called HealthSonix has registered their medical device, AquaSonix, with the FDA. Patients are to use the sound-wave generator in the pool, for arthritis pain relief and relaxation. The company doesn't seem too sure how it works:
AquaSonix Therapy programs are held throughout the day and early evening in warm water pools (85 degrees to 94 degrees Fahrenheit) located in hospitals, rehabilitation clinics, community centers, and retirement residences. The standard course of therapy is fifteen 45-minute sessions, ideally two to three times a week with a minimum of one day in between treatment sessions. All programs are led by certified AquaSonix Therapists.The sound pressure waves generated by the AquaSonix device are believed to work by stimulating mechanoreceptors in the skin, which in turn communicate with the brain and block pain messages from getting through (gate control theory of pain); and by creating an exercise effect in the muscles, which encourages the production and release of endorphins, the body's natural pain killers.
Usually these pages link to some studies, no matter how tangential, to support their claims. AquaSonix, however, resorts to this vaguely menacing insistence that "It Happens In the Water" -- next to a picture of a senior citizens' uprising, complete with pool noodles poised to strike.
More from AquaSonix Therapy...
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Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Study Suggests Music Helps Chronic Pain
Savage beast: thy name is chronic pain. Some work coming out of the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western University in the June issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing suggests that listening to music for an hour a day can decrease pain and associated depression.
Patients in one group picked their favorite music or nature sounds to listen to for an hour every day. They could pick upbeat tunes or slower sounds -- whatever they wanted.Patients in another group chose from relaxing instrumental music supplied by the researchers. For comparison, patients in the third group weren't asked to listen to music during the study
Here are details on the improvements seen in the music groups' surveys:
* Average pain ratings fell by about 20%.
* Average depression scores fell by up to 25%.
* Average self-rated disability dropped by up to 18%.
* Feelings of empowerment rose by up to 8%.Did it matter if patients selected their own music? Probably not. Any differences between the two music groups' average improvements may have been due to chance, the study shows.
Musical style apparently didn't matter, either. "A variety of different music selections and styles, some with lyrics and some without, were found to be effective in this study," the researchers write.
The researchers aren't suggesting that music can totally erase pain, and they're not suggesting it as a replacement for standard pain care. But music might be a harmless addition to treatment, the study shows.
"Music is safe, inexpensive, and easy for nurses to teach patients to use," write Siedliecki and Good. They note that nurses can help patients find and use music to help deal with chronic, nonmalignant pain. In doing so, nurses should be sensitive to patients' musical preferences, the researchers add.
Exactly how music helped the patients cope with chronic pain isn't known, or if the rest they got while listening to the music made a difference.
WebMD does a good job of paraphrasing technical literature with this article. Wording such as "Any differences between the two music groups' average improvements may have been due to chance, the study shows" translates an insignificant t-test without muddling the meaning. Also, pointing out the presence of a control group takes the reporting a step farther than your average AP health article.
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Monday, May 8, 2006
Eon™ Rechargeable Neurostimulation System
St. Jude Medical, Inc. has announced today that its subsidiary Advanced Neuromodulation Systems (ANS) received EU's CE Mark clearance for the Eon™ Rechargeable Neurostimulation System, a pain management device. The company is also reporting the first European patient implant of the Eon implantable pulse generator (IPG).
The technology, according to the company:
Featuring the highest-capacity rechargeable battery on the market, the Eon implantable pulse generator (IPG) is designed to last a minimum of seven years at high power settings. This allows patients to go longer between battery replacement surgeries. Eon can power up to 16 independent electrodes, which allows clinicians more programming options to better manage the patient's pain...Spinal cord stimulators like Eon are implanted devices that are similar in function and appearance to cardiac pacemakers. To have a spinal cord stimulator or "pain pacemaker" implanted, a patient must undergo a minor surgical procedure in which a lead or leads are placed in the epidural space and connected to a generator, which serves as the power source and programming "brain." Once activated, the system's programs are adjusted and fine tuned to best control the patient's pain. Patients use a controller (similar to a remote control) that allows them to check the system's battery, adjust the power level, select from pre-set programs and turn the system power on and off.
The product page at ANS...
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