http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A new national public opinion poll commissioned by Research!America shows only 18% of respondents believe chronic pain is a major health problem, even though a majority of Americans (63%) say they know someone who experienced pain so severe that they sought prescription medicines to treat it. Chronic pain conditions affect about 100 million U.S. adults at a cost of approximately $600 billion annually in direct medical treatment costs and lost productivity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-chronic-pain-drug-addiction-major.html Medications Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:27:57 EST news284725666 (Medical Xpress)—A team of researchers at Indiana University's School of Medicine has found that giving meloxicam, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), to people and baboons boosts the number of haematopoietic stem cells that enter the blood stream from bone marrow. This, the team writes in their paper they've had published in the journal Nature, may help cancer patients recover their ability to create new blood cells following chemotherapy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-nsaids-stem-cells-bloodstream-prior.html Medical research Thu, 14 Mar 2013 08:37:33 EST news282469042 (HealthDay)—In the first stage of labor, a combined spinal-epidural technique provides faster and better pain relief compared to traditional epidural pain relief, a new study suggests. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-combo-treatment-epidural-ease-labor.html Medical research Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:10:01 EST news281727521 (HealthDay)—The rate of non-medical use of prescription pain relievers in the past year among individuals aged 12 years and older is estimated at 4.6 percent nationally, with considerable variation between states, according to a study published online Jan. 8 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-non-medical-rx-pain-meds-percent.html Medications Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:00:01 EST news277044593 Nonprescription medications are just as likely a cause of poisoning as prescription drugs, according to a new study by Timothy Wiegand, M.D. from the University of Rochester Medical Center in the US and colleagues. Their work, which analyzes the data from the second annual report of the Toxicology Investigators Consortium (ToxIC), is published online in Springer's Journal of Medical Toxicology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-nonprescription-medication-abuse-underestimated.html Medications Thu, 04 Oct 2012 13:27:12 EST news268575968 A study by a team of University of Kentucky researchers has shed new light on the potential habit-forming properties of the popular pain medication tramadol, in research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The paper is slated to appear in an upcoming edition of the academic journal Psychopharmacology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-pain-pill-abuse.html Medications Wed, 26 Sep 2012 12:57:57 EST news267883048 (AP)—The Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers about rare chemical burns reported by people using popular pain relief products like Bengay, Icy Hot and Flexall. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-fda-muscle-joint-pain-creams.html Medications Thu, 13 Sep 2012 13:07:03 EST news266760417 (HealthDay) -- It's not good news for baby boomers with arthritic knees: Injections of hyaluronic acid have little effect on pain and no effect on function, according to a new analysis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-knee-arthritis-money.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Tue, 12 Jun 2012 04:30:01 EST news258693491 Surveys of U.S. adolescents suggest that the estimated peak risk of using prescription pain relievers for extramedical use, such as to get high or for other unapproved indications, occurs in mid-adolescence, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-mid-adolescence-peak-extramedical-pain-relievers.html Health Mon, 07 May 2012 16:00:04 EST news255614445 Between 2000 and 2009 in the United States, the annual rate of maternal opiate use increased nearly 5-fold, while diagnosis of the drug withdrawal syndrome among newborns, neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), increased almost 3-fold, accompanied by a substantial increase in hospital charges related to NAS, according to a study published online by JAMA. The study is being released early to coincide with its presentation at the Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-spike-painkiller-addicted-babies.html Health Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:20:01 EST news255021649 (HealthDay) -- A new U.S. government analysis shows that more than 70 percent of people who first misuse prescription medications get those pills from their friends or relatives. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-misuse-prescription-pills-friends-family.html Medications Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:20:01 EST news254593884 (AP) -- Sales of the nation's two most popular prescription painkillers have exploded in new parts of the country, an Associated Press analysis shows, worrying experts who say the push to relieve patients' suffering is spawning an addiction epidemic. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-painkiller-sales-soar-fuel-addiction.html Medications Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:06:41 EST news252817592 Patients who are dependent on opioids (narcotic pain relievers) for pain management before knee replacement surgery have much more difficulty recovering, a study recently published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS) has found. These patients tend to have longer hospital stays, more post-surgical pain, a higher rate of complications, and are more likely to need additional procedures, than patients who are not opioid-dependent. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-pain-meds.html Other Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:10:53 EST news240235049 (AP) -- Tiny amounts of pharmaceuticals and personal care products detected in the drinking water of the nation's biggest city continue to pose no public health risks to residents, environmental officials said Friday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-medications-nyc-health.html Health Sat, 20 Aug 2011 04:30:21 EST news233033400 (AP) -- Johnson & Johnson said Thursday that it's reducing the maximum daily dose of its Extra Strength Tylenol pain reliever to lower risk of accidental overdose from acetaminophen, its active ingredient and the top cause of liver failure. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-johnson-maximum-tylenol-dose-overdoses.html Medications Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:00:02 EST news231082105 For many people, pain relievers are wonder drugs, allowing them to carry on with their lives despite disabling arthritis, for instance, or recurrent headaches. But all pain relievers, whether sold over-the counter (OTC) or by prescription, have potential risks. Recent studies have amplified the concerns. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-red-flags-pain-reliever-safety.html Medications Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:36:21 EST news230290439 People take billions of doses of over-the-counter pain relievers like Tylenol every year, but many do not pay attention to the active ingredients they contain, such as acetaminophen, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study. That lack of knowledge about popular pain relievers plus particular ignorance of acetaminophen's presence in more than 600 over-the-counter and prescription medicines could be a key reason acetaminophen overdose has become the leading cause of acute liver failure in the U.S. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-ingredients-pain-relievers.html Medications Tue, 03 May 2011 04:37:59 EST news223616196