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Coming
Soon!
The American Pain Society will introduce a new Centers
of Excellence in Clinical Pain Management Award Program. Watch for
a special e-mail with full details.
APS
Board Meeting
The
APS Board of Directors met October 12–13, at the national
office in Glenview, IL, for the mid-year board meeting. Among the
many items on the agenda were the society's legislative agenda,
approving a visual identity and communications plan, the Centers
of Excellence Program, and updates from the special interests groups,
committee chairs, publication editors, and task force chairs. More
news from the meeting will follow in future issues.
APS
Pediatric Pain Forum
Hyatt Regency Crystal City at Reagan
National Airport
May 2, 2007
This
1-day forum is designed for scientists, clinical researchers, physicians,
and other healthcare providers involved in developmental pain research
or pediatric pain management. The forum will be held in conjunction
with the 26th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Pain Society,
which will be held in Washington, DC.
The keynote address will be presented by Carol Schadelbauer, Vice
President and Director, Health and Science Advisory Team, Burness
Communications, Bethesda, MD. Ms. Schadelbauer will discuss how
to use the media to foster improved pain management at the local,
regional, and national levels.
APS
thanks the PPF Planning Committee for their efforts. Members include
Jennifer Tsao (Chair), Kenneth Goldschneider, Deidre Logan, Navil
Sethna, Steven Weisman, and Lonnie Zeltzer.
Online
registration opens in December.
Final
Reminder
Call for Paper and Poster Abstracts Due October 27
 Click
here to visit the call online. Submissions are due October
27, 2006.
News
Highlights from The Journal of Pain
 The
following highlights summarize selected articles from the October
2006 issue (volume 7, number 10).
Concerns About Medication and Medication
Use in Chronic Pain
Lance M. McCracken, Julian Hoskins, and Christopher Eccleston,
Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Bath, England
It's
widely known that patients with chronic pain sometimes worry about
taking medication. Some toxicology studies have shown about one-third
of patients with chronic noncancer pain may be noncompliant with
their prescriptions. This British study was designed to examine
concerns of patients related to their use of pain medications. The
authors surveyed 220 pain patients and assessed seven areas of patient
concerns: addiction, perceived need, unfavorable scrutiny by others,
adverse side effects, tolerance, mistrust in the prescribing doctor,
and withdrawal. Results from the multivariate analysis showed:
- General
adherence was primarily predicted by mistrust in the prescribing
doctor and by concern over addiction.
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Underuse of medication was linked with concern about side effects
and perceived needs or concerns about withdrawal.
-
Overuse was predominantly predicted by perceiving medication as
needed and secondarily related to concerns about negative scrutiny.
- Depression
was prevalent in those who perceived medication as needed and
worried that one day it will be less effective.
-
Disability was predicted by concerns about tolerance and side
effects.
The
authors also reported that distressed chronic pain patients said
medication use was associated with further distress. Therefore,
fears about treatment and its effects should be considered a target
of additional treatment for these patients.
Factors Associated with Early Opioid Prescribing
Among Workers with Low Back Injuries
Bert D. Stover, Judith A. Turner, Gary Frankli
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