Suzanne Bujara

Experts advise using ibuprofen and acetaminophen rather than codeine and tramadol to treat children in pain.

When traditional oral analgesics no longer control pain, some physicians are turning to alternative drug delivery methods that provide pain relief while avoiding systemic adverse effects.

Interventional pain modalities provide alternative analgesia in patients who are intolerant of pharmacologic agents, have comorbidities that require multiple medications, or have pain refractory to oral medications.

Researchers found that abnormal magnetic resonance imaging suggests that in patients with multiple sclerosis, headaches often precede diagnoses.

Prescribing opioids for cancer pain should not be automatic. Patients and their families still need to be screened for abuse potential. Clinicians should consider analgesic options beyond opioids.

Those with chronic pelvic pain often have comorbid psychological syndromes, such as depression, anxiety, and catastrophizing.

Hemicrania continua, one of the trigeminal primary headaches, causes intense unilateral pain for ≥3 months.

Big data has enabled public health authorities to identify doctor-shopping patients and those who needed treatment for opioid abuse. The trade-off, however, could be patient and provider privacy.

The opioid system is responsible for social pain and reward in the brain; therefore, understanding its underpinnings may help clinicians manage patients with depression and suicidal ideation.

When alcohol and opioid addiction occur together, managing them concomitantly becomes challenging. Whereas some patients may not need medication for alcohol addiction, opioid abuse does require pharmacotherapy.