PainWeek 2013

Sleep and diabetes, diabetes and pain, and pain and sleep all are intricately intertwined, said Victor Rosenfeld, MD, Medical Director of the Sleep Center at the SouthCoast Medical Group to attendees of PAINWeek 2013.

Lidocaine patches are being widely used to treat certain types of pain for which they were not approved despite a lack of efficacy evidence, said James D. Ray, PharmD in a session at PAINWeek 2013 titled, “Topical and Transdermal Analgesics.”

Hypnosis can be an effective tool for relieving pain, even the extreme pain associated with burn wound debridement, says David R. Patterson, PhD, Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University Washington, Seattle at PAINWeek 2013.

Neuropathic pain is a tremendous burden on the individual and society and represents a complex mixture of peripheral and central mechanisms, said Sean Mackey, MD, PhD at PAINWeek 2013.

“Can a patient who has had complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) for 6 years become pain-free?” Michael H. Moskowitz, MD, MPH asked attendees at PAINWeek 2013. If you engage the patient’s brain in treatment to reset the neuroplastically altered persistence of the pain, the answer is “yes.”

Obesity is associated with worse outcomes in pain patients, but losing even modest weight loss can make a substantial difference, said Robert A. Bonakdar, MD, to PAINWeek 2013 attendees.

The use of virtual reality and virtual reality hypnosis provides an analgesic effect, reducing pain and anxiety in patients with burns, for example, who describe pain during wound care as “severe to excruciating,” attendees of PAINWeek were told by David R. Patterson, PhD.

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a common condition that is easy to identify and treat, says Victor Rosenfeld, MD, to attendees of PAINWeek 2013.

“The war on opioids has resulted in progressively increasing undertreatment of chronic pain,” Michael E. Schatman, PhD, CPE, DASPE, told attendees of PAINWeek 2013.