Chronic Pain

For many who suffer depression, chronic pain is a frequent fellow traveler. As many as half of those with chronic pain or with neuropathic pain disorders, such as fibromyalgia, have depression as well. That the two are so often bound together suggests a complex relationship, and the brain's shared circuitry for social and physical pain may lie at its heart. Depression and chronic pain are distinct but similar disorders. But both may arise from some faulty wiring in their shared neural circuitry, researchers say. In both disorders, pain continues long after some initial insult has healed, disappeared or moved on, and the experience of social rejection or physical pain persists, feeds on itself and becomes chronic.

Three people dead in an apparent murder-suicide in Hacienda Heights were all suffering from long-term illnesses, said a relative of the victims. Jim Crabtree went to the home in the 15900 block of Ladysmith Street on Wednesday after seeing news reports of a triple-homicide, he told KTLA News . Crabtree said he was married to Rita Delehanty, 62, who along with her father-in-law and mother-in-law, Don and Carol Crabtree, all suffered long-term...

Re "Bill aimed at pain drug's abuse," March 21 Left out of this article was any concern the members of Congress seeking to place tighter restrictions on the painkiller hydrocodone might have for people who actually suffer from chronic pain. The only folks who will be affected by this effort to limit the number of accidental overdose deaths by a very few are those patients who suffer with constant, severe pain. I happen to be one of those people; my deteriorating spine makes life a struggle.

An Orange County pain specialist already in the spotlight over deaths from prescription medications has racked up another patient overdose death. The coroner has ruled that Wayne Oviatt died in January of a mix of prescription drugs, including morphine, which Dr. Van H. Vu had been prescribing for him. Vu has lost 17 patients to drug overdoses since 2006, according to coroner's records analyzed by Times reporters Lisa Girion and Scott Glover. He is being investigated by the state medical board, but there are no restrictions on his pain management practice.

Chronic pain is usually thought of as a problem affecting adults. But a new study shows that chronic pain is also highly prevalent in children and that more kids today suffer from pain compared with two decades ago. Researchers in Nova Scotia analyzed data from 41 studies on pain in children published since 1991,which was the last time such an analysis was completed. They found that chronic pain conditions are more common in girls than boys and that pain problems tend to increase with age. Headache is the most common type of chronic pain in kids, with 23% of children age7 to 18 reporting weekly headaches and 5% reporting daily headaches.

Pain is more than just a complaint -- it’s a public health issue. And the time has come to do something about it. So concludes a new report from the Institute of Medicine, written at the request of the Department of Health and Human Services.  The report , mandated by the healthcare overhaul law, estimates that chronic pain costs between $560 billion and $635 billion each year in medical expenses and lost productivity. But, it adds, pain is also personal, affecting each person individually.

Acupuncture eases some kinds of chronic pain - and it's not just a placebo effect at work, researchers who looked at data from nearly 18,000 patients found. An estimated 3 million American adults get acupuncture treatments annually; still, there “remains considerable controversy as to its value,” the researchers wrote in a study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine. But they found that for back and neck pain, chronic headache, osteoarthritis and shoulder pain, acupuncture works better than no treatment and better than “sham” acupuncture - done, for example, with needles inserted superficially or with needles that retract into the handles instead of going into the skin.

For more than a decade, Cheryl Clark has lived with the chronic pain that accompanies fibromyalgia. After years of suffering with severe flu-like aches and pains, she finally found some relief — but it didn't come from a pill or a shot. It came from exercise. Several times a week, Clark heads to the warm-water pool and the gym at Casa Colina Centers for Rehabilitation in Pomona. Her pain, she says, has gone from a six or seven on a 10-point scale scale down to a one or two. "It would kill me to walk from the car to the doctor's office.

Pain is a hard thing to measure, and also quite mysterious: Two people may experience very similar injuries and similar levels of initial pain, but where one may recover the other may go on to experience a crippling chronic condition.   Why does pain persist for some but not others? Scientists at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine took an interesting look at this. Their work, just published in the journal Nature Neuroscience , tracked brain activity in 40 people with new back injuries and found a pattern of activity that could predict -- with 85% accuracy -- which patients were destined to develop chronic pain and which weren't.

If you've had it, you would know. Chronic itchiness -- often the result of skin conditions such as psoriasis , eczema or allergies -- disrupts sleep, dims pleasure and limits activities. Just as much as chronic pain does. Now it's official: A study published online this week by the Archives of Dermatology has found that those who suffer from unrelenting itch, generally for six months to a year, have been brought every bit as low by their condition as have chronic-pain sufferers.

Re "Bill aimed at pain drug's abuse," March 21 Left out of this article was any concern the members of Congress seeking to place tighter restrictions on the painkiller hydrocodone might have for people who actually suffer from chronic pain. The only folks who will be affected by this effort to limit the number of accidental overdose deaths by a very few are those patients who suffer with constant, severe pain. I happen to be one of those people; my deteriorating spine makes life a struggle.

Re "Grocer may bid U.S. 'cheerio,'" March 21 The Times' evident bias against Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is intriguing. Why in a story about Fresh & Easy do we hear only from the chain's naysayers - including the founder of Trader Joe's, a pro-Trader Joe's analyst and a pro-Trader Joe's customer? Where are the interviews with Fresh & Easy customers? The article ends by quoting one person who says, "I don't know anybody that goes to Fresh & Easy. " Here's a clue: Go to a store and you'll find us. I am one customer who will be disappointed if Fresh & Easy closes, as I've found products that often exceed my expectations.

Lady Gaga has undergone hip surgery after a concert injury left her immobile last month and forced her to cancel the remainder of her "Born This Way Ball" tour. In a note posted late Wednesday on her Little Monsters blog, the singer, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, thanked fans and said that they had given her "a lot of strength" during her surgery. "Everything happened so fast, but when it came time to face it I reflected on the many stories and experiences you've shared with me about your lives.

Lady Gaga needs surgery after suffering from a concert injury, which has led to the cancellation of her "Born This Way Ball" tour. The singer, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, was experiencing chronic pain that caused the cancellation of four tour shows earlier this week. "After additional tests this morning to review the severity of the issue, it has been determined that Lady Gaga has a labral tear of the right hip,"  a Live Nation post on LittleMonsters .com announced Wednesday.

This post has been corrected. Please see note at bottom for details. Lady Gaga has called off shows this week in Chicago, Auburn Hills, Mich., and Hamilton, Canada, because of chronic joint pain the singer said she has been concealing from her staff and fans. “I've been hiding a show injury and chronic pain for sometime now, over the past month it has worsened,' Gaga announced in a series of tweets sent out Tuesday. “I've been praying it would heal. I hid it from my staff, I didn't want to disappoint my amazing fans.

Evelyn Freeman, a pioneer in the field of aging who in the twilight of her life helped people cope with the challenges of getting older, has died. She was 96. Freeman, who was the longtime director of the senior counseling program at what was then called the Center for Healthy Aging in Santa Monica, died Jan. 14 of old age at her Brentwood home, her close friend Antoinette O'Connor said. Freeman was instrumental in adapting peer counseling techniques for seniors facing the difficult issues of aging, such as losing loved ones, isolation and stress from chronic pain.

As the advertisement for the antidepressant Cymbalta says, "Depression hurts. Cymbalta can help. " Chronic pain hurts too. And the makers of the drug duloxetine -- commercially known as Cymbalta -- argue that Cymbalta can help with that, as well. Chronic pain hurts, too. And the makers of the drug duloxetine--commercially known as Cymbalta --argue Cymbalta can help with that, as well.  So Eli Lilly and Co. on Thursday  made the case to a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee that its antidepressant, which has been approved for diabetic nerve pain and fibromyalgia, should get the FDA's blessing as a treatment for a wide range of chronic pain conditions, including those caused by osteoarthritis.

Dealing with our doctors should not be more difficult than dealing with disease. Yet for the millions of women who suffer from chronic pain, that's the way it has always been. While gender discrimination has significantly decreased, it is still shockingly pervasive in the medical establishment. For instance, when men complain to doctors about chronic pain, they are handed a prescription; when women complain, they are often told, "It's all in your head."

Re "Panel urges more control of Vicodin," Jan. 26 Reclassifying hydrocodone as a Schedule II narcotic may be of some value in controlling the number of Vicodin prescriptions given out, but this would be of minor benefit. In my experience, most Vicodin prescriptions are for small doses and are written after minor medical procedures or injuries. The real problem is the deaths caused by the few physicians who don't actually practice medicine but merely prescribe drugs to anyone who asks for them.

More than 1 million Americans visit an emergency room each year because of prescription drug abuse, and the toll has been rising steadily since 2004. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration thinks it has an idea that will help: Reclassify the pain reliever Vicodin and other medications containing hydrocodone as Schedule II drugs, the most restrictive category for pharmaceuticals with accepted medical uses. The suggestion was turned down by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2008, but DEA officials believe that the signs of increasing abuse call for another look.