Nerve pain pill found effective in treating hot flashes

August 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The idea of medical use of marijuana for pain relief has been thrown into doubt after researchers from University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have found that active ingredients in marijuana can instead spread and prolong pain. The team has found that a group of compounds in marijuana called the cannabinoids prolong pain rather than damping it down.

August 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new investigational, orally inhaled therapy has been found effective in treating migraines, according to researchers. The research team from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania have shown that LEVADEX provided pain relief in 30 minutes and sustained relief for 48 hours.

August 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A compound initially isolated from a soft coral collected at Green Island off Taiwan could help give rise to new set of treatments for neuropathic pain - chronic pain that sometimes follows damage to the nervous system, according to a new study. At the moment, such form of pain is very poorly controlled by the usual analgesics (aspirin like drugs (NSAIDS) or even opioids like morphine) and novel treatments are urgently required.

June 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new once-in-the-month pill has been found to be effective in controlling both fleas and ticks in dogs and cats, say researchers. Peter Meinke and colleagues at Merck Research Laboratories obtained the flea and tick fighter from a substance found in a fungus.

June 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - While it is known that chronic pain and depression go hand in hand, a new study has shown that the link between pain and depression is strongest in middle-age women. For the study, researchers at Wayne State University examined a representative community sample of 1,100 Michigan residents and found that the incidence of chronic pain, defined as pain persisting for six months, was 22 percent.

May 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - How do you know you've been pricked by a pin or burnt by a match? Scientists from Caltech and University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have shown that this sensory discrimination begins in the skin at the very earliest stages of neuronal (nerve cells) information processing. 'Conventional wisdom was that the nociceptive (caused by or in response to pain) neurons in the skin can't tell the difference between heat and mechanical pain, like a pin prick,' said David Anderson, professor of biology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator and study co-author.

May 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An experimental anti-venom has been found effective in protecting children against scorpion sting, say researchers. Lead researcher Dr Leslie Boyer, director of the VIPER (Venom Immunochemistry, Pharmacology and Emergency Response) Institute at The University of Arizona College of Medicine examined 15 children admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit following a bark scorpion sting.

May 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A traditional extract of Kava, a medicinal plant from the South Pacific, may be safe and effective in reducing anxiety as well as depression, a study has found. In the study, researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia found that a water-soluble extract of Kava was effective in treating anxiety and improving mood.

April 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new animal model developed by researchers for the painful nerve condition sciatica should help doctors diagnose and treat it, according to a new study. Its symptoms are numbness or pain from the lower back to the feet, radiating leg pain or difficulty in controlling the leg.

April 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Duke University bioengineers and surgeons have developed a new animal model for the painful nerve condition, known as sciatica, which could offer insights to help researchers diagnose and treat it. Sciatica is characterised by numbness or pain from the lower back to the feet, radiating leg pain or difficulty in controlling the leg.

March 31st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A commonly used painkiller has been found to be effective against treating the acute pain of shingles, an illness that often causes severe pain along with a rash. The painkiller oxycodone can help in treating acute pain of shingles, which is caused by reactivation of the varicella zoster virus, a bug that causes chicken pox.

March 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Vitamin D deficiency might worsen the condition of people suffering from chronic pain, according to a new study. The research from Mayo Clinic has found a link between inadequate vitamin D levels and the amount of narcotic medication taken by patients who have chronic pain.

March 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers from University of Toronto have suggested a new minimal invasive therapy for relieving the pain of herniated disks. The minimally invasive interventional radiology treatment uses oxygen/ozone to relieve the chronic pain of herniated disks.

February 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers are relying on spun-sugar filaments to create a scaffold of tiny synthetic tubes to help regenerate nerves severed in accidents or blood vessels damaged by disease. The sugar filaments are coated with a corn-based degradable polymer, and then the sugar is dissolved in water, leaving behind bundles of hollow polymer tubes that mimic those found in nerves, said Riyi Shi, associate professor in Purdue's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Basic Medical Sciences.

February 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Capsaicin, the active agent in spicy hot chili peppers, often acts as an irritant, but it may also be used to reduce pain. Feng Qin, associate professor of physiology and biophysics at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine, and Jing Yao used capsaicin to unravel how pain-receptor systems can adapt to painful stimuli.