ACPA Medication Supplement 2008 7/15/2008 The ACPA believes that people with chronic pain benefit from being well informed about their medications. This knowledge may relieve the fears that can interfere with receiving maximum benefits from medications.This supplement is not meant to serve as medical advice for your condition or regarding your medication needs. Remember that the best source of information about your health and medication needs is from an open dialogue with your treating doctor.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Medicines: A Guide for Adults June 2008 This guide can help you work with your doctor or nurse to find a medicine for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It is a lifelong condition. RA causes inflammation (swelling, redness, and pain) that can damage the joints. No treatment can cure RA. But the drugs in this guide can slow down the disease and help you feel better.
Relieving Pain With Abuse-Resistant Drugs 2/27/2008 CBS) For many Americans, drug abuse is a painful fact of life. And pain is often the cause. By one estimate, more than 33 million Americans have abused prescription pain killers. For the second part of the series, Easing the Pain, CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook examines new prescription pain killers that are designed to prevent abuse.
Consumers' Guide: Practice Guidelines for Low Back Pain 2/06/2008 Today doctors rely on the current research to determine sound therapies for individual patients. Doctors make the best decisions when they are based on the best evidence and tailored according to individual patient factors, patient preferences, and other considerations such as the availability of therapies and costs. This is called Evidence Based Medicine or EBM. EBM provides a balanced way to explore the best treatment for a patient by looking at all the factors that can provide relief. To read the guideliens, click below.
Policy Evaluation Resources for the Practitioner 1/2/08 Policy Evaluation Resources for the Practitioner An article, titled “Improving state pain policies: Recent progress and continuing opportunities,” was published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. This article presents recent results from the PPSG’s national policy evaluation project, and describes how practitioners can use each state’s findings to inform and guide state-level efforts to improve policies affecting appropriate pain management and patient care. The article is available at http://caonline.amcancersoc.org/cgi/reprint/57/6/341.
Pain Care Act 2007 July 2007 Pain is the most common reason Americans access the health care system and is a leading contributor to health care costs. Pain is also a leading cause of disability. Most painful conditions can be relieved with proper treatment, and providing adequate pain management is a crucial component of improving and maintaining quality of life for patients, survivors, and their loved ones. Yet people in pain often face significant barriers that can prevent proper assessment, diagnosis, treatment and management of their pain. The National Pain Care Policy Act of 2007 is designed to address many of these barriers by improving pain care research, education, training, access, outreach and care.
Better Information for You August 2007 Over the past few years, academics and policy makers are increasingly focused on developing better information for clinical decision-making, ensuring the translation of research to a variety of audiences, including patient, and considering changes to the d
2007 Task Force on Aging Research Funding April 2007 Urges Congress and the President to Uphold a National Commitment to Medical Research Calls for 6.7% increase in NIH funding for FY 2008
Breakthrough Pain October 2006 Do you feel that your daily pain is fairly well controlled, yet still find there are times when you experience a sudden flare of pain that “breaks through”? These flares are called breakthrough pain or BTP. Read more.
Too Many Trips to the Emergency Room May 2006 People with pain often have more experience with the emergency department than they would like. And that experience is not always good.
The ACPA conducted an on-line survey about this experience and presented a poster of findings at the recent APS meeting. Here is a story about the finding from UPI.
Grass Roots Action Kit Supporting the Pain Care Policy Act (House Bill 1020) at the grassroots level. For more information, click on the PDF file. Your voice counts!
National Institutes of Health pain-related research January 2006 The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is pleased to submit a statement for the record with respect to pain-related research at the NIH, including trans-NIH activities of the NIH Pain Consortium.
A Consumer Guide to Options for Managing Chronic Pain May 5, 2005 Pain is in the news and not always in ways the 50 million Americans living with pain might hope. Two COX-2 non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) medications have been withdrawn from the market and the FDA has mandated more stringent warnings on all NSAIDS. For many people with pain, the medications now under fire make the difference between productivity and disability. But many also worry about the risks.
The American Chronic Pain Association, the National Pain Foundation, and the American Pain Foundation have created A CONSUMER GUIDE TO OPTIONS FOR MANAGING CHRONIC PAIN. The guide answers key questions about recent developments and offers support for people with pain and the challenges they face.
