If opioids prevent significant suffering, then the solution to the prescription opioid problem cannot simply be to stop using them.
People’s minds can be fooled into experiencing both pain and pain relief.
As Canada moves towards legalization of cannabis in 2018, there is growing evidence of the drug's potential to treat opioid addiction itself, as well as the chronic pain that often drives it.
One in five Canadians suffers chronic pain and almost 2,500 died last year from opioid overdose. A National Pain Strategy promises to tackle both problems.
Chronic pain often comes with other illnesses. Researchers have now shown that genetics can play a part in how likely you are to suffer.
Our brains tell our bodies to move differently when we have pain. And there is emerging evidence to show changing how we move could actually contribute to the development of chronic pain.
If you’re an Australian teenager or young adult diagnosed with cancer, there’s good news: overall survival rates are good and getting better. But what can you expect from life after cancer treatment?
With restrictions to cannabis loosening at the state level, research is badly needed to get the facts in order.
Many people with moderate to severe chronic pain find it difficult to move around. By contrast, HIV-positive people who had chronic pain are still active.
Poor testing methods and antibiotic use by GPs and urologists has left thousands of women with crippling infections.
Unrelieved pain contributes more to human suffering than any other disease.
If you've ever experienced pain in your vulva, you're not alone. Around 16% of women will have vulvar pain that lasts for longer than three months. They are likely suffering from vulvodynia.
Lyrica, the brand name for a medicine called pregabalin, is an anti-epileptic drug most commonly used to treat chronic nerve pain - a type of pain caused by abnormality in, or damage to, the nerves.
Could the future of pain relief be all about virtual reality games and clinics designed to promote certain sounds and colours?
We are witnessing widespread abuse of legal, prescribed drugs that, while structurally similar to illicit opioids such as heroin, are used for sound medical practices. So how did we get here?
Pelvic inflammatory disease's traumatic consequences are unmatched by the low level of awareness around it. Left untreated, it can cause chronic pelvic pain, ectopic pregnancy and infertility.
A sea change in pain treatment helped create the opioid abuse epidemic, and another sea change in how doctors view chronic pain could help curb it.
Unexplained, chronic pain known as fibromyalgia affects up to 5% of the population. Yet there are no effective treatment options for the millions for whom each day begins with persistent pain.
A significant decider of why some manage with chronic pain and some are disabled is the way their partners respond to them.
Pain management is one of the most neglected aspects of health care; our failure to adequately address chronic pain is a major driver of its economic and social burden.