Common Painkillers Linked to Increased Risk of Heart Problems

ScienceDaily (2011-01-11) -- Commonly used painkillers for treating inflammation can increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes, according to an analysis of the evidence.

A Negative Palliative Care Trial? | GeriPal - Geriatrics and Palliative Care Blog

from GeriPal Blog

There has been a lot of good news about palliative care in the last year. Most notably is one well designed randomized control trial (RTC) finding improved survival and quality of life for stage IV lung cancer patients receiving outpatient palliative care consultations. This line of evidence has been particularly important for those of us attempting to grow palliative care programs both in the inpatient and outpatient arena. But, what should we do when the results of a RTC of inpatient palliative care consultations come up negative? Should we ignore these findings, dispute them, or acquiesce? These are the questions that I am grappling with after reading a research letter in the Archives of Internal Medicine by Dr. Steven Pantilat and colleagues.


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Medical Marijuana Raises Tough Questions in Nursing Homes - NYTimes.com

Image via WikipediaBy NUSHIN RASHIDIAN AND ALYSON MARTIN

Every night before bed, Norma Winkler, 82, opens a small jar of cannabis oil and measures out a quarter-teaspoon to mix with homemade applesauce. Soon after she eats it, she drifts off to sleep.

Ms. Winkler, who lives in Rhode Island, where medical marijuana is legal, has endured chronic back pain since a car accident fractured her skull and spine at age 15. Operations haven’t helped, and other medicines don’t touch the pain that can keep her up through the night.

“It’s really been a lifesaver for me,” Ms. Winkler said of her cannabis oil. “I used to walk into the walls sometimes. I was so tired because I didn’t sleep.”

Today, she’s healthy enough to remain independent in her home and to operate the jewelry factory she owns. But she worries about what will happen if she needs institutional care. Would a long-term care facility allow her to use this particular medicine?

“I wouldn’t go if they didn’t allow me to take it,” Ms. Winkler said.
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New Resource for Geriatric Pain Management

The Geriatric Pain Website

The purpose of this  Web resource is to share best practice tools and resources with nurses responsible for pain care in older adults who reside in nursing homes.

Why was the Geriatric Pain Web site created?

• To provide nurses working in long-term care environments access to resources, a new Web site — www.geriatricpain.org — has been developed. This site, a one-stop resource, shares free best-practice tools and resources that support recommendations for good pain assessment and management in older adults, including implementation of quality improvement processes focused on pain management.
• Up to 80 percent of older persons living in long-term care facilities suffer from pain problems. Although aging contributes to the likelihood of pain conditions, effective assessment and management can ensure good quality of life.
• The Web site is easy to access and user friendly. It’s organized into categories of emphasis, including pain assessment, pain management, education, quality improvement, guidelines and resources.

Who was Geriatric Pain Web site developed for?

• The tools available are for nurses and administrators in nursing homes and long-term care facilities to help them improve pain outcomes for residents, change organizational standards for pain outcomes and save time identifying and evaluating quality tools.

Is there a cost to access the resources

• The Geriatric Pain Web site resources are free to registered users. Registration is quick, easy and requires only your e-mail address, password, name and zip code. 

Pain Robs Years From Folks at Mid-Life - Forbes.com

(HealthDay News) -- Middle-aged people who suffer from chronic pain face some of the same limitations that much older people do, with similar challenges for mobility or making it through daily chores, a new study finds.

Researchers looked at a 2004 study that examined 18,531 participants aged 50 and older. Twenty-four percent were often troubled by moderate or severe pain, and they had much more trouble coping with physical challenges of life.

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Medical News: Pain Makes You Old - in Pain Management, Pain Management from MedPage Today

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Pain appears to speed the aging process, bringing on functional limitations at a younger age, according to an analysis of data from the 2004 Health and Retirement Study.

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Observing and talking about pain behaviors

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The University of Alberta and Alberta Center on Aging produced these resources because people with dementia often experience pain that is undetected and under-treated. This does not happen because family and healthcare providers do not care. It happens because people with dementia are often not able to clearly voice that they have pain. Often they express their pain in ways that we do not usually think of as indicating pain. For example, people with dementia who are in pain may rock back and forth, or they may withdraw from people around them. Often these actions do not get interpreted as indicating pain. Family and healthcare providers sometimes feel powerless to help because they do not know what the problem is or what to look for. Three resources are available on this website:

1. An online presentation about pain and dementia
2. Additional materials to give more detail about the topics covered in the presentation
3. A toolkit for organizations who would like to put on a workshop with these materials.

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Do you recognise pain in someone with a learning difficulty and dementia?

A set of resources to help care staff, GPs and carers to recognise and treat pain in people who have a learning difficulty and dementia.

People with learning difficulties are living longer, which means they are more likely to develop the conditions of older age, such as dementia. Someone with a learning difficulty and dementia may not be able to communicate that they are in pain and it can be ignored or mistaken for challenging behaviour.

These resources, which are free to download, build on research published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2006, include:

• a poster highlighting symptoms and common causes of pain in people with a learning difficulty and dementia;
• a factsheet for care staff and carers, summing up key findings from the research;
• a guide for GPs; and
• a guide for care staff and carers.

Legal risk for prescribing painkillers is small, study says

By Kevin B. O'Reilly, AMNews staff. Sept. 8, 2008 Researchers say that relatively few doctors were charged between 1998 and 2006, but critics find that interpretation paints a misleading picture.