Tag: pain management

Swearing to Treat Pain: Helpful Approach or Just Another Distraction

Pain is a complicated problem and something that we will all experience in our lives. Is swearing a helpful way to reduce pain, or is it just another distraction? Maybe it's both.

/ May 13, 2022

Ear Acupuncture for Procedural Pain in Neonates: More Randomized Controlled Nonsense

A recently published multicenter randomized and placebo controlled study attempted to answer the question of whether or not magnetic acupuncture beads stuck on premature baby ears reduced pain during a common screening exam. They don't. And they might have made things worse for these babies.

/ March 19, 2021

Cannabinoids for Acute Pain

A systematic review of cannabinoids for acute pain shows the evidence is preliminary, and not very encouraging.

/ March 25, 2020

Audio Therapy for Postoperative Pediatric Pain: Randomized Controlled Nonsense

In January of 2015, a study on “the effect of audio therapy to treat postoperative pain in children” performed at Lurie Children’s Hospital and published in Pediatric Surgery International made the media rounds. It was the typical story where numerous news outlets further exaggerated already exaggerated claims made in a university press release, in this case Northwestern University in Chicago. Some of...

/ March 25, 2016

Pseudoscience sneaks into Ohio guidelines for non-drug pain treatment

Ohio recently issued Acute Pain Prescribing Guidelines as part of an effort to reduce the epidemic of opioid abuse and death from overdose. They were drafted under the auspices of the Governor’s Cabinet Opiate Action Team (GCOAT), assisted by medical organizations and other groups. The guidelines include recommendations for non-pharmacologic treatment, a typical feature of pain treatment guidelines and a worthy effort...

/ February 4, 2016

NPR and the False Choice of Alternative Medicine

A recent segment on NPR is an excellent representation of some of the mischief that promotion of unscientific medical treatments can create. The title is a good summary of the problem: “To Curb Pain Without Opioids, Oregon Looks To Alternative Treatments.” The entire segment is premised around a false dichotomy, between excess use of opioids and unproven alternative treatments. It is clear...

/ September 23, 2015

Treating Pain Psychologically

One of the goals of rigorous science is to disentangle various causes so we can establish exactly where the lines of cause and effect are. In medicine this allows us to then optimize the real causes (what aspect of treatments actually work) and eliminate anything unnecessary. Eliminating the unnecessary is more than just about efficiency – every intervention in medicine has a...

/ February 5, 2014