Violence in the pain clinic: the hidden pandemic.

Workplace violence is any physical assault, threatening behavior or other verbal abuse directed toward persons at work or in the workplace. The incidence of workplace violence in healthcare settings in general and more specifically the pain clinic is thought to be underestimated due to hesitancy to report, lack of support from management and healthcare systems, and lack of institutional policies as it relates to violence from patients against healthcare workers. In the following article, we explore risk factors that place clinicians at risk of workplace violence, the cost and impact of workplace violence, how to build a violence prevention program and lastly how to recover from violence in the practice setting.

Multiorganizational consensus to define guiding principles for perioperative pain management in patients with chronic pain, preoperative opioid tolerance, or substance use disorder.

Significant knowledge gaps exist in the perioperative pain management of patients with a history of chronic pain, substance use disorder, and/or opioid tolerance as highlighted in the US Health and Human Services Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force 2019 report. The report emphasized the challenges of caring for these populations and the need for multidisciplinary care and a comprehensive approach. Such care requires stakeholder alignment across multiple specialties and care settings. With the intention of codifying this alignment into a reliable and efficient processes, a consortium of 15 professional healthcare societies was convened in a year-long modified Delphi consensus process and summit. This process produced seven guiding principles for the perioperative care of patients with chronic pain, substance use disorder, and/or preoperative opioid tolerance. These principles provide a framework and direction for future improvement in the optimization and care of 'complex' patients as they undergo surgical procedures.

Genetic Testing for Opioid Pain Management: A Primer.

Patients see their primary care physicians (PCPs) for a variety of medical conditions, chronic pain being one of the most common. An increased use of prescription medications (especially opioids) has led to an increase in adverse drug reactions and has heightened our awareness of the variability in response to medications. Opioids and other pain adjuvants are widely used, and drug-drug interactions involving these analgesics can be problematic and potentially lethal. Pharmacogenetics has improved our understanding of drug efficacy and response, opened doors to individual tailoring of medical management, and created a series of ethical and economic considerations. Since it is a relatively new field, genetic testing has not been fully integrated into the primary care setting. The purpose of this paper is to review the metabolism of commonly prescribed opioids, discuss the economic and ethical issues, and provide PCPs with an understanding of how to incorporate genetic testing into routine use to improve clinical practice and patient management.

Interventional Techniques for Management of Pain in Older Adults.

Chronic pain in older patients is often treated with pain medications, physical rehabilitation, interventional pain management, and/or psychological interventions. The administration of pain medications is the most common form of chronic pain treatment. Physiologic changes in older adults make them more susceptible to the potential side effects of oral pain medications, especially opioids. Interventional pain management offers an alternative treatment option. This article reviews some of the interventional techniques used to treat the most common sites of pain in older adults: back, knee, and hip.

Ultrasound-guided interventional procedures for chronic pain management.

Ultrasonography has multiple advantages over traditional radiologic imaging modalities when used for interventional procedures. It allows improved visualization of the anatomy while avoiding ionizing radiation and risks associated with contrast use. It has proved superiority at accuracy of delivery and procedural effectiveness over blind procedures when used in association with interventional pain procedures. Although limited in its ability to see through bony structures, ultrasound has utility in visualizing soft tissues and vascular structures in anatomic regions of interest resulting in increased use for posterior neuraxial, periaxial, peripheral nerve and joint-related structures. Current evidence for use in these settings is presented here. In some cases, optimal utility may be improved by combining ultrasonography with other imaging modalities.

New directions in the treatment of pelvic pain.

SUMMARY The treatment of chronic pelvic pain in both females and males is a challenge for pain clinicians. Standard therapies are multimodal in nature with use of behavioral, medical and procedural therapeutics. In recent years, our understanding of the neurobiology of this disorder has improved and novel approaches have focused on neuromodulatory options, novel pharmacology and complementary/alternative medicine options. This review briefly examines newly employed therapeutic options, while restating currently utilized options. The current state-of-the-art treatment includes focal therapies for identified pathologies and empiric trials of other options for care when precise sources of the chronic pelvic pain are ill defined.

Pregnancy and HIV disease progression during the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy.

BACKGROUND: Before the availability of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), there was no clear effect of pregnancy on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease progression. This has not been assessed during the HAART era. METHODS: We conducted an observational cohort study among HIV-infected women with >or=1 outpatient clinic visit between January 1997 and December 2004. HIV disease progression was defined as the occurrence of an AIDS-defining event or death. RESULTS: Of 759 women who met the inclusion criteria, 139 (18%) had had >1 pregnancy, and 540 (71%) had received HAART. There was no difference in HAART duration by pregnancy status. Eleven pregnant (8%) and 149 nonpregnant (24%) women progressed to AIDS or death. After controlling for age, baseline CD4(+) lymphocyte count, baseline HIV-1 RNA level, and durable virologic suppression in a Cox proportional hazards model that included propensity score for pregnancy, pregnancy was associated with a decreased risk of disease progression (hazard ratio [HR], 0.40 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 0.20-0.79]; P=.009]). In a matched-pair analysis of 81 pregnant women matched to 81 nonpregnant women according to age, baseline CD4(+) lymphocyte count, receipt of HAART, and date of cohort entry, pregnant women had a lower risk of disease progression both before (HR, 0.10 [95% CI, 0.01-0.89]; P=.04) and after (HR, 0.44 [95% CI, 0.19-1.00]; P=.05) the pregnancy event. CONCLUSION: Pregnancy was associated with a lower risk of HIV disease progression in this HAART-era study. This finding could be the result of the healthier immune status of women who become pregnant or could possibly be related to a beneficial interaction between pregnancy and HAART.