Regular movement is crucial for everyone, but patients with rheumatic disease may feel overwhelmed about starting and maintaining a routine. Here’s how physical and occupational therapists can help patients establish and reach movement goals, while improving their pain management and overall health.
Medical cannabis may benefit patients experiencing pain, and rheumatologists should be able to discuss its potential risks and benefits with their patients. Here are insights from Dr. Mary Ann Fitzcharles on current research, patient use and more.
Research from Gloersen et al. suggests the systemic effects of obesity, as measured by leptin, may play a role in the severity of pain experienced by patients with hand osteoarthritis.
Polyarteritis nodosa (PAN) is a necrotizing vasculitis, predominantly involving medium-sized arteries, that causes systemic disease, and, less commonly, cutaneous-limited disease. The population prevalence for PAN ranges from 2 to 33 per million.1-3 Estimates vary due to the increased recognition and classification of other forms of vasculitides over time and variation in the regional prevalence of…
Pain is more than nociception, and pain management is more than medication. Delia Chiaramonte, MD, provided insights into how rheumatologists can help their patients ease and manage chronic pain.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Oral synthetic cannabis products that have a high tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to cannabidiol (CBD) ratio, as well as extracted cannabis products with comparable THC-to-CBD ratios, may provide moderate, short-term improvements in chronic pain, a large systematic review of relevant research suggests.1 However, these products are also associated with higher risks for side effects,…
A practicing rheumatologist for 20 years, Umbreen Hasan, MD, FACP, MBA, Coon Rapids, Minn., knows how challenging it can be to work through pain. Over the years, she has helped many patients learn how to manage chronic pain so they can continue to pursue the activities they love. Five years ago, after suffering a severe…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—A single injection into the hip of steroid and local anesthetic improved pain and function in patients with hip osteoarthritis in a randomized controlled trial, with most of the benefit seen early after treatment. Researchers at two community-based clinics in England assigned 199 volunteers to receive either an ultrasound guided intra-articular hip…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—In patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA), telehealth-delivered exercise and diet programs are superior to electronic health information for reducing pain and improving function, although the contribution of diet is modest, a randomized trial shows.1 “This research provides evidence from a large clinical trial to help tease out how much benefit dietary weight…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Lower doses of cannabidiol (CBD) failed to provide any meaningful reduction in pain when added to other analgesic therapy in patients with hand osteoarthritis (OA) or psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in a randomized, placebo-controlled study from Denmark.1 Writing in the journal, Pain, Jonathan Vela, MD, and colleagues of Aalborg University note that CBD…