BACKGROUND This work summarizes the efficiency, failures and adverse effects of oral administration of ketamine at home for intractable pain. METHODS This 5-year retrospective study involved testing ketamine by intravenous in-hospital administration, then a conversion to an oral route, or oral treatment directly administered at home. The daily intravenous dose was increased by steps of 0.5 mg...

Advances in medicine have produced an elongated lifespan often burdened by chronic disorders. Throughout the lifespan and at end of life such disorders can give rise to intractable pain. Although clear distinctions about the respective role(s) for pain therapeutics and palliative medicine remain debatable, both are involved in chronic pain care. Such care has reached a point of crisis fueled by...

The treatment is described of thirty patients with chronic nervous system lesions causing intractable pain. Moderately good relief of pain was obtained with a combination of phenothiazines (especially pericyazine), antidepressant drugs and antihistamines. The theoretical implications of this are discussed and it is suggested that the drugs in question act partly by virtue of an effect on the mu...

Molecular pain is a relatively new and rapidly expanding research field that represents an advanced step from conventional pain research. Molecular pain research addresses physiological and pathological pain at the cellular, subcellular and molecular levels. These studies integrate pain research with molecular biology, genomics, proteomics, modern electrophysiology and neurobiology. The field o...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of intrathecal (IT) coadministration of bupivacaine with opioids during the initial phase of opioid titration and up to 1 year after implantation of an IT drug delivery system (IDDS). DESIGN The study was designed as a retrospective study. OUTCOMES ANALYZED: The outcomes analyzed for this study were pain relief, oral opioid consump...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the safety and efficacy of a humanized anti-interleukin-6 receptor antibody, tocilizumab (TCZ), in patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO). METHODS Seven patients with anti-aquaporin-4 antibody (AQP4-Ab)-positive NMO or NMO spectrum disorders were recruited on the basis of their limited responsiveness to their current treatment. They were given a monthly injection of TC...

The management of chronic pain, particularly neuropathic pain, still has significant unmet needs. In addition to inadequate symptomatic relief, there are concerns about adverse effects and addiction associated with treatments. The transplantation of cells that secrete neuroactive substances with analgesic properties into the central nervous system has only become of practical interest in more r...

A multimodal stepped care approach has been successfully applied to a patient with complex regional pain syndrome type 1 and severe intractable pain, not responding to regular neuropathic pain medication. The choice to administer drugs in creams was made because of the intolerable adverse effects to oral medication. With this method, peak-dose adverse effects did not occur. The multimodal stepp...

Two hundred patients with chronic intractable pain have been evaluated in order to study the clinical characteristics of pain and associated psychiatric illnesses. The commonest site of pain was reported to be head and face, usually dull in nature. Almost 75% of patients reported continuous pain. A great majority (40%-80%) had some psycho-social problem or other problem resultant from the chron...

The action of botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) at the neuromuscular junction has been extensively investigated and knowledge gained in this field laid the foundation for the use of BoNTs in human pathologies characterized by excessive muscle contractions. Although much more is known about the action of BoNTs on the peripheral system, growing evidence has demonstrated several effects also at the ce...