Drug companies are working to develop a pure, more powerful version of the nation’s second most-abused medicine, which has addiction experts worried that it could spur a new wave of abuse. The new pills contain the highly addictive painkiller hydrocodone, packing up to 10 times the amount of the drug as existing medications such as [...]

The Health Authority – Abu Dhabi (HAAD) has warned the public, including doctors, pharmacists and pharmacies against the misuse of Pregabalin, a neuropathic pain relief drug. According to HAAD, it has received numerous reports involving the abuse of the drug. “HAAD has received reports of theft (of Pregabalin) from pharmacies as well as pharmacists being [...]

The ingredient in a Botox injection probably won’t help ease neck pain, nor will it help neck pain sufferers do physical activities any better or improve their quality of life, a new review of past studies suggests. “The available evidence just suggests that it doesn’t work,” study author Dr. Paul Michael Peloso told Reuters Health. [...]

Biopharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. said it received a Complete Response Letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, rejecting the new drug application for its investigational pain relief drug Remoxy Extended-Release Capsules CII, developed by Pain Therapeutics, Inc. Remoxy was using Oradur drug delivery technology developed by Durect Corp. Subsequent to the announcement, the shares [...]

The American public is confused about what’s in popular over-the-counter painkillers, according to a small new study. That fact could put people at risk for taking too much medication or taking potentially dangerous combinations. Only 31 percent of people in the study knew that Tylenol contains acetaminophen, while 75 percent of people knew that Bayer [...]

Depression can worsen the pain of knee arthritis, a new study finds. South Korean researchers used X-rays to assess the severity of knee osteoarthritis in 660 men and women, aged 65 and older. The patients were also evaluated for the severity of their symptoms and for depression. As expected, levels of pain were higher in [...]

Doing yoga can relieve the symptoms of fibromyalgia by 30 percent – about the same amount as medication, according to a new study. Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition, characterized by widespread pain in muscles and fatigue. The practice of yoga has increasingly been demonstrated to improve chronic pain and other symptoms of diseases, including cancer [...]

Prescription medicines are the way that many drug addicts first get hooked, making these legal medicines the new “gateway” drugs, new study findings show. University at Buffalo researchers interviewed 75 patients hospitalized for opioid detoxification and found that 31 of them said they first became addicted to legitimately prescribed painkillers. Another 24 patients said their [...]

“Why did they cut you?” The shocking question came from a respected spine surgeon tracked down by Keith Swenson, who was still in severe pain after an earlier back operation. He didn’t know what to believe. Two other surgeons had urged more operations, different ones. And Swenson, who’s from Howard Lake, Minn., is far from [...]

A study of Medicare patients shows that costlier, more complex spinal fusion surgeries are on the rise — and sometimes done unnecessarily — for a common lower back condition caused by aging and arthritis. What’s more alarming is that the findings suggest these more challenging operations are riskier, leading to more complications and even deaths. [...]