News and Resources

Treatments for Acute Pain: A Systematic Review

Structured Abstract: Objectives. To evaluate the effectiveness and comparative effectiveness of opioid, nonopioid pharmacologic, and nonpharmacologic therapy in patients with specific types of acute pain, including effects on pain, function, quality of life, adverse events, and long-term use of opioids. The final report is attached and available online at the Effective Healthcare Web site

Update on COVID-19:

Dear Pain Section Folks: FYI, late yesterday, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued guidance to DEA-registered physicians providing new flexibility for physicians managing patients with opioid use disorder. The new guidance permits physicians with a waiver allowing them to prescribe buprenorphine for the treatment of opioid use disorder to issue these prescriptions to new […]

Pain Section 2019: Updates and Strategic Plan

Leadership: President- Jason M. Schwalb MD, FAANS, FACS Vice Chair- William Rosenberg, MD, FAANS Secretary/Treasurer- Jennifer Sweet, MD Immediate Past President- Andre Machado MD, PhD This is a brief summary of the activities for the Joint Section on Pain… Read the Article >>

Overzealous use of the CDC’s opioid prescribing guideline is harming pain patients

During the recent Interim Meeting of the American Medical Association, the organization’s president, Dr. Barbara McAneny, told the story of a patient of hers whose pharmacist refused to fill his prescription for an opioid medication. She had prescribed the medication to ease her patient’s severe pain from prostate cancer, which had spread to his bones. […]

Upcoming NREF Grants

  An award from the Neurosurgery Research & Education Foundation (NREF) can have an extraordinary impact on a neurosurgeon’s career. “This has been a productive and rewarding year for my growth as an academic neurosurgeon. I have gone from being a resident with some interest in research to an investigator with much larger ideas and […]

Federal Pain Research Strategy

The NIH Office of Pain Policy is pleased to announce the release of the Federal Pain Research Strategy.  The Federal Pain Research Strategy (FPRS) is an effort of the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC) and the National Institutes of Health, Office of Pain Policy to oversee development of a long-term strategic plan to advance […]

Theory to Practice: Better Pain Treatment Through Advances in Spinal Stimulation

Ellen L. Air, MD, PhD, FAANS | Features AANS Neurosurgeon: Volume 26, Number 3, 2017 Utilizing scientific theory for clinical application can lead to breakthroughs for patients. One remarkable example was the gate theory of pain rapidity of translation into a surgical treatment for pain. The description of dual pathways of sensory input to the […]

Neuroablation: An Under-utilized Tool

Jason M. Schwalb, MD, FAANS | Features AANS Neurosurgeon: Volume 26, Number 3, 2017 Cancer pain continues to be a significant problem since the mid 1980s, despite the promulgation of the World Health Organization (WHO) (1) analgesic ladder. The statistics are daunting: Pain is reported in 60-85 percent of those with advanced cancer (2). One-third of patients […]

Change the Equation: Polyanalagesic Options in the Perioperative Period

Jennifer A. Sweet, MD; Jason M. Schwalb, MD, FAANS | Features AANS Neurosurgeon: Volume 26, Number 3, 2017 Although Americans comprise roughly 5 percent of the world’s population, they consume 99 percent of the world’s hydrocodone and 83 percent of its oxycodone, resulting in one opioid-related death every 35 minutes (1). In the setting of […]