A large, multisite randomized trial has delivered the first rigorous test of the VA’s Whole Health approach to chronic pain, finding that an interdisciplinary whole-health team modestly outperformed both cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and usual care in reducing how much pain interferes with veterans’ daily lives.
Headache following traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common disabling disorder, but, because of diverse mechanisms and treatment needs that remain poorly defined, how to treat the condition is not clear-cut.
Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) had an incident rate of 1.6 cases per 100,000 person-years. among U.S. active component servicemembers from 2014 through 2022, according to a new study.
While care for musculoskeletal shoulder disorders is generally similar in the Military Health System (MHS) compared to civilian clinics, it also has differed in some notable ways.
A new VA-led study underscored the urgent need for clear guidelines on how best to treat chronic pain, especially when it comes to prescribing opioid pain medications.
After peaking at 1.16% in 2017, the prevalence of opioid-use disorder (OUD) among VHA patients declined steadily and was 0.97% in 2022, the most recent date for which data is available.
Headaches are an almost universal experience, affecting approximately 96% of people globally at some point in their lives. Migraines, with a lifetime prevalence of 12.9% to 15.2%, consistently rank among the top three leading causes of disability for both men and women.
For individuals seeking relief from painful health conditions, there’s low certainty of evidence that massage therapy will ease their pain, according to a recent review article.
For almost three decades, antiretroviral therapy (ART) has enabled people with HIV to have nearly normal life expectancies. But as many as 85% of them experience chronic pain, due in part to common medical comorbidities and the side effects of life-saving treatments.
Chronic pain in older adults can be significantly reduced using a newly developed psychotherapy called emotional awareness and expression therapy (EAET), which confronts past trauma and stress-related emotions that can exacerbate pain symptoms, according to a new study.
The prevalence of chronic pain is documented to be several times higher in U.S. veterans than the general population. Efforts to deal with that unrelenting issue have led to myriad problems, including elevated rates of substance abuse.
Opioid-use disorder (OUD) has been referred to as a battle that takes more lives every year than the Vietnam or Korean wars.
Bipolar veterans with chronic pain sometimes have problems receiving evidence-based treatment in the VA healthcare system, according to a new study.
Veterans who use dual systems (i.e., both VA and non-VA services, for medical care) are more likely to receive a new opioid prescription and to receive a diagnosis of opioid use disorder, according to a recent study.
Despite changes in physical training routines and equipment designed to reduce musculoskeletal injuries in servicemembers and veterans, veterans experience back and joint pain at a higher rate than their contemporaries who have never served.
Recent VA/DoD guidelines call for new measures to reduce the use of opioid pain relievers in the management of chronic pain, including the preferential use of buprenorphine over full agonist opioids.
Service connection (SC) status appears to worsen outcomes for veterans receiving total knee-arthroplasty, according to a new report.
Are intra-articular non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs a viable option for treatment of osteoarthritis in adults?
Drug overdose is the leading cause of injury-related death in the United States. For many, initial exposure to opioids occurs in the hospital following surgery, and current studies show that up to 75% of post-operative patients have unused opioid pills after discharge.
Medical and dental providers who are high prescribers of antibiotics are also likely to be high prescribers of opioids, according to a new study.
Gulf War veterans with chronic pain display changes in the volume of key areas of the brain, a finding that could explain why these veterans experience prolonged pain, according to a new study.
How has pain management for cancer patients been affected by the opioid epidemic and related risk reduction policies?
Does rotation of buprenorphine from full μ-opioid receptor agonists improve pain-related outcomes and lessen adverse effects in patients with chronic pain and long-term use of narcotics?
Pain and heart failure are highly comorbid, which can create problems for clinicians attempting to control the conditions.
While discontinuing chronic opioid therapy in veterans appears to be associated with decreased diagnoses for opioid-related adverse outcomes, the association with substance use disorders appears to be inconclusive, according to a new study.
In somatic symptom disorder, patients develop too much focus on physical symptoms, such as pain, weakness or shortness of breath, which causes them significant distress and often creates problems for normal function, according to the American Psychiatric Association.
Prosecution continues for defendants charged in a number of nearly-identical schemes to defraud TRICARE and other insurers out of hundreds of millions of dollars by exploiting a former loophole in the billing process for compound drugs.
While it’s been long understood that servicemembers suffer from chronic pain at higher rates than their civilian counterparts, a new study by the RAND Corp. has found that a lack of administrative data and a dearth of research into treatments limits how successfully that pain can be treated.
Acute postoperative pain following surgery can complicate recovery, according to a study which said the condition has been associated with chronic pain development and lower quality of life.
The U.S. military has seen a steady rise in the annual incidence rates of any chronic pain diagnoses over the past decade.