Can Mindfulness Meditation Help with Chronic Pain?
Pain affects millions of adults in the United States every year. Many times, pain is acute, lasting until an injury or surgical wound heals. Other times, it can be chronic, persisting for at least three months. The latter can be frustrating, especially when the cause is not obvious. Unfortunately, many medications that are used to […]
Arthritis Pain: Causes and Treatments
Chronic pain affects more than 20 percent of adults in the United States. Many people attribute their pain to arthritis, which is the inflammation of one or more joints. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 54 million people in the U.S. have arthritis. About a quarter of those with arthritis experience severe pain, and […]
What is a Fluency Disorder?
Most people experience disfluencies while speaking from time to time. However, if disfluencies are the norm, then the cause may be a fluency disorder. A fluency disorder is an interruption in the flow of speaking, characterized by atypical rate, rhythm, and disfluencies. The two main types of fluency disorders are stuttering and cluttering. Fluency disorders […]
Medications Used to Treat Opioid Use Disorder
There is a common misconception that those who use prescription medications to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) are trading one addiction for the other. While two of the drugs used to treat OUD are opioids, these drugs are not just substitutes for other opioids; they can be life-saving for those suffering from the disease. Here’s […]
How Does Chronic Opioid Use Affect the Brain?
Opioids are a class of drugs that work by binding the opioid receptors in the central nervous system. Opioids fall into three categories: prescription opioids, heroin, and synthetic opioids. Due to the way opioids interact with the brain, they can have serious side effects. Unfortunately, these risks only increase the longer a person takes them. Over […]
Heroin and its Role in the Opioid Crisis
The opioid epidemic refers to the three distinct waves of opioid-related overdose deaths, beginning in the 1990s with the over-prescription of pain medications. To help curb the problem, law enforcement and the medical community began trying to control the over-prescription of opioids. As a result, those who were already dependent on these medications started seeking […]
The Causes and Signs of Opioid Addiction
Opioid addiction is a chronic, life-long disease characterized by a compulsive desire to seek and use opioids, regardless of any negative consequences. Like all addictions, opioid addiction is considered a brain disorder because it involves physical and psychological changes in the brain. If left untreated, addiction can seriously affect a person’s overall health and well-being. By […]
5 Harm Reduction Strategies for Opioid Use Disorder
There are many misconceptions regarding harm reduction strategies for opioid use disorder (OUD), such as the assumption that they deny the dangers of drugs and encourage their use. Instead, harm reduction recognizes that people will use drugs, regardless of their risks, and incorporates ways to reduce their negative consequences. Harm reduction recognizes that people will […]
Opioid Use Order: The Basics
Did you know that between eight and 12 percent of people who are prescribed opioids for chronic pain develop an opioid use disorder? Between 8 and 12 percent of people who are prescribed opioids develop opioid use disorder. Tweet Since opioids activate the reward system in the brain, many people misuse their prescriptions in order to try […]
The Relationship Between Mental Health and Chronic Pain
Did you know that people living with chronic pain are four times more likely to experience anxiety or depression than those without chronic pain? People living with chronic pain are more than 4 times more likely to experience anxiety or depression than those without chronic pain. Tweet Oftentimes, chronic pain and mental health go hand in […]
