Post Spinal Nerve Ligation Hypersensitivity Relieved by Manual Acupuncture (in rats)

This study is looking at acupuncture effectiveness for neuropathic pain. They simulate neuropathic pain by ligating a spinal nerve in the rat and then using traditional acupuncture point stimulation compared with gabapentin.

Manual acupuncture inhibits mechanical hypersensitivity induced by spinal nerve ligation in rats.
Cidral-Filho FJ, da Silva MD, Moré AO, Córdova MM, Werner MF, Santos AR.
Laboratório de Neurobiologia da Dor e Inflamação, Departamento de Ciências Fisiológicas, Centro de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, Brasil.
Abstract

Manual acupuncture (MA) has presented analgesic activity against neuropathic pain in patients and animal models, yet a series of questions remain: Is MA effectiveness dependent of acupoint selection or combination? Is it equally efficient when treatment starts on the initial (acute) or sub-chronic phase of spinal nerve ligation (SNL)-induced neuropathy? Is MA effect related to the release of endogenous opioids? Does MA produce similar effects to gabapentin? To answer these questions rats submitted to the L5/L6 SNL injury were treated with unilateral MA (ST36 (Zusanli), SP6 (Sanyingjiao) or ST36+SP6 acupoint stimulation); or with gabapentin (30 mg/kg i.p., used as positive control). Both acupoints have been demonstrated to present analgesic activity and are used in clinical practice and basic science research. In addition, we investigated the influence of naloxone (1 mg/kg i.p., a nonselective opioid receptor antagonist) on MA treatment and also the effect of unilateral ST36+SP6 MA treatment beginning acutely (5 days) or sub-chronically (14 days) after SNL. Our results demonstrate that single or combined unilateral stimulation was able to reduce mechanical hypersensitivity with treatment beginning in both acute and sub-chronic phases of SNL-induced neuropathy; MA effect was blocked by naloxone, and finally; SP6+ST36 MA presented similar effect to gabapentin (30 mg/kg). In conclusion, our results demonstrate, for the first time, that unilateral MA (ST36, SP6 or ST36+SP6) reduces hypersensitivity induced by the SNL with effect dependent of the opioid system and comparable with the one obtained with gabapentin (used as positive control).

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Johnson and Johnson Pays out in Texas Law Suit

This to be tossed into the "Corruption" file, or the "Follow the Money" file. I guess they're sort of one in the same, except the "Corruption" file contains those who have been caught.

January 19, 2012
J. & J. to Pay $158 Million to End Suit Filed by Texas
By REUTERS

Johnson & Johnson said on Thursday that it would pay $158 million to settle a Texas lawsuit accusing the drug maker of improperly marketing its Risperdal antipsychotic drug to state residents on the Medicaid health program for the poor, including children.

The lawsuit accuses the company of pushing Risperdal as “appropriate and safe to treat a broad range of symptoms in populations and disease states for which it had no F.D.A.-approved indication, including in the child and adolescent population...”

“Johnson & Johnson’s scheme to profit from the Medicaid program by overstating the safety and effectiveness of an expensive drug and improperly influencing officials ended up costing taxpayers millions of dollars,” Texas’s attorney general, Greg Abbott, said in a statement...
The company is in various stages of litigation with several other states.

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Drug Cartel Forced to Report Pay Offs

My title is a bit hyperbolic, but not by much. This blog post to be filed in the "It's about time" file. They are planning on extending this regulation to the medical device industry as well. Note that this law is about direct payment to doctors as well as the funding of medical research, which is also corrupted. I've touched on some of these topics here, here, here and here. Those, unfortunately, are just a few of the many posts on this type of corruption that has occurred. I'm not sure how to evaluate the penalties, $10,000 for failure to report, $100,000 for knowingly failing, for a total of $1,000,000 per year. Seems in the "slap on the wrist" range in absolute dollar amount, but the negative press may be the larger punishment. It's something, at least.(For more information about my practice, please click here.)

U.S. to Force Drug Firms to Report Money Paid to Doctors
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON — To head off medical conflicts of interest, the Obama administration is poised to require drug companies to disclose the payments they make to doctors for research, consulting, speaking, travel and entertainment.

Many researchers have found evidence that such payments can influence doctors’ treatment decisions and contribute to higher costs by encouraging the use of more expensive drugs and medical devices...

Large numbers of doctors receive payments from drug and device companies every year — sometimes into the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars — in exchange for providing advice and giving lectures. Analyses by The New York Times and others have found that about a quarter of doctors take cash payments from drug or device makers and that nearly two-thirds accept routine gifts of food, including lunch for staff members and dinner for themselves.

The Times has found that doctors who take money from drug makers often practice medicine differently from those who do not and that they are more willing to prescribe drugs in risky and unapproved ways, such as prescribing powerful antipsychotic medicines for children...

Companies will be subject to a penalty up to $10,000 for each payment they fail to report. A company that knowingly fails to report payments will be subject to a penalty up to $100,000 for each violation, up to a total of $1 million a year...

Allan J. Coukell, a pharmacist and consumer advocate at the Pew Charitable Trusts, said: “Patients want to know they are getting treatment based on medical evidence, not a lunch or a financial relationship. They want to know if their doctor has a financial relationship with a pharmaceutical company, but they are often uncomfortable asking the doctor directly.”

Erectile Dysfunction and Anti-inflammatories

To be filed in the "I Did Not Know That" file. From last year, but unknown to me.

Men taking Anti-Inflammatory Drugs more likely to develop Erectile Dysfunction

PASADENA, Calif. March 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Men who take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs three times a day for more than three months are 2.4 times more likely to have erectile dysfunction compared to men who do not take those drugs regularly, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in The Journal of Urology.

The term "nonsteroidal" is used to distinguish these drugs from steroids, which, among a broad range of other effects, have a similar eicosanoid-depressing, anti-inflammatory action. As analgesics, NSAIDs are unusual in that they are non-narcotic.

The most prominent members of this group of drugs are aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen, all of which are available over the counter in many areas.

While previous research showed a trend toward this same finding, this observational study used electronic health records, an automated pharmacy database and self-reported questionnaire data to examine NSAID use and ED in an ethnically diverse population of 80,966 men aged 45 to 69 years throughout California.

After controlling for age, race, ethnicity, smoking status, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, high cholesterol and body mass index, the researchers found that ED was 1.4 times more likely -- a modest risk -- among regular NSAID users compared to men who did not take the drugs regularly. This association was consistent across all age groups

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P.S. I sort of see this as a clash of the titans. ED is a bit of a created condition. Though there is true suffering out there, there is a heck of a lot of hype too since it's pitched at a pretty young age group. Anti-inflammatories have also been marketed very intensely even though some of the more recent ones turned out to have some serious side effects. So interesting that the two have intersected. In the article it says that they were expecting to find that anti-imflammatories improved ED. Surprise!!

NFL and Acupuncture

Yay. I remember reading this article when it came out but couldn't find it, it's entitled "Big Men, Little Needles." The New York Jets use acupuncture to keep strong, healthy and pain free.
So can you!!

Needling the body forces the connective tissue aroung the pin to contract stimulating blood flow and releasing endorphins, which act as powerful pain relievers. Inserting acupuncture needles also triggers the production of dopamine a chemical in the braind that plays a part in response to pleasure and pain, which is why some patients feel high afte acupuncture therapy... Not only effective in easing pain, acupuncture can also help the body overcome one of the toughest hurles to healing, inflammation.

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