Influence of Weather Conditions on Rheumatic Pain

The Journal of Rheumatology, in a recent issue, reported on the results of a study designed to evaluate the influence of weather in rheumatic patients. The study's primary investigator Professor Ingrid Strausberg, aimed to assess correlations between pain and climate conditions 5 days preceding and following painful episodes.

Results: The results of the study, which involved 151 outpatients, including 32 healthy controls, supported the belief that weather influences rheumatic, albeit in different ways depending on the type of rheumatic disease and subjective weather sensitivity. The study concluded that this influence may not depend on weather conditions of the previous or following days, indicating that climate would not be a pain predictor and vice versa.

Nocebo Effect May Explain Some Drug Side Effects

New York (Reuters Health) -- According to a new report published by The Journal of the American Medical Association, a phenomenon called the "nocebo effect" may explain why some people report side effects that do not appear to be related to the medications they are taking.

The phenomenon is dubbed "nocebo", which means "I will harm" in Latin. (Placebo means "I will please".) And it may explain how the power of negative thinking might influence a person's perception when either taking real medications or even a placebo.

The authors of the study determined that preconceived ideas can greatly influence a person's experience with a particular medication. For example, in one study, patients taking blue placebo pills were more likely to report drowsiness than patients taking pink ones. The researchers pointed out that patients associated red, orange, pink and yellow pills with stimulants, and blue and green ones with sedatives.

Conclusion: The authors of the study, Dr. Arthur J. Barsky and colleagues at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, suggest to patients that before automatically blaming a symptom on a medication, to think about whether they have had this symptom before and how often it occurred before jumping to the conclusion that it is a side effect of the drug.

A New Generation of Synthetic Implant Materials Show Encouraging Results

New York (Reuters Health) -- A new generation of synthetic implant materials is providing new hope for the treatment of disease that destroy cartilage, bone, blood vessels and other tissues.

These new materials, also called biomaterials, help to prompt tissues to repair themselves and may even have applications toward treatment of diseases such as arthritis and osteoporosis, according to the researchers, Drs. Larry L. Hench and Julia Polak for the University of London, UK.

The materials, once they have served as a scaffold, then dissolve, much like the biomaterial of a biogradeable suture or dissolvable stitches which have been routinely used for over 20 years.

So far the clinical applications for these materials include repair of cartilage, skin and the vascular system, although researchers see more sophisticated potential applications in the future, where they may provide clinicians with the ability to prevent deterioration of bone, and thus prevent the loss of bone in diseases such as arthritis and osteoporosis.

Genetic Discrimination Law Could Be Signed This Year

Washington (Reuters Health) - The main Democratic supporter of broad legislation banning genetic discrimination in insurance policies and in the workplace, recently predicted that the bill would pass Congress and get a presidential signature by the end of this year.

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) told supporters that changes in her bill were softening opposition to an enforceable genetic discrimination ban.

Slaughter, who worked as a microbiologist prior to her career in politics, told reporters that her bill would allow researchers in industry and academia to use genetic information as long at it remains anonymous, "I d not want to do anything in the world to chill research," she is quoted as saying during the recent press conference.

Rheumatologists' Adherence to Guidelines for Misoprotsol Use in Patients at High Risk for Nonsteroidal Antiinflammatory Drug (NSAID) Gastropathy

The Journal of Rheumatology, in a recent issue, reported on the results of a study that sought to explore the practice among rheumatologists in the prevention of NSAID associated peptic ulcer disease, and to seek ways to improve the management of high risk NSAID users. To this end guideline "reminder sheets" were employed in the study to find out whether their use by rheumatologists held the potential to improve the safety factor for this high risk group of patients.

Conclusion: The simple intervention of reminder sheets for GI bleeding risk assessment resulted in a significant increase in rheumatologists' adherence to guidelines, although a substantial number of patients still remained untreated with misoprostol, (a medication commonly prescribed to prevent GI bleeding from NSAID use).

According to the authors, the results of the study illustrate the difficulty of incorporating new knowledge and recommendations into clinical practice. And the need for additional strategies to investigate how to more effectively incorporate new knowledge into the practice of rheumatology.