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About my blogs
About my blogs
I discuss topics related to pain management in an accessible way for anyone who wants to know more about this fascinating and still poorly understood area of medicine, including health care professionals, patients, and students.
My purpose is solely educational and non-profit. While I aim to make best use of the available scientific evidence, the content of the blogs reflect primarily my personal opinion.
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Acute back pain after osteoporotic fractures: Which medication?
Acute back pain after osteoporotic vertebral fractures is a public health issue. Choosing a medication that limits harm is challenging.
Michele Curatolo
Jul 6, 20222 min read
183 views
0 comments
Neck pain and headache: Can stem from the C1-2 joint
Pain at the upper neck and headache can stem from the C1-2 joint. Steroid injection or surgery can be effective
Michele Curatolo
Jun 22, 20222 min read
205 views
0 comments
Explaining "pain sensitization" to patients
Sensitization of neural pathways is a crucial determinant of chronic pain, and has treatment consequences. How to explain this to patients?
Michele Curatolo
Jun 8, 20223 min read
196 views
0 comments
The huge gap between discoveries and availability of effective pain medications
A new research pathway is proposed to translate discoveries of pharmacological targets into effective treatments of pain.
Michele Curatolo
May 25, 20223 min read
96 views
0 comments
Prognostic nerve blocks: meaningful or meaningless?
Prognostic nerve blocks to predict the effect of a subsequent treatment may be meaningful or not, depending on the nature of the procedure.
Michele Curatolo
May 12, 20224 min read
910 views
0 comments
Improve your sleep, mood and physical function, and you may have less pain
In chronic pain, improvement in sleep, psychological and physical functioning may precede reduction in pain.
Michele Curatolo
Apr 27, 20222 min read
256 views
0 comments
Adding a procedure to current treatment of chronic pain
A recent study used a pragmatic approach to demonstrate that adding a hip injection to current treatment improves pain for 6 months.
Michele Curatolo
Apr 13, 20223 min read
287 views
0 comments
Exercise for chronic pain: when patients and health care professionals are not on the same page
Many patients with chronic pain decline therapeutic exercise because it increases pain. Is pain relief the right treatment goal?
Michele Curatolo
Apr 6, 20223 min read
430 views
0 comments
The confusion around "diagnostic" nerve blocks for chronic pain
A patient becomes pain-free after anesthetizing a nerve: does it tell us where the pain comes from?
Michele Curatolo
Mar 23, 20224 min read
1,959 views
0 comments
Better nutrition, less pain: Turn your pantry into a potent tool for better health and less pain
"You change your body chemistry each time you eat". Evidence for associations between diet and pain are growing.
Heather Tick
Mar 15, 20224 min read
182 views
0 comments
Therapeutic nerve blocks for chronic pain: An unexplored potential
Placebo-controlled studies are unsuited to study therapeutic nerve blocks for chronic pain. More feasible research models are available.
Michele Curatolo
Mar 4, 20224 min read
550 views
0 comments
What does local tenderness say about the origin of pain?
Tenderness evoked by pressure is typically interpreted as a sign of injury causing pain. However, it is of very limited diagnostic value.
Michele Curatolo
Feb 23, 20223 min read
873 views
0 comments
Pain from multiple body areas: when arithmetics doesn't work
Pain from multiple body sites is frequently highly disabling. 1+1+1 is more than 3. Why, and what can we do?
Michele Curatolo
Feb 9, 20222 min read
99 views
0 comments
How blood and urine metabolites could help understand chronic pain
We need to understand better chronic pain at individual level. The study of metabolites (metabolomics) is a promising perspective.
Michele Curatolo
Feb 2, 20223 min read
137 views
0 comments
Why we shouldn't care much about x-ray and MRI for back pain
X-ray and MRI for back pain are over-valued. Frequently, they do not contribute to the diagnosis and may mislead treatment.
Michele Curatolo
Jan 26, 20223 min read
1,909 views
0 comments
Is psychosocial distress a contraindication to pain procedures?
The challenges of considering procedures for chronic pain in patients with psychosocial distress.
Michele Curatolo
Jan 19, 20223 min read
184 views
0 comments
Is "chronic pain" a diagnosis? Yes and no.
We need to translate the complexity and heterogeneity of chronic pain into meaningful diagnoses.
Michele Curatolo
Jan 11, 20223 min read
236 views
0 comments
Why would an anesthetic nerve injection produce long-term pain relief?
Local anesthetics have a short duration of action, so why would they work in chronic pain?
Michele Curatolo
Jan 5, 20224 min read
1,360 views
0 comments
Opioid escalation after surgery in patients with opioid use disorder
Definition According to the American Psychiatric Association, opioid use disorder is a condition in which there is uncontrolled use of...
Michele Curatolo
Dec 29, 20213 min read
248 views
0 comments
Muscle pain: Where does it come from?
Muscles can be a source of pain Everyone, at a certain point of their life, has felt pain in their muscles, and some have muscle pain...
Michele Curatolo
Dec 22, 20213 min read
270 views
0 comments
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