Monday 14 October 2013

Pharma Company Helps Neuropathy Patients

Today's post from the reliable drugs.com (see link below) takes a look at a new initiative by a European pharmaceutical company (the makers of Tapentadol (Palexia) amongst others) to help chronic pain patients better assess the extent of their own pain. By means of an online questionnaire and many patient own testimonies, the idea is to help patients put their pain in context and provide information that will be both useful to themselves and their doctors. This blog never advertises on behalf of commercial companies but this does seem to be of genuine benefit to people living with neuropathy.


Pharma Website Addressing Pain Perception Debuts "My Pain Feels Like…" - Pain Perception is as Individual as Pain Patients
AACHEN, Germany, October 8, 2013
 


- A new website helps pain patients to better express and explain how their pain feels like

Pain can appear in many forms and affects people in different ways. One kind of long-lasting or chronic pain results from a damaged nerve that sends incorrect pain messages to the brain. This pain is called neuropathic pain or nerve pain.

Over 26 million people worldwide suffer from neuropathic pain[ 1 ] but only 40-60% of patients achieve adequate pain relief.[ 2 ]

The majority, approximately 60%, of neuropathic pain is localised[ 3 ] (localised neuropathic pain, LNP) and is often described as a burning, shooting, lancinating, electric shock like.[ 4 ] But more frequently patients are trying to describe their pain in their own words by using their individual, often very pictographic language.

A correct and early diagnose is crucial to find the right treatment. Therefore patients need to describe their symptoms in as much detail as possible to their doctor.

At the new website http://www.mypainfeelslike.com patients find a questionnaire that helps them to describe in detail how their pain feels like, how it affects their life and where the pain is allocated.

"My pain feels like…" has been developed by Grünenthal GmbH in collaboration with the Montescano Pain School, Italy. For more information please visit http://www.grunenthal.com

About Grünenthal

The Grünenthal Group is an independent, family-owned, international research-based pharmaceutical company headquartered in Aachen, Germany. Building on its unique position in pain treatment, its objective is to become the most patient-centric company and thus to be a leader in therapy innovation. Grünenthal is one of the last remaining five research-oriented pharmaceutical companies with headquarters in Germany which sustainably invests in research and development. The research and development costs amounted to a preliminary of about 26 percent of revenues in 2012. Grünenthal's research and development strategy concentrates on selected fields of therapy and state-of-the-art technologies. We are intensely focused on discovering new ways to treat pain better and more effectively, with fewer side-effects than current therapies. Altogether, the Grünenthal Group has affiliates in 26 countries worldwide. Grünenthal products are sold in more than 155 countries and today approx. 4,400 employees are working for the Grünenthal Group worldwide. In 2012, Grünenthal achieved preliminary revenues of € 973 mn. More information: http://www.grunenthal.com.
References:

1 Pal M et al (2009). Vanilloid receptor antagonists: emerging class of novel anti-inflammatory agents for pain management. Curr Pharm Des 15:1008-26

2 Dworkin RH, O'Connor AB, Backonja M, et al (2007). Pharmacologic management of neuropathic pain: evidence-based recommendations. Pain;132:237-51

3 Mick G et al (2012). What is localised neuropathic pain? A first proposal to characterise and define a widely used term. Pain manage 2(1), 71-77

4 Woolf C et al (1999). Neuropathic pain: aetiology, symptoms, mechanisms, and management. Lancet; 353:1959-64

Contact: Jeanette Hübsch, Grünenthal Europe & Australia
Phone: +49-241-569-1487, email: jeanette.huebsch@grunenthal.com
Posted: October 2013

http://www.drugs.com/news/pharma-website-addressing-pain-perception-debuts-47995.html

No comments:

Post a Comment

All comments welcome but advertising your own service or product will unfortunately result in your comment not being published.