Share This With Others - Louisiana Pain Specialists
Transcription
Share This With Others - Louisiana Pain Specialists
LOUISIANA PAIN QUARTERLY | Vol. 23 PERSONALIZED MEDICINE: New Developments in Pharmacogenomics OUR SPRING RECIPE SPINAL CORD STIMULATORS WORKERS’ COMPENSATION Flavorful Fare from MoPho What You Need To Know Without Stress CONTENTS VOL. 23 01 02 03 04 06 08 10 14 Editor: Sarah Ravits, Deseri Ireland Design: Addie Mirabella Published by: Xanthus If you are interested in a magazine for your practice contact Nick Ryan at [email protected] WELCOME New Orleans during the springtime is a magical time of year. RECIPE The MoPho Som Tam HAPPENINGS THIS QUARTER Check out events happening in the New Orleans area for spring! SPINAL CORD STIMULATION Hope for patients who have not responded to other treatments PHARMACOGENOMICS: The Intersection of Pharmacology and Genomics WORKERS’ COMPENSATION Louisiana Pain Efficiently Navigates Workers’ Compensation CONSIDERING THE MIND Mindfulness & Chronic Pain PUZZLE Check out the spring word search! Vol. 23 | LOUISIANA PAIN QUARTERLY 1 WELCOME ew Orleans during the springtime is a magical time of year, but for those suffering from pain it can offer new challenges as people become more active and social as the weather warms up. If you’re experiencing any type of pain, there is hope: We offer a wide variety of treatments and procedures that are personalized just for your specific needs, so that can get you can be in good health and living life to the fullest. In this issue, you will find a recipe from one of New Orleans’ most popular new restaurants, MoPho (pg. 2.) We also suggest a few enjoyable activities in “Happenings This Quarter” (pg. 3). Find out more about our workers’ comp program (pg. 8); the field of Pharmacogenomics (pg. 6) and spinal cord stimulation technology (pg. 4), along with other useful information. We hope that you enjoy the nice weather and all that New Orleans has to offer, including a pain-free, healthy lifestyle! N Dr. Firas Hijazi From our families to yours Dr. Firas Hijazi Dr. Satvik Munshi Louisiana Pain Specialists Dr. Satvik Munshi LOUISIANA PAIN SPECIALISTS LOCATIONS: KENNER 231 West Esplanade Avenue, Suite B Kenner, LA 70065 NEW ORLEANS EAST 5621 Read Boulevard New Orleans, LA 70127 NEW ORLEANS 3439 Prytania Street, Suite 501 New Orleans, LA 70115 MARRERO 4520 Wichers Drive, Suite 205 Marrero, LA 70072 LAPLACE 502 Rue De Sante, Suite 303 LaPlace, LA 70068 TULANE MEDICAL CENTER 1415 Tulane Avenue, 4th Floor New Orleans, LA 70112 CONTACT US: 504-434-7750 or LouisianaPain.com 2 LOUISIANA PAIN QUARTERLY | Vol. 23 THE MOPHO SOM TAM I • • • • • • ngredients: For the vinaigrette • 3 each Louisiana dried shrimp, lightly toasted in a hot pan 3 cloves garlic, peeled 1 tablespoon shaved palm sugar 5 slices of Thai chili ½ cup tamarind water (1 tablespoon tamarind paste warmed with 2 cups of water and then strained) 2 tablespoons fish sauce 2 limes, split Cooking Directions: 1. In a mortar and pestle pound together the dried shrimp, garlic, sliced chili and palm sugar until it forms a paste. 2. Gently work in the fish sauce, tamarind water and juice of two limes. 3. Drain the cucuzza squash from the chilled water and add it to the mortar and pestle. 4. Bruise the squash lightly with the pestle allowing the vinaigrette to penetrate the cells of the squash. 5. Pour the bruised squash and vinaigrette into a large bowl and toss in the remaining ingredients. 6. Serve immediately. Serves 6 guests. For the salad • • • • • • • • • 4 cups of peeled, seeded and julienned cucuzza squash, reserved in chilled water 2 peaches, seeded and large diced ½ cup blueberries ½ cup cooked black-eyed peas, fresh if possible 12 each cherry tomatoes, halved and salted 1 cup blanched, sliced green beans ½ cup minced cilantro leaves and stems 2 links Vietnamese Style Sweet Fermented Sausage, sliced thinly lengthwise ½ cup toasted peanuts (Alternately the vinaigrette can be made in a blender if no mortar and pestle is available. Once the vinaigrette is made in the blender mix it with the drained cacuzza squash and let them marinate together of 10 minutes and then toss in the remaining ingredient.) MOPHO: 514 City Park Ave. New Orleans (504) 482-6845 www.mophonola.com Vol. 23 | LOUISIANA PAIN QUARTERLY 3 Photo: Crescent Connection Bridge Run HAPPENINGS THIS QUARTER April May ne of the city’s most anticipated events – drawing in the biggest crowds after Mardi Gras – is the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell. The seven-day celebration, held at the New Orleans Fair Grounds, starts on April 24 and ends May 3. It’s family-friendly and appealing to all ages, offering a showcase of local and international music, art, food and fun. Headliners this year include Elton John, John Legend, Allen Toussaint, Keith Urban, Hozier and Jimmy Buffett. he Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo is a festival along Bayou St. John, held May 16-18 that features music, art, food and a variety of healthy activities suitable for all ages. One of the highlights is a “Zulu Run to Ride 5K” which takes place on Saturday, May 1618. Other activities include a yoga class for all levels, a bicycle second line. There will also be massage students doing demonstrations and a community printmaking class that will walk participants through the process and show examples of art and textiles that can be made with the craft. The festival is free and open to the public. O T For more information, visit www.bayouboogaloo Photo: Bayou Boogaloo Music Festival Photo: Douglas Mason For more information, visit www.nojazzfest.com June xercising and being outside can release endorphins, which can reduce physical pain and also be a source of stressrelief. On the evening of June 6, the Crescent City Connection four-mile bridge run draws in thousands of participants to enjoy the early days of summer, with breathtaking views of the city’s skyline at sunset, 300 feet over the Mississippi River. Participants are invited to run or walk, starting on the city’s West Bank. The Bridge Run is an annual favorite among both serious runners and those who just want to get some fresh air. E For more information, visit www.ccc10k.com/crescentconnection-bridge-run 4 LOUISIANA PAIN QUARTERLY | Vol. 23 Image courtesy of St. Jude Medical, Inc. SPINAL CORD STIMULATION Hope for patients who have not responded to other treatments or patients who have endured chronic pain in the neck, back, arms or legs; neuropathic pain (burning, tingling or numbing sensations); or inadequate surgeries, Louisiana Pain Specialists offer an alternative solution that has proven to be quite successful for many of its patients: spinal cord stimulation (SCS), which was F approved by the FDA in 1998. Think of it as analgesia “on demand,” though the patient must go through an extensive prescreen before the trial can be done. In a 2009 study published in the Journal of Clinical Monitoring and Computing, researchers noted that it is “effective in reducing intensity, duration and frequency of pain experienced by the patient.” Vol. 23 | LOUISIANA PAIN QUARTERLY How It Works The SCS system consists of a pulse generator with remote controls, implanted to stimulate electrodes and conducting wires (known as “leads”) that connect the electrodes to the generator, which is similar to a pacemaker. To qualify for permanent implantation, a patient must undergo a trial period of about a week; during this time, a temporary stimulator device is implanted by the physician after a local anesthetic or sedative is administered. 5 The physician places the leads under the skin, guided by an X-Ray machine and a radiology technician. The leads are then attached to a small, hand-held generator that the patient can control. The generator then sends electrical pulses to the spinal cord, thus interfering with the nerve impulses that cause the feeling of pain. The system replaces pain with a feeling of massaging – or merely just the absence of pain. It can allow for reduced pain medication and help the patient improve mobility. Often times, patients experience relief immediately, though the leads may occasionally need to be adjusted for optimum performance. The spinal cord stimulation devices at Louisiana Pain Specialists are supplied by St. Jude Medical, whose motto is “Power over pain.” The company has a longstanding relationship with the physicians and are able to directly answer patients’ questions or help them out with maintenance of the device. Says Rob Juul of St. Jude Medical, “We provide the stimulation device and become the first line when dealing with it. We have a long and very good relationship with Louisiana Pain Specialists...We were there when they opened, and we are very ingrained in the practice and have a very good relationship with the staff.” You may be eligible for this treatment if you experience the following: • Chronic back pain with or without leg pain • Chronic neck pain with or without arm pain • Prior back surgery (or surgeries) but pain remains (or worsens) • Peripheral neuropathy • Peripheral vascular disease • Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) • Refractory angina • Other treatments have not helped reduce your pain 6 LOUISIANA PAIN QUARTERLY | Vol. 23 PHARMACOGENOMICS: The Intersection of Pharmacology and Genomics By Sarah Ravits ave you ever had an adverse reaction to a drug or treatment? Each individual responds to medication differently, which is why strict regulations are in place and why doctors are so careful in writing prescriptions. While one patient may experience alleviated symptoms after ingesting a pill, another patient of the H same height and weight who takes the same medication may experience a completely different reaction. You often see seemingly contradictory side effects listed on a prescription, such as “euphoria” and “depression.” That’s because individuals’ metabolisms – the way we break down substances – are vastly different, due to our unique genetic codes. LOUISIANA PAIN QUARTERLY After medicine is ingested by an individual, it reacts with thousands of proteins as it travels throughout the body. Small differences in the compositions of our proteins affect how it works for each person. For some, adverse drug reactions can even lead to death. In a 1998 study published by the Journal of American Medicine, researchers found that 106,000 deaths and 2.2 million serious events caused by adverse drug reactions occurred each year. As such, adverse drug reactions are responsible for 5-7 percent of hospital admissions in the U.S. and Europe. “Based on your DNA, we can tell what your metabolism is like and doctors can base the doses off that.” Two years after the JAMA study was published, in 2000, the National Institutes of Health launched a nationwide collaboration of hundreds of scientists focused on understanding how genes affect the way a person responds to medication. It’s the intersection of pharmacology (the science of drugs) and genomics (the study of genes and their functions) known as pharmacogenomics, and it is extremely important. This network of individuals is collectively known as the Pharmacogenetics Research Network (PGRN), and they have been hard at work for 15 years now, studying genes and medications pertaining to a wide range of ailments, including chronic pain, asthma, depression, cancer and heart disease. Much of the current research involves studying variation in genes involved in drug metabolism, with a vested interest on improving drug safety. Dr. Tarun Jolly of Louisiana Pain Specialists says that pharmacogenomics is, at its essence “personalized medicine, tailoring medicine and dosages according to an individual’s DNA.” Dr. Jolly uses the example of pharmacogenomics as 7 it applies to blood thinners. “If somebody has a heart attack, they are given stents which open up the vessels,” he says. “When you get that stent, you get put on blood thinners so the stent doesn’t clot. But if someone has a fast metabolism for a blood thinner, it would break down, thin their blood too much and cause a stroke.” Conversely, “if someone is a slow metabolizer, it wouldn’t thin the blood enough. That’s why pharmacogenomics is so powerful – and that’s why it means so much … Based on your DNA, we can tell what your metabolism is like and doctors can base the doses off that.” Applying The Research To Pain Management “A patient suffering from back pain, for example, could relate a long history of uncontrolled pain, multiple medication trials and drug sensitivities,” says Dr. Satvik Munshi of Louisiana Pain Specialists. “This patient could be a candidate for one of several FDA-approved medications that carry pharmacogenetic information on their labeling.” If the patient is also being treated for co-morbid conditions, or is taking herbal supplements or recreational drugs, he says the potential for serious adverse drug interactions increases significantly. Until recently, pain management specialists had little choice but to prescribe medicine without knowing in advance just exactly how their patients could respond. But now, thanks to this ever-expanding field of research, doctors and researchers have developed an understanding of certain medications that will be the most effective, based on individual profiles. Currently, there are more than 150 FDA-approved medications that incorporate pharmacogenetic information, and Dr. Firas Hijazi says Louisiana Pain Specialists “will continue to work on integrating this new technology into the company’s practice.” 8 LOUISIANA PAIN QUARTERLY | Vol. 23 LOUISIANA PAIN EFFICIENTLY NAVIGATES WORKERS’ COMPENSATION orkers’ compensation is a form of insurance that provides wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured on the job, in exchange for the employee’s right to sue the employer. For someone W suffering from a work injury, this can be confusing, frustrating and timeconsuming, and when it comes to proper care and treatment, time is of the essence to prevent the injury from getting worse and getting the patient healed. Fortunately, Louisiana Pain has an efficient system that gets patients on track right away – often within just a day. Robin Lopez, medical billing and insurance specialist, handles all referrals – from physicians, lawyers, and insurance adjusters – and makes the process as seamless as possible. Vol. 23 | LOUISIANA PAIN QUARTERLY “I think we have a very good and thorough system,” she says. “From the time that they are sent to me, I am the patient’s one contact.” This is crucial, as lines can become crossed when dealing with too many people. We’ve all had the experience of “too many cooks in the kitchen” and the concept is extra frazzling when dealing with health care or legal issues. But by serving as an efficient, well-organized middleman, Lopez alleviates patients’ stress and ensures that those suffering from work-related injuries only need to focus on healing, instead of cutting through pesky, bureaucratic red tape. “I contact the Workman’s Comp adjuster for that patient and get authorization for treatment within 24 to 48 hours for a new patient appointment,” says Lopez. Another reason workers’ comp cases work so well is because Louisiana Pain has a long-standing relationship with many insurance adjusters. “Many of them give the clinic a quick response because they are familiar with the practice and how well Louisiana Pain handles patients while under its care,” she explains. Louisiana Pain takes pride on its personalized care and relationships with patients, and it’s obvious that the bedside manner pays off. “Workers’ comp patients are offered all the same courtesies as regular patients,” says Lopez. “We do our best to accommodate all that the insurance companies requests. Many of our patients call me during their treatment, expressing how grateful they are that their pain has been managed.” 9 She adds, “Those phone calls are always so enjoyable. The patients become more comfortable when they see that someone genuinely cares and is working to make sure they are able to live a better healthy and happy life.” Louisiana Pain ensures that all paperwork is in place and welldocumented, Lopez adds. “Those phone calls are always so enjoyable. The patients become more comfortable when they see that someone genuinely cares and is working to make sure they are able to live a better healthy and happy life.” 10 LOUISIANA PAIN QUARTERLY | Vol. 23 CONSIDERING THE MIND Mindfulness & Chronic Pain By Dr. Mark Skellie he concept of “mindfulness” has recently become popular, yet it is often misunderstood, particularly when applied to individuals living with chronic pain. Mindfulness is the process of paying attention moment-to-moment with purpose but without judgment, trying to look at things from a different perspective. By intentionally focusing our attention to how things actually are in this moment, we can recognize how our minds follow mental routines in a kind of auto-pilot much of the time. This attention can help us make more conscious choices about what we do in the next moment. Mindfulness practice has been shown to have great benefits in the areas of stress reduction, emotional regulation and developing compassion for others, as well as a long list of benefits for chronic health conditions from psoriasis to chronic pain. I would wager you might be thinking focusing on moment-to-moment awareness sounds like the exact opposite of what you would ever do when you are experiencing pain. When you’re in pain, you want it to come to an end. Immediately. This is extremely understandable for individuals living with the debilitating T and aggravating chronic pain. The last thing you want to do is pay more attention to your pain. But that’s the idea behind mindfulness, a highly effective practice for chronic pain. The thing that makes mindfulness practice different is that it is the combination of awareness and the effort to reduce or eliminate our mind evaluating and judging our experience. This is why mindfulness is so helpful. Instead of focusing on how badly you want the pain to stop, you pay attention to your pain with a new curiosity and without judgment. This approach is very different from what our brains naturally do when we experience the physiological sensation of pain. Our minds tend to jump into a tirade of judgments and negative thoughts. For example, some people will obsess about how much they hate the pain and want to wish it away. When you judge your pain, this process can only make it worse. In fact, our negative thoughts and judgments not only exacerbate the pain, but they also fuel anxiety, depression and other stressful emotional reactions. Our negative thoughts and judgments can be like a spiral of increasingly unpleasant emotional reactions. Everyone with chronic pain has likely experienced moments when their emotional state Vol. 23 | LOUISIANA PAIN QUARTERLY has influenced their pain, either with anxiety making pain feel more unbearable, or a positive mood helping you ignore or cope with your pain more effectively. It is very hard to change your emotional state while your mind continues to judge away. Mindfulness teaches people with chronic pain to be curious about the intensity of their pain, instead of letting their minds jump into thoughts such as: “This is horrible” or “I can’t take anymore of this.” It also teaches individuals to let go of goals and expectations. When you expect something will ease your pain, and it doesn’t – or it doesn’t as much as you’d like – your mind goes into alarm-mode or solution-mode. You start thinking thoughts like, “Nothing ever works.” A simple way to describe the goals of mindfulness is to do as best as you can to engage with the pain just as it is and learn ways to relate to your pain in a new way. It is about finding a way to switch from the stress response alarm to an open learning mindset. In other words, as you’re applying mindfulness to your pain, you might consider your experience and ask yourself: “What can I learn about this pain? What do I notice?” Mindfulness practice also helps us become more kind to ourselves. Instead of thinking, “I’m a terrible person for being unable to do the things I used to do before my chronic pain condition” you can start to think, “I can recognize my thinking as a pointless and unfair judgment against myself. Instead of getting anxious about my anxiety, or mad at my anger, sad about my depression, or distressed by my pain, I can give myself permission to feel whatever I am already feeling, and make a conscious choice about how to take care of myself.” We often spend huge amounts of time and energy battling ourselves. Interestingly, practicing mindfulness not only reduces stress, but a “side effect” of being present in what you are doing allows you to get more done. When you are writing a report, you become better able to just write 11 that report without constantly worrying about all the other reports you haven’t written yet. You begin to realize that you can only be present in the moment you are in, and while you may sometimes choose to take the time to plan for the future or learn from the past, you live less in your head and more in your life. All of your experiences can become more enriched when you actually show up for them. The simplest way to think about mindfulness is that it is a type of mediation practice that does not have to be connected with any specific faith or set of religious values. Practical Application So how do you practice mindfulness? To practice mindfulness, start by sitting in a comfortable but alert posture. Gently close your eyes. Take a couple of deep breaths, and, as you exhale, settle into your body, relaxing any obvious tension or holding. Then, breathing normally, bring your awareness to your body, sensing for a short while how the body presents itself to you. There is no particular way to be; just notice how you are at this moment. Then, from within the body, as part of the body, become aware of your breathing, however it happens to appear. There is no right or wrong way to breathe while practicing mindfulness; the key is to simply notice how it actually is right now. Let the breath breathe itself, allowing it to be received in awareness. Notice where in your body you feel the breath most clearly. This may be the abdomen rising and falling, the chest expanding and contracting, or the tactile sensations of the air passing through the nostrils or over the upper lip. Wherever the breath tends to appear most clearly, allow that area to be the home, the center of your attention. To help maintain contact between awareness and the breath, you may use a label or mental note. Softly, like a whisper in the mind, label the in-breath and outbreath, encouraging the awareness to stay present with 12 LOUISIANA PAIN QUARTERLY | Vol. 23 the breath. You can label the inhalations and exhalations as “in” and “out,” or perhaps use “rising” and “falling” for the movement of the abdomen or the chest. Don’t worry about finding the right word, just use something that will help you stay connected. There is no need to force the attention on the breath; to strengthen your ability to become mindful and present, use the gentle power of repeatedly, nonjudgmentally returning and resting with the breath. When a strong physical sensation makes it difficult for you to stay with the breath, simply switch your awareness to this new predominant experience. The art of mindfulness is recognizing what is predominant and then sustaining an intimate mindfulness on whatever that is. As if your entire body was a sensing organ, sense or feel the physical experience. Simply allow it to be there. Drop whatever commentary or evaluations you may have about the experience in favor of seeing and sensing the experience directly in and of itself. Carefully explore the particular sensations that make it up – hardness or softness, warmth or coolness, tingling, tenseness, pressure, burning, throbbing, lightness and so on. Let your awareness become as intimate with the experience as you can. Notice what happens to the sensations as you are mindful of them. Do they become stronger or weaker, larger or smaller, or do they stay the same? As an aid, you can ever so softly label the experience. The labeling is a gentle, ongoing whisper in the mind that keeps the attention steady on the object of mindfulness. You should primarily sense directly the experience and what happens to it as you are present for it. This can sound like: “neck, burning, neck, tingling, hand, neck …” Once a physical sensation has disappeared or is no longer compelling, you can return to mindfulness of breathing until some other sensation calls your attention. Three-Minute Breathing Space I know this exercise may seem strange and it is counter-intuitive that working on refining your attention without judgment could actually help you cope with your pain. Please try this exercise or at least the “3 Minute Breathing Space” before you write this off. If you have any questions, concerns, or would like to tell me about your reactions to this article, or previous Considering the Mind articles, please email Dr. Skellie at [email protected]. Three-Minute Breathing Space AWARENESS – Bring yourself to the present moment by deliberately adopting an erect and dignified posture. If possible, close your eyes. Then ask yourself: • What is my experience right now … in thoughts … in feelings … in bodily sensations (a few moments) • Acknowledge and register your experience, even if unwanted. COLLECTING – Then, gently redirect your full attention to breathing, to each in breath and to each out breath as they follow, one after another: • Your breath can function as an anchor to bring you into the present and help you tune into a state of awareness and stillness EXPANDING – Expand the field of your awareness around your breathing, so that it includes a sense of the body as a whole, your posture, and facial expression. (Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002) I will continue to provide new relation strategies in every new Louisiana Pain Quarterly Magazine because the best way to manage stress and chronic pain is to develop a tool box full of different strategies that you can deploy when needed. Nearly all of the future strategies build on deep breathing, so don’t forget to practice! Dr. Satvik Munshi Dr. Firas Hijazi Raised in the New Orleans area, a comprehensive pain management specialist with advanced training in interventional pain therapies, double board certified in pain management and physical medicine and rehabilitation. With Louisiana Pain Specialists since 2012, double board certified in interventional pain management and anesthesia, trained at Tulane University and the University of New Mexico, special expertise in procedures to treat back and neck pain. Your Louisiana Pain Doctors! Interventional Pain Treatments • Diagnostic Testing • Medication Management
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