I thought this video was interesting because in class we talked about NSAIDs, and how they can have side affects, which is why it is important to have knowledge of COX-1 Cox-2 inhibitors. Dr. Elliot Krane's TedTalk, discusses how chronic pain becomes its own disease because it can persist for months or oftentimes years.The sensation that many of his patients experience when they visit him is as he describes, even when an object as light as a feather touches the arm, to these patients it may feel like something as excruciating as a hot blow torch. Dr. Krane, mentions ibuprofen, and that how many times these NSAIDs can be ineffective when attempting to help patients with their chronic pain even though they are prescribed anyway. He then continues on to talk about the huge role the nervous system and a positive feedback loop have when an individual is experiencing chronic pain.
I felt as if one of the main take home points from this video is that there are other approaches we should incorporate into our treatment of pain including chronic pain. Dr. Krane, mentions that his belief is that the future holds the promise that new drugs will be developed that are not symtom-modyfing drugs that "simply mask the problem", but that will be "disease-modifying drugs", that will actually go right to the root of the problem and attack glial cells. It sounds like a fantastic idea, but I wonder the possible side effects of such medications.
http://www.ted.com/talks/elliot_krane_the_mystery_of_chronic_pain.html
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This was so interesting! When I was first reading it, it sounded like you were talking about Fibromyalgia, which is characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain through the whole body (MayoClinic.com). But after watching the video, it was something called Allodynia, which I was only able to find on Wikipedia: "pain due to a stimulus which does not normally provoke pain".
ReplyDeleteWhen he talked about developing drugs that are disease-modifying, there was a little alarm bell that went off in my head because he said there would be a drug that would kill the glial cells that were malfunctioning. I guess what my concern would be is whether those glial cells would be able to regenerate and be replaced because they play such an important role in the nervous system.
I agree with Maile. It's great that he was able to calm the hyperactive glial cells and reversed the symptoms, but I'm rather skeptical with regards to his idea of making a drug that kills glial cells. If a drug was to be made, will it be able to recognize glial cells that are only hyperactive? Like Maile said, they play such an important role in the nervous system, and destroying them randomly would not be a god idea even though its plasticity is being taken in account. Additionally, why is he focused on making a new drug since recent drug/physical therapy (although its painful) combination have already shown benefits to the patient? Is it to make money? I understand that he only had limited amount of time to present his case, but I felt like there are so many questions that need to be answered. Nice post though.
ReplyDeleteTo go along with what you guys are saying I think destroying them seems like a beneficial idea now, but like you said Sho in due-time I think it may only end up harming patients in the long run, by depleting cells that are so crucial to our nervous system. I think money is a large motivating factor in various aspects of society, but also in science, so I think it may be a combination of this but I also think one source of urgency may be from patients who have felt excruciating pain for so long, and just want something to finally help them. Similar to what we discussed in class, when it was mentioned that when we are in pain, or are dealing with conditions, and no treatments are working we'll try anything in hopes it will make us feel better again! But I agree his talk does leave room for questions!
ReplyDeleteYou guys have really good input for this blog. I thought it was also very interesting as well. I do agree that killing the glial cells could cause future problems since like Mail and Sho said, they are very important for out nervous system. This should definitely be thought about more carefully. However, the story of Dr. Krane’s patient who had excruciating pain in her arm was awful. If a slightest touch of a feather felt like a blowtorch on me I think I would want the glial cells gone. There is a ton of questions to be answered on this topic. It’s definitely something I would want to follow up on in the future. Great post!
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