Chronic opioid treatment of intractable, non-malignant pain.

There is a sub-group of patients with non-malignant medical conditions who have severe, intractable pain and who require chronic opioid administration for adequate pain control. Reported here is a systematic clinical evaluation of 52 such patients who were referred after they had failed numerous, non-opioid pain treatments. Major causes of pain were irreversible degenerative and/or traumatic injuries to the musculoskeletal system.

The acute hemodynamic response to pirbuterol at rest and exercise in patients with heart failure with observations on long-term response.

Rest and exercise hemodynamics with the beta agonist pirbuterol and a placebo preparation were studied in seven patients with severe chronic congestive heart failure. At rest, pirbuterol increased cardiac index (1.8 +/- 0.

Clinical experiences with 959 opioid-dependent patients treated with levo-alpha-acetylmethadol (LAAM).

Levo-alpha-acetylmethadol (LAAM) is an orphan drug that will soon be generally available to treatment facilities. We have recently treated 959 opioid addicts with LAAM for periods up to 36 consecutive months. Three times per week dosing of LAAM proved to be a safe and effective treatment agent for the majority of subjects.