Painkillers or your life! Apparently, this was the demand of a robbery suspect arrested after trying to hold up a CVS pharmacy Wednesday evening in the city of Santa Ana, California. The CVS robbery suspect walked into the pharmacy and told a pharmacy employee that he had a gun and demanded the powerful painkiller OxyContin.

Pain killers have become increasingly prescribed to patients for long term usage, as chronic pain has also become a more highly recognized condition. These drugs are opioid, narcotic painkillers that have many negative side effects, including addiction and suppressing the respiratory system.

Giving a local anaesthetic during a Caesarean section helps manage pain after the operation and can reduce consumption of painkillers, according to Cochrane Researchers. The researchers recommend local anaesthetics as part of integrated pain management strategies for Caesarean section operations, provided that consideration is given to the cost.

A lawyer for Michael Jackson's personal doctor denied claims on Monday that the cardiologist had injected the pop legend with a powerful painkiller Demerol or OxyContin prior to his death. "There was no Demerol. No OxyContin," Edward Chernoff told The Los Angeles Times.

Michael Jackson's death from a sudden cardiac arrest has mounted many questions about his health and use of painkillers such as Demerol. Now the media is questioning if Demerol overdose may have caused Jackson's cardiac arrest.

A prestigious panel of pain-management experts representing the American Pain Society (APS) www.ampainsoc.org and the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) has published the first comprehensive clinical practice guideline to assist clinicians in prescribing potent opioid pain medications for patients with chronic non-cancer pain.

A national panel of pain management experts representing the American Pain Society (APS) and the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) has published the first comprehensive, evidence-based clinical practice guideline to assist clinicians in prescribing potent opioid pain medications for patients with chronic non-cancer pain.

Marijuana kills pain by activating a set of proteins known as cannabinoid receptors, which can also regulate appetite, inflammation, and memory. The body also has chemicals known as endocannabinoids that naturally activate these same receptors, namely N-arachidonoyl ethanolamine (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG).

Hospitalized kids with painful ailments from broken bones to cancer are often dosed with strong, painkilling drugs known as opiates. The medications block pain, but they can have nasty side effects. Constipation, for instance, is one side effect that can cause discomfort ­ and even extend a child's hospital stay.

No child aspires to a lifetime of addiction. But their brains might.

First year college students believe that occasional nonmedical use of prescription pain killers and stimulants is less risky than cocaine, but more risky than marijuana or consuming five or more alcoholic beverages every weekend, according to a new study published in the September issue of Prevention Science, the peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Prevention Research.

Using sucrose to reduce pain in newborns undergoing painful procedures should be limited to babies having blood taken (venipuncture) for the newborn screening test but not for intramuscular injections, write Dr. Anna Taddio and co-authors.