SAN ANTONIO, May 19, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DeTOURE Research, an organization supporting outcomes associated with the compounding of topical non-opioid pain creams, today announced its Chief Scientist will speak at this week's DoD/VA Healthcare 2014 conference, organized by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement (IDGA).
Rob Gussenhoven, PharmD, will address the use of compounded topical pain creams to relieve chronic pain, even as they reduce dependency on traditional, opioid-based oral medications like hydrocodone and oxycodone. Gussenhoven will also talk about what the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has called "the conundrum of opioids," where short-term benefits are not realized with chronic use. "We are failing to consider the other properties of opiates that compromise functionality and recovery. This had led to a ten-fold increase in the costs of healthcare versus the cost of the opioid medications and associated addiction and abuse issues," stated Gussenhoven.
Gussenhoven will also talk about the science behind custom-compounded topical creams, developed individually to relieve chronic pain. "The traditional physician concerns of opioid use are addiction and abuse; that misses the larger impact of the inadequately managed pain syndromes of 50 million Americans," he notes. He adds that the IOM has estimated the annual economic impact associated with chronic pain at $635 billion, ten times higher than the figure usually discussed. Gussenhoven says the larger number includes factors not normally considered, such as the cost associated with increased healthcare utilization due to the downstream effects of Opioid Induced Hyperalgesia (OIH) and hormone suppression (endocrinopathy) which contributes to the worsening of numerous other disease states.
This will be DeTOURE Research's fifth major presentation in the previous two months, including presentations at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP), the American Pain Society (APS), the American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA) and the World Institute of Pain's (WIP) World Congress. At the APS conference, the results of two IRB-approved patient outcomes studies were presented. One of the studies, which had a population of 3,587 patients, reported that 71% of them had their pain lessen, on average, by 58% over a 24-hour period after using the topical pain creams. The same population also stated they had a 38% reduction in oral pain medication use during the study period.
The IDGA's conference focuses on military healthcare, with specific emphases on providing a continuum of care, and the long-term treatment of both physical and mental injuries sustained in battle. Fifty percent of those attending the conference are medical professionals; almost one-third focus on either battlefield health, or post-deployment rehabilitation. "Professionals like Dr. Gussenhoven will help our attendees better understand the changing nature of healthcare for members of the military and veterans," said Maria Guillen, IDGA's deputy marketing director. "The ability to treat their conditions, addressing both near- and long-term pain, is a key consideration. His focus on the use of prescription non-opioid pain creams to mitigate the chronic pain of their patients will provide conference attendees with one more powerful weapon," she added.