Glasgow LDN Conference 2009

We have posted directions and access details for the European LDN Conference, including maps and photos, with details of parking, directions from the conference hotel - the City Inn, and the taxi drop off point.

Follow this link for details - LDN Conference Venue update

Here are some directions & access information, plus some pictures of the LDN Conference Venue - the Western Infirmary Lecture Theatre. Access is via University Place, off Byres Road. Free Parking is available on University Place and there is also a drop off point outside the Lecture Theatre and disabled parking at the entrance. If parking on University place, follow the route marked on foot.

From the Conference Hotel -The City Inn - take Finnieston street to Argyll street, turn left onto Argyll street and proceed along to Byres road, turn right into Byres Road, then right again into University Place.

Contact: Margarita Gallardo
mjgallardo@stanford.edu
650-723-7897
Stanford University Medical Center

Inexpensive drug appears to relieve fibromyalgia

pain in Stanford pilot study

STANFORD, Calif. — For Tara Campbell, the onset of her fibromyalgia began slowly with repeated sore throats, fevers and fatigue. By the time she was diagnosed, a year later, she had become so debilitated by flulike symptoms and exhaustion that she often couldn’t get off the couch all day.

“Fall, a year ago, I hit my very, very worst,” said Campbell, 39, of Walnut Creek, Calif. “I felt overall pain to the point that even when my children or husband just touched me it hurt.”

Campbell’s symptoms still linger, but since taking part in a Stanford University School of Medicine clinical trial in the spring of 2008, she’s improved enough that she’s gone back to working again as an interior decorator and even headed up the fundraising auction at her daughters’ school.

“I am really, really good,” Campbell said. “Having said that, I’m still not 100 percent. I’m still not that person I was before.”

Campbell was one of 10 women with fibromyalgia to take part in a small pilot study at Stanford over a 14-week period to test the new use of a low dose of a drug called naltrexone for the treatment of chronic pain. The drug, which has been used clinically for more than 30 years to treat opioid addiction, was found to reduce symptoms of pain and fatigue an average of 30 percent over placebo, according to the results of the study to be published April 17 online in the journal Pain Medicine.

“Patients’ reactions were really quite profound,” said senior author Sean Mackey, MD, PhD, associate professor of anesthesia and chief of the pain management division at Stanford University Medical Center. “Some people decided to come off other medications. Some people went back to work really improving their quality of life.”

Still, Mackey and his colleagues remain cautious about recommending the drug this early on in the research process. “People need to understand that while we’re excited about preliminary results, they are still preliminary, and we need to do longer studies with more patients. There is still a significant amount of work to be done.” The researchers are moving ahead with a second, longer-term trial of 30 patients who will be tested during a 16-week period.

The drug is particularly promising, the study states, because of the few treatment options available for fibromyalgia patients, its low cost of about $40 a month and its limited side effects. Vivid dreams were reported by a few participants.

Still considered a controversial diagnosis, fibromyalgia is a disorder classified by chronic widespread pain, debilitating fatigue, sleep disturbance and joint disorder. Advocates and doctors who treat the disorder, estimate it affects as much as 4 percent of the population. “The symptoms of fibromyalgia are commonly seen in a number of other diseases, and there is no well-established and objective blood test to confirm the diagnosis,” said Jarred Younger, PhD, the study’s lead author and an instructor in anesthesia and pain management at Stanford. “In the meantime, new treatments that work particularly well for fibromyalgia go a long way toward validating the usefulness of the diagnosis.”

The idea to explore the use of a low-dose of naltrexone as a treatment for fibromyalgia began about two years ago when Younger began searching for relief for patients with the disorder. “I was asking patients, ‘Does anything work for you?’” he recalled. “A lot of people in support groups were saying, ‘Yeah, I tried naltrexone and it works for me.’ It just kept coming up.”

The use of naltrexone to treat pain at first seems counterintuitive, Younger said, because at normal doses the drug actually blocks the body’s pain relief systems. However, naltrexone appears to have the opposite effect when given at a lower dose. Naltrexone, at these lower doses, is thought to work by modulating glial cells in the nervous system, Mackey said. Glial cells provide support and protection for neurons and act as a link between the neuronal and inflammatory systems.

“We’re learning more and more that maybe by modulating these glial cells we can impact the abnormal processing of pain in these patients,” Mackey said.

During the study, the women used a handheld electronic device to capture their symptoms on a daily basis. They took a placebo for two weeks and then the drug for eight weeks, but they weren’t told when they were taking the drug or the placebo.

Some of the women, including Campbell, have continued to take the drug after the end of the study because the results were so positive, Younger said.

“Even after the study, it just got better and better and better,” Campbell said. “I think my improvement was about 40 percent during the study. When you’re not capable of doing much of anything, that’s a lot. I still have localized pain, but I don’t have the overall body pain. I can live with that if I don’t have the fatigue and flulike symptoms. I’m much more back to normal.”

Researchers reported no financial ties to the drug. More information is available at: http://paincenter.stanford.edu/.

The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation’s top 10 medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.

Dr Chris Steele, the resident doctor on ITV’s This Morning program, registered today for the Glasgow LDN Conference.

He has appeared on the daytime magazine show since its first ever episode in 1988 and has remained the resident health expert since then, notably pioneering the use of the TV medium to inform and educate the public in health matters.

Subsequently Dr Steele has pioneered the use of the Internet to raise awareness of important health issues.

He will attend the conference to find out more about the role of LDN in the treatment of MS, Crohn’s and other immune system related conditions.

The Glasgow LDN Conference hotel details have been announced.

The City Inn Glasgow is offering LDN Conference delegates preferential rates for 24th-26th April, 2009

Booking details re available via this link:     LDN Conference Hotel

Good Morning

Further to your call I am pleased to offer the rate of £95 single occupancy and £105 double occupancy including full cooked breakfast for your event on 25th April. The rate will be valid also for 24th & 26th.

We will continue to offer this rate subject to availability until 10th April at which time the rate will be released, after this time we cannot guarantee the rate will be available.

Please ask guests to quote group code WES240409 to ensure they are offered the correct rate

Kind Regards
Shirlene

Shirlene Fawkes
Reservations Manager
City Inn Glasgow
Finnieston Quay
Glasgow G3 8HN
tel: +44 (0)14 1227 1026
fax: +44 (0)14 1227 1036
www.cityinn.com