Latest news with #chronic pain
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
Cure by Katherine Brabon review – moments of grace in meditation on chronic illness
Katherine Brabon's fourth novel follows a mother and daughter with a shared experience of chronic illness who travel to Italy in search of a cure. It feels like a companion piece to her elegant previous novel Body Friend, about three women who seek out different ways of managing their chronic pain after surgery. Cure continues Brabon's metaphoric use of doubles, mirrors and reflections to explore the social dimensions of the body in pain. It opens in Lake Como, where, we are told, in autumn 'clouds devour the hills around the lake' and the water 'reflects the scene of disappearance. [It] cannot help but replicate the obscuring fog.' Vera has been here before; she is now taking her 16-year-old daughter, Thea, to a small town in Lombardy, where she herself travelled with her parents as a sick teen, to seek out an obscure man who promises to heal and cure people of their illnesses. Cure captures the painful intimacies between a mother and daughter: 'Vera has lived this, or a version of this, but she wants it to be different for her daughter,' Brabon writes. Vera and Thea are allied in their shared experience of chronic headaches, fatigue and joints stiffened with pain. Both have been subjected to the banal health advice of others – to take cold showers, hot baths, avoid coffee and consume tea. At the same time the pair are estranged – Thea wants to rebel against Vera's anxious and protective proscriptions; Vera favours curatives such as 'supplement powders, tablets, and tea' over the prescribed medications recommended by her doctor husband. Sign up for our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning The gentle and unassuming narrative shifts between Vera's adolescent pilgrimage to Italy and her daughter's, and between sequences from Vera's early adulthood and scenes of the mother and child at home in Melbourne. Vera is taken to a thermal bath in regional Victoria by her parents, and spends hours connecting with other young women online. In Italy, Thea rests and walks to the lake, meeting a teenage boy called Santo. Writing in her journal, she reflects upon how her mother's journey maps neatly on to her own: the same age, the same bed, a shared illness, a shared purpose. To Vera, her daughter is a 'just a body': 'a mirror of her own body … she cannot see beyond the body, its destruction, its inheritance'. Thea and Vera's nights are long, edged with pain; the days are repetitious, spent managing that burden. Brabon is sensitive to how time can dissolve in these efforts of maintenance, bracketing the hours with temporary relief. Vera partakes in a fortnightly regime of subcutaneous injections, while Thea relies on painkillers to alleviate the 'fatigue and fever and aching eyelids'. As she swallows the tablets, she 'feels her mother come back to her'. In this cyclical experience of illness, Thea looks to Vera as a template of what will come. In Thea, Brabon draws a sensitive portrait of a girl adjusting to life in a body that will be constrained. Vera is a complex figure, anxious and tired, whose responsibility for her daughter both draws them together and drives them apart. They turn to writing as a means of communication and escape: Thea retreats into her journal, diarising her own adolescence and crafting stories about her mother; Vera appeals to online communities, where she can share her own experience anonymously. This secret retreat into fantasy is driven by necessity, for it is there that mother and daughter are free to imagine their lives with a supple and mysterious hope. Vera and Thea must live slowly, carefully, and the narrative reproduces this in its structure – to enervating effect. Between sequences of Vera and Thea in the past and present are italicised passages told from an estranged, omniscient perspective. The pair become 'mother and daughter', 'the woman' and 'the girl'. Thea's upset sleep and swollen knees, initially presented to the reader with first-hand intimacy, are reconsidered with toneless neutrality, a flat recital of events: 'The girl feels both happy and angry'; 'the girl walks to the lake'. In adopting this kind of glacial formalism, Brabon perhaps seeks to capture the effects of bodily estrangement with the sage reticence of a writer like Rachel Cusk, whose novel Parade is quoted in the epigraph. Instead, these italicised passages achieve something more dry, too narrow. The warmer haze of Brabon's other prose better captures the feelings of rupture and dissociation brought about by the sick body and by the family in conflict. Brabon's play with narration in Cure signals her subtle exploration of how stories of sickness can be confining, too definitive. Shifting our attention to the ill body beyond pathology, she re-engages with the relational and affective qualities of this experience, sketching a dim world, foggy with illusion and mythmaking. Narrative intensity is stripped back for something softer, more reflective. If the novel's carefully refined atmosphere is sometimes remote to a fault, it also contains arresting moments of grace, as Brabon meditates on the stories we tell about our bodies, wellness, healing and memory. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion Cure by Katherine Brabon is out through Ultimo Press ($34.99)
The Sun
10-07-2025
- Health
- The Sun
Common painkiller used for back pain ups risk of dementia by 29%, scientists warn
A POPULAR nerve and back pain medicine has been linked to an increased risk of dementia by scientists. The risk was associated with patients who had received six or more prescriptions of the drug. 1 Gabapentin has become increasingly popular for the treatment of chronic pain, especially neuropathic pain - pain that arises from damage or disease affecting the nervous system - as it offers potentially neuroprotective benefits. But concerns have begun to emerge about its side effects, include a possible link to neurodegeneration. In a new study published in the journal Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine, researchers found receiving six or more prescriptions of the drug is associated with 29 per cent increased risk of developing dementia - and a 85 per cent increased risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The research team looked at real-time data from 68 healthcare organisations across the US. Alongside the number of prescriptions associated with dementia and MCI risks, they found diagnoses occurred within 10 years of patients' initial pain diagnosis. When looking at age, 18 to 64 year olds prescribed the drug were more than twice as likely to develop either condition than those who hadn't been prescribed gabapentin. There was no heightened risk among 18 to 34 year olds prescribed the drug, but among 35 to 49 year olds, the risks of dementia more than doubled and those of MCI more than tripled. A similar pattern was observed among 50 to 64 year olds. Risks also rose with prescription frequency - patients who had received 12 or more prescriptions were 40 per cent more likely to develop dementia and 65 per cent more likely to develop MCI than those prescribed gabapentin between three and 11 times. As the study was observational, the researchers weren't able to draw firm conclusions about cause and effect. Signs of dementia that might be missed They also weren't able to account for dose or length of gabapentin use. But they concluded: "Our findings indicate an association between gabapentin prescription and dementia or cognitive impairment within 10 years. "Moreover, increased gabapentin prescription frequency correlated with dementia incidence." They added: "Our results support the need for close monitoring of adult patients prescribed gabapentin to assess for potential cognitive decline." Side effects of gabapentin LIKE all medicines, gabapentin can cause side effects, although not everyone gets them. Side effects of gabapentin may happen in more than one in 100 people. They're usually mild and go away by themselves. They include: Feeling sleepy, tired or dizzy Feeling sick (nausea) Being sick (vomiting) Diarrhoea Mood changes Swollen arms and legs Blurred vision Dry mouth Difficulty getting an erection Weight gain Memory problems Headaches Getting more infections than usual Very few people taking the drug experience serious problems. Call a doctor or call 111 straight away if you have a serious side effect, including: Thoughts of harming or killing yourself – a small number of people taking gabapentin have had suicidal thoughts, which can happen after only a week of treatment A high temperature, swollen glands that do not go away, your eyes or skin turn yellow (this may be less obvious on brown or black skin), unusual bruises or bleeding, severe tiredness or weakness, unexpected muscle pain or weakness, with or without a rash – these may be symptoms of a serious reaction Long-lasting stomach pain, feeling sick or being sick – these may be warning signs of an inflamed pancreas Muscle pain or weakness and you're having dialysis treatment because of kidney failure Seeing things that are not there (hallucinations) In rare cases, it's possible to have a serious allergic reaction (anaphylaxis). Call 999 now if: Your lips, mouth, throat or tongue suddenly become swollen You're breathing very fast or struggling to breathe (you may become very wheezy or feel like you're choking or gasping for air) Your throat feels tight or you're struggling to swallow Your skin, tongue or lips turn blue, grey or pale (if you have black or brown skin, this may be easier to see on the palms of your hands or soles of your feet) You suddenly become very confused, drowsy or dizzy Someone faints and cannot be woken up A child is limp, floppy or not responding like they normally do (their head may fall to the side, backwards or forwards, or they may find it difficult to lift their head or focus on your face) Source: NHS In a study published in Alzheimer's & Dementia earlier this year, a team of scientists systemically reviewed data-driven research on how prescribed medications may influence dementia risk. They found antibiotics, antivirals, and anti-inflammatory drugs were protective. Vaccines for diseases such as hepatitis and typhoid showed associations between reduced dementia risk. But they also uncovered concerning associations between frequent use of antipsychotics and benzodiazepines and an elevated risk of dementia. Medications targeting vascular and metabolic pathways, including antihypertensives and statins, showed mixed outcomes.
