Steven Richeimer, MD, is the chief of the division of pain medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and a renowned specialist on issues related to chronic pain. Last month, he published an article in the journal Confronting Chronic Pain regarding a study that investigated a possible secondary use of metformin published in the Wiley Online Library.

The findings indicate that metformin, a drug commonly prescribed for type 2 diabetes, also reduces chronic musculoskeletal pain in patients with the disease. As a result, health care professionals treating patients with type 2 diabetes  and chronic pain may have a way to treat both conditions with one drug.

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