It distresses me to know that, while the original ORT served to help assess the risk opioids posed for individuals, it has also caused harm. Since the question about a woman’s sexual abuse history does not provide any additional benefit, there is no reason to retain it. The ORT-OUD should be used instead of the original ORT.
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The updated guideline contains beneficial changes. Among them, certain prescription duration limits and the upper MME dosage threshold have been removed. There is some acknowledgment that pain treatment is indeed important. Yet, the inappropriate usage of the 2016 guideline and policies created in its image to harass, prosecute and even jail clinicians must be specifically and adequately addressed. The MME threshold now in the revised version is no more scientifically sound than the ones in the previous version, and it has already been shown that dosage levels are too easily interpreted with rigidity by policymakers and payors. Until these issues are resolved, the fallout has the potential to harm patient care into the future.
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Hospital administrators must balance the financial bottom-line with patient care safety, and it sounds like the nurses interviewed for this video work in environments where the administrators have gone off the rails.
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Disenfranchised people are in danger of losing their right to vote, and people in pain are an important constituency. Congress recently passed H.R. 4, which is a revised version of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
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Crime of the Century had the opportunity to debunk myths about addiction. Instead, it confuses the terms addiction and physical dependence and propagates misinformation.
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This article, in a slightly edited form, first appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune on May 20, 2021. Many years ago, I took on an unforgettable patient (“Jack”) who was on a high dose of physician-prescribed opioids. He wanted me to continue his high dosage. But I was unsure whether the benefit of doing…
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The use of opioids was not a crime then, nor is it today. However, the failure to appropriately treat chronic pain when it is possible to do so should be a criminal offense.
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In my view, it was a mistake for the CDC to publish the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain in 2016.
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We may never know why Rush Limbaugh made the choices he did. But, just as we would never think of berating him for falling victim to the lung cancer that took his life, we also shouldn’t chastise him for misusing painkillers.
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I wanted to share an article that I recently wrote for The Pandemic Lens. It is a curated venue where selected photographers, painters, writers, and other artists can present works that express their reactions to the pandemic. I was honored to be asked to participate. This article, in a slightly edited form, first appeared on…
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