Images of happy reunions, embraces with family members and young parents seeing their infant sons and daughters for the first time have followed the more than 10,000 veterans settling in to civilian life having returned from service in Afghanistan. These images however belie the fact that many combat veterans will return to civilian life plagued…
Healthcare providers in the U.S. are poorly prepared to manage chronic pain, according to the National Institutes for Health. No argument here. Time Magazine’s Alexandra Sifferlin does an excellent job covering the January NIH report on this deepening crisis. But she ignores a crucial factor: how to pay for the interdisciplinary care that the NIH…
The movie “Cake” starring Jennifer Aniston will be released Jan. 23rd. I will definitely be in the audience when it opens, and I urge everyone else to see it. Aniston stars as Claire, a woman who suffers from chronic pain. She becomes obsessed with the suicide death of one of the members of her support…
“For those suffering chronic pain, the hardest part is convincing others.” These words reinforce what nearly one-third of Americans already know, and introduce an NPR feature on chronic pain. After reporting the all too familiar statistics, (about 116 million people suffer from chronic pain with a cost of $635 billion in medical expenses and lost…
Twenty U.S. Senators joined forces to pen a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell on the national strategy to prevent opioid abuse. Among their grievances with the plan in development, the senators urged Secretary Burwell to integrate naloxone into the treatment process for overdoses. Naloxone works by temporarily halting the symptoms…
Former NFL players suffering from chronic pain will not get their day in court after a decision handed down from a federal judge today. The lawsuit alleged that the NFL illegally administered painkillers to players in an effort to mask injuries and keep them on the field. In his opinion, Judge William Alsup wrote that the matter…
The average millennial shifts their attention between technological platforms an average of 27 times per hour. From sending a text message on their cell phone, to responding to an email on their laptop, to glancing over to the T.V. to catch a news segment, distraction is undeniable. Anderson Cooper did a great service in doing a…
In the battle to reduce deaths linked to prescription opioids and heroin, the practice of distributing naloxone to opioid users is gaining favor. Naloxone is a quick intervention to reverse the effects of opioids when an overdose has occurred. In its recent toolkit to avoid opioid overdoses, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration…
By Saundra Young, CNN updated 3:24 PM EDT, Tue August 26, 2014 (CNN) — States that have legalized marijuana for managing chronic pain have significantly fewer deaths from prescription painkiller overdoses each year, according to a new study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. Researchers looked at medical marijuana laws and death certificate data in…
By DR. LYNN WEBSTER August 26, 2014 4:34PM As America’s most popular sport kicks into high gear, NFL fans will know about, follow closely and fret over player injuries. Yet, even with so much attention, pro football players experiencing some form of chronic pain will say they feel alone and that no one is listening.…
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