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…

February 20, 2012 2:04 pm Derek Leave a Comment (Edit) Tomorrow, Tuesday, February 21, 2012, ABC’s Chief Health & Medical Editor, Dr. Richard Besser, will be leading a Twitter Chat on chronic pain. Dr. Lynn Webster (President, LifeSource) will be participating as a representative of the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM). The chat will…

July 10, 2012 9:17 am Dr. Webster Leave a Comment (Edit) My long-time neighbor Larry Coffman sent me this kind note about my son Matt’s response to the death of Larry’s dog 15 years ago.  Matt was 6 years old at the time. “It was the week after Lucky died, and I was feeling like I had lost…

July 12, 2012 11:10 am Dr. Webster Leave a Comment (Edit) Purdue Pharma recently announced it is conducting clinical trials on OxyContin in children. Immediately some have criticized, suggesting that the exposure to opioids at an early age will inevitably lead to addiction later in life. The larger issue that was missed is that there…

August 3, 2012 11:25 am Dr. Webster Leave a Comment (Edit) For a riveting read, see “The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer,” by Siddhartha Mukherjee. The book chronicles the history of humankind’s most feared disease, including a multitude of treatment failures. The word cancer conjures a picture of death to many people.…

January 3, 2012 10:57 am Dr. Webster 1 Comment Welcome to my blog! As we start a new year I want express my thanks to everyone who takes the time to read this inaugural blog. The intent of this blog is to be informative and provide you, the reader, insight about timely health care issues. Initially I…

February 13, 2012 10:44 am Dr. Webster 2 Comments (Edit) I don’t know if we will hear that Whitney’s death is a drug-related death, but based upon her troubled past, it is a possibility.  I am not a big music buff or a celebrity follower, but I am touched by the humanity of the tragedy and the sadness within the greatness of…