chronic pain
Long-Term Pain Therapy With Opioids
JAMA Letter by Dr. Lynn Webster This article, in a slightly edited form, first appeared online in JAMA on December 18, 2025. Long-Term Pain Therapy With Opioids To the Editor The Viewpoint by Drs. Bicket and Bateman highlights the asymmetry between abundant data on opioid-related harms and the scarcity of evidence regarding benefits of long-term opioid…
Read MoreCannabinoids and Pain Care: A Federal Shift That Needs Guardrails
This article, in a slightly edited form, first appeared on Pain News Network on December 20, 2025. On December 18, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Justice to expedite completion of the process moving marijuana from an illegal Schedule I controlled substance to Schedule III, a less restrictive category that…
Read MorePain Does Not Start (or End) in the Brain: A Clinician’s Rebuttal to Sanjay Gupta
This article, in a slightly edited form, first appeared on American Council on Science and Health’s website on September 11, 2025. Sanjay Gupta’s new book, It Doesn’t Have to Hurt, arrives with a breezy promise that will sound, at best, naïve to people who wake to severe pain every day. In his recent media interviews,…
Read MoreWhat are the psychological effects of chronic pain?
This is an article by Casey Bloom. I offer it with the author’s permission for informational purposes. The author and I have no financial involvement. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE HER OWN AND DO NOT REPRESENT MY VIEW OR MEDICAL ADVICE. Chronic pain can disrupt your life both physically and psychologically. It can…
Read MoreThe Malevolent Attack on Women
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.
Read MoreCDC Revised Opioid Prescribing Guideline Falls Short of What People in Pain Need
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.
Read MoreWhy the Pain Community Should Support Voting Rights Legislation
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.
Read MoreConsequences of the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain
In my view, it was a mistake for the CDC to publish the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain in 2016.
Read MoreA Drug Problem Isn’t a Moral Failing
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.
Read MorePause
I am taking a pause in writing blogs, columns, and editorials. I sincerely want to thank everyone who has followed me. I hope you all will continue to seek factual information. Please know that my commitment to the pain and addiction community is as strong as ever.
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