Pain Management
Salt Lake City Tribune Op-Ed Supports Utah House Health Bill 266
Salt Lake City Tribune Publishes an Op-Ed Supporting Utah House Health Bill 266 On June 20, 2017, the Salt Lake City Tribune published an op-ed that I co-authored with some of my colleagues. The commentary is called “Patients should not be stuck with ‘fail first’ medicine,” and we wrote it in response to Utah House…
Read MoreWomen, Opioids, Benzodiazepines and Pain: A Potential Deadly Combination
When we think of the segments of the population who have been most affected by the opioid epidemic, we tend to think of poor, unemployed people who live in rural areas. In September of 2016, I published a blog called “Tough Times Feed America’s Opioid Epidemic: What You Need To Know.” In it, I…
Read MoreDanielle Byron Henry
Danielle Byron Henry’s Story Danielle was born in 1981. At the age of eight, she began experiencing migraine headaches. One of the most common sources of pain, migraines are three times more common in women than in men. For most people with migraines, the pain is manageable with minimal medication, control of sleep, and a…
Read MoreWhat Do You Do With the Mad That You Feel?
Many wonderful videos turn up on Facebook. Here is a video clip I found the other day. It features one of our country’s real heroes and inspirations, Fred Rogers. Fred Rogers Inspires Us This is a video of Fred Rogers testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications in 1969 to save funding for public…
Read MoreCan Francis Collins Help Solve the Opioid Crisis?
The problem of opioid addiction is more complex than lawmakers, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the media would have us believe. Pressuring doctors who treat pain patients to prescribe fewer opioids may reduce the amount of opioids prescribed. While that doesn’t decrease the need for opioids, it may drive people who need…
Read MoreThe Backlash of Government’s Efforts to Curb Opioid Prescribing
Turn the Tide Campaign Brings Unintended Consequences It began just about a year ago, when the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain provided “recommendations for primary care clinicians who were prescribing opioids for chronic pain outside of active cancer treatment, palliative care, and end-of-life care.” The emphasis is mine. The goal, as the…
Read MoreWhy Fentanyl Is So Deadly
According to Martha Bebinger of WBUR, “About 75 percent of the state’s men and women who died after an unintentional overdose last year had fentanyl in their system, up from 57 percent in 2015 (PDF). It’s a pattern cities and towns are seeing across the state [of Massachusetts] and country, particularly in New England and…
Read More“Step Therapy” Puts Insurance Companies Ahead of Patients
This article was originally published in the Salt Lake City Tribune. A Process Called Step Therapy Gary developed excruciating pain in his shoulder and arm following a cervical disc herniation several years ago. He was athletic and otherwise in good health, but the pain is now disabling. For years, Gary was prescribed pregabalin for…
Read MoreBecause of Pharma, We Take Aspirin for Headaches Instead of Chewing Bark
A July 8, 2016 Baltimore Sun article was titled, “Painkiller panel drops experts linked to pharma industry.” This story described how Dr. Mary Lynn McPherson, who teaches in the School of Pharmacy and specializes in hospice and end-of-life care, was removed from an FDA medical advisory panel. Three other doctors were similarly dismissed from the…
Read MoreDo Patients Need Opioids Following Dental Procedures?
According to Fox News, “The American Dental Association recently reported dentistry is responsible for prescribing 12 percent of all instant-release opioids.” The article quotes Dr. Mojgam Fajiram, DDS, of Sutton Advanced Cosmetic Dentistry, who claims the dental industry gives out opioid prescriptions much too quickly “just to treat chronic pain.” Treating Pain from Dental Procedures…
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