Posts Tagged ‘Chronic Pain’
The Painful Statistics
The realization that you will have chronic pain for the rest of your life is life-altering. Now imagine that the pain you are feeling can be lessened with a prescription that your doctor won’t prescribe and your pharmacy won’t dispense. Produced by Dr. Lynn R. Webster and Craig Wirth, The Painful Truth Documentary examines the agony that…
Read MoreThe Puzzle of Pain
Dr. Mary Lynch, like Dr. Webster, understands that opioids aren’t the first line of treatment. Dr, Lynch only turns to opioids once the level of pain is intolerable, or the quality of life is compromised. In her experience, the chances of a patient developing a long-term addiction to opioids are quite low. She believes that opioids do…
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 MoreThe Survey Says…the CDC Opioid Guideline Needs to Be Honestly Assessed
One-Year Anniversary of the CDC Opioid Prescribing Guideline On the one-year anniversary of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) opioid prescribing guideline, an online survey of patients, doctors, and healthcare providers conducted by Pain News Network and the International Pain Foundation (iPain) found that the guideline has “harmed pain patients, reduced access to…
Read MorePharmacies May be Blackballing Physicians Writing Opioid Prescriptions. What You Need to Know Now
Are Pharmacies Blackballing Physicians Writing Opioids? A colleague, Dr. Bill Jones (not his real name), recently wrote me about a serious threat to his career. One of Dr. Jones’s patients, who is on chronic opioid therapy, told him that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had blackballed him. The patient tried to get a prescription for…
Read MoreThe United State of Grief
This is a follow up to a guest blog my friend, Steve D. Passik, posted here on September 21, 2016, called “The Painful Later Years of Frances Passik.” Steven D. Passik, Ph.D., is a Pennsylvania-based pain psychologist. I’m proud to call him a friend. He is a giant in the field of pain medicine, but…
Read MoreWhat the Latest @NatCounterPunch Opioid Article Doesn’t Want You To Know
I was troubled to see a recent story in the online publication, Counterpunch. It starts off by declaring the root cause of the opioid crisis is Pharma’s contribution to professional societies for “educational” programs. Counterpunch reports that the funding was provided to advocate for “more aggressive identification and treatment of pain.” Ironically, the tag line…
Read MoreThis is the Reason Karl Marx Was Wrong, According to 90% of Americans
Karl Marx called religion the “opium of the people.” He meant that religion creates an illusory happiness that prevents people from seeking real happiness, which he believed would come through communism. Marx underestimated the continuing role that spirituality plays in human well-being. Americans Pray For Healing One CNN report claims that 90% of Americans pray…
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