“For me, my own personal stories of opioid patients come to mind, including one who keyed my car when I stopped prescribing his opioid after an acute injury. I think of some local opioid overdose deaths in my community. I would love to hear what other doctors and clinicians have …
I have been writing of late about recent developments in the opioid saga. My first piece talked about a fresh decision in California’s seven-year-old The People vs. opioid pharma case. The next one focused on how the middle-man, distributors, contributed to the epidemic’s picture.
Now, I wanted to write an overarching piece hitting some astounding highlights that summarize the opioid crisis through its decades-long lifespan. …
As a family physician for more than 40 years, I have seen countless patients struggling to alleviate chronic pain, with far too many turning to self-destructive coping methods such as alcohol and opioids. Unfortunately, the struggle with chronic pain isn’t going away – and more alarming is the fact that those suffering from it are getting younger and younger. The latest data on chronic pain show patients between age 18 …
A recent headline in my neighborhood newspaper read, “A Dentist Became a Top Opioid Buyer in W. Va. Now a Drug Firm Faces Penalty for Ignoring Red Flags.” The drug firm sent 25,400 hydrocodone pills and 3,600 Xanax to one Huntington, WV area dentist. The DEA raided the dentist’s office and shut it down. The dentist admitted to ordering the pills for personal use.
This summer, also right …
“If you treat chronic pain, or are someone living with it, remember this: Changing the brain can change pain. Addressing emotional health directly impacts physical health, because brain and body are always connected. Pain psychologists can serve as pain coaches – it doesn’t mean you’re crazy, and it’s not …
“My brain is still struggling to comprehend the battle for the status quo a physician faces each day; one who must, by default, be cognizant of the lurking dangers of an opioid prescription, while also helping the patient on their swiftest way to recovery, led by the very same guidelines. …
There’s one thing that links every patient I see as a pain management specialist: All they want is relief. And they want it in whatever way is going to be the most effective and least disruptive to their lives. And anyone in this role can tell you that that’s a big responsibility and a tall order. This job isn’t simply about reducing pain – it’s about giving people a life …
On Monday, November 1, an Orange County California Superior Court Judge said, in a tentative decision, that the opioid pharmaceutical companies were not responsible for the opioid crisis.
This particular case, going by the name of “The People of the State of California v. Purdue Pharma,” started in 2014. The judge’s ruling noted that neither party requested a trial by jury. The trial took place before the judge between April 19, …
Chronic pain is an epidemic, currently affecting over 100 million American adults – more than diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined. This doesn’t include children, 1 in 3 of whom live with a chronic pain condition ranging from migraine to chronic stomachaches. Chronic pain disrupts life, impeding the ability to work, exercise, have sex, engage in hobbies, even go outside. It’s the number one cause of long-term disability in the …
For many years I was not certain physical pain existed.
I know this is rude.
But I felt so little of it.
I could only assume that other people did too.
Like a child, with a skinned knee.
“All better,” I would say, and they would look at me.
Quizzically.
And at the knee and decide.
That it was.
I have been disabused of this recently.
With a pinched nerve in my back.
The universe often disabuses me of things.
Painfully.
If necessary.
“Doctor,” …
I never thought I’d ever consider disregarding my oath.
She is a strong, charismatic, caring, successful, disciplined, and reflected woman. As her significant other, I am subjected to a degree of observer bias; nevertheless, her life’s accomplishments and her friends and acquaintances would validate these characteristics all the same.
She looks nothing like a typical pill-seeking patient in clinic, if you were ever to imagine one – or do I even know …
Family lore recalls that my grandfather, succumbing to stomach cancer in the mid-1960s, “died addicted to morphine.” Decades before the AIDS crisis sparked the hospice and palliative care movements, the confluences of pain, dependence, and addiction were confused and regrettably moralized. Since then, the science has excelled, but our clinical understanding of how pain and addiction intertwine remains limited by stigma, assumptions, and the separation of the underlying science …
“If we are serious about supporting the optimal health and well being of our nations’ patients and physicians, we need to start believing and implementing the science across the public and private sectors. We need to recognize that at its core, the practice of medicine is a human science. We need …
“I find that managing chronic pain can be a bit of a dance between myself and the patient. Sometimes a little bit of a compromise. I always tell my patients that pain is subjective but many things can contribute to pain — certainly stress, lack of sleep, any emotional issues can make pain worse. Your pain is different than my pain. …
The Joint Commission of Hospital Accreditation requires hospitals to ask the patient for their level of pain, just subjectively. They require we use a 10-point scale, from 0 for no pain to 10 being the worst pain ever.
I knew instinctively that this was a bad thing and would lead to more narcotic addiction, as it did eventually. But in our patients, the pain scores went down as we detoxified patients …
“I’m not impressed with his pain.”
“I only give Norco if I see a bone sticking out.”
“She says her pain is a 10/10 but …”
On any given shift in the emergency room, I hear some version of these said by residents or fellow attendings. And whenever I hear these phrases, I think to myself, “When did we stop treating pain?”
I’m not talking about chronic pain. I feel terribly for …
I am a retired union plumber with the state of Illinois. I’ve had laparoscopic surgery on both knees, a lower back surgery that required two stainless rods, and I’m not sure how many screws, and three cervical fusions. I now suffer from neuropathy (nerve dysfunction) in my feet.
They’re painfully numb: A shoe could come off, and I wouldn’t know it. I find it difficult to get around — not to …
About three years ago, I was chatting about pain with a friend at a social function, and she told me she was taking a prescribed opioid for her chronic pain. I quickly got the uncomfortable feeling in my stomach that comes from discussing and prescribing opioids in clinical practice. I responded with my concerns, based on solid scientific evidence: “Opioids aren’t really effective for the treatment of fibromyalgia, or chronic …
One of the most important purposes of a physician is to alleviate pain and suffering. Pain is the most common symptom prompting an emergency department (ED) visit. Emergency physicians are responsible for managing both acute pain and acute exacerbations of chronic pain resulting from a broad array of illnesses and injuries.
It has been shown that emergency medicine providers are not necessarily good at treating patients uniformly. Since the 1990s, numerous …
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing famous television and film actress, Claudia Christian. She has played significant roles in many notable movies and shows, including lead roles in the long-running sci-fi series Babylon 5 and the Disney film, Atlantis: The Lost Empire. In our podcast interview, we discussed treating alcoholism using the FDA-approved drug, naltrexone.
Why listen to an actress about medical treatment for addiction? First of all, doctors generally …
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