Cindy Perlin is a social worker.

Why physicians need to become more educated about alternative pain treatments

Conditions and Diseases
November 1, 2024

All indications are that pain care in the United States is in crisis. There is an epidemic of prescription opioid-fueled opioid addiction and overdoses (over a million dead and millions more addicted) as well as an epidemic of chronic pain. Estimates of the prevalence of pain indicate that from 21 percent (2021 National Health Interview Survey) to 56 percent (2021 Harris Poll) of Americans have chronic pain, and about 7 …

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Why physicians need to become more educated about alternative pain treatments

From suffering to healing: the role of trauma in chronic pain

Conditions and Diseases
February 28, 2023

“Trauma is perhaps the most avoided, ignored, belittled, denied, misunderstood and untreated cause of human suffering.”
– Peter Levine, PhD, Developer of Somatic Experiencing Therapy

One frequent cause of treatment-resistant chronic pain is unresolved trauma, yet few health care providers and patients are aware of the connection, and, as a result, it is rarely addressed. This leads to considerable unnecessary suffering and misguided attempts at pain treatment that often do more harm …

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From suffering to healing: the role of trauma in chronic pain

It’s time for a reckoning in pain medicine

Conditions and Diseases
November 17, 2022

More than a million Americans have died since the late 1990s from drug overdoses, with the vast majority dying from an opioid overdose. This trend started with the heavy marketing of opioids to physicians as nonaddictive and effective. The number of deaths from overdose has escalated significantly in the past few years. Although many of the recent opioid-related deaths are from fentanyl, substance abuse treatment providers report that …

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It’s time for a reckoning in pain medicine

The feds say restrict opioid use. Now what?

Medications
March 15, 2017

The federal government has declared, through its major health policy agencies, that the number of pain patients on opioids and the dosages they are on should be severely restricted.  The Center for Disease Control (CDC), Veteran’s Administration (VA) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have all issued new guidelines within the past year to that effect.  Private insurers are following suit, in many cases refusing to pay for …

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The feds say restrict opioid use. Now what?

Pain patients are being cut off from their drugs. Here’s why.

Medications
September 18, 2016

In March, 2016, the CDC released guidelines for prescribing opioids.  The guidelines were a response to a serious and growing problem: millions of pain patients became addicted to prescribed opioids, and hundreds of thousands died as a result.

Since the guidelines were released, reports of pain patients being abruptly cut off of their medication or having their medication abruptly reduced have become rampant. These patients report they were using opioids long …

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Pain patients are being cut off from their drugs. Here’s why.

The opioid disaster: Stop criminalizing doctors

Medications
June 29, 2016

It’s an unmitigated disaster.  One hundred million pain patients.  Millions addicted to opioids, hundreds of thousands dead.  Pain patients abruptly cut off medication they’ve depended on, sometimes for decades, and offered nothing to replace it.  Doctors, fearful of prosecution for overprescribing, dropping pain patients like hot potatoes.  Pain patients unable to find any doctor that will treat them.  Patients turning to heroin when they can’t get their prescription painkillers.  Articles …

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The opioid disaster: Stop criminalizing doctors