Kayvan Haddadan, MD

CSI:OPIOIDs (Clinical Context of Suicide Following Opioid Transitions) is a rigorous scientific research study that systematically examines suicides occurring after prescription opioid dose reductions or discontinuations in patients with long-term (chronic) pain. Using psychological autopsy methods using detailed interviews with bereaved survivors combined with medical record review where obtainable, it seeks to characterize the multifactorial demographic, societal, clinical, and health-system factors involved. The study began as a pilot supported by …

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This population, either injured workers under workers’ compensation or personal-injury claimants, faces distinct drivers of delayed recovery, including secondary gain concerns, litigation, workplace psychosocial factors, fear-avoidance beliefs, and system-level incentives that can prolong disability. Guidelines from the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM), state workers’ compensation medical treatment guidelines (e.g., New York, California), the 2022 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing …

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Physician reimbursement has faced sustained downward pressure for years, while insurers have expanded tools, including AI-driven audits, prior authorizations, and retrospective reviews, so that they can recover or limit payments after (or before) services are delivered. This dynamic contributes to practice strain, consolidation, and reduced patient access. Evidence from Medicare data, physician surveys, and industry analyses supports the core concerns. Not every claim of intentional misconduct or pure profit …

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Walk into any busy pain clinic and the weight lands before you sit down. The pages never stop. The waiting room is packed with people who have already been through too many doctors. Chronic suffering hangs in the air. And that is only the visible load.

Beneath it sits a quieter, more relentless set of pressures. Insurance companies keep cutting rates. Staff feel the squeeze of financial hardship and rightly expect …

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As a pain physician, I see patients every week whose lives have been quietly hijacked by neuropathy. They describe burning feet that keep them awake at night, the strange “electric” jolts that shoot up their legs, or the numbness that makes them fear falling. Many have diabetes. Many have already tried multiple medications. And too many have been told, “There’s nothing more we can do.”

That is simply not true.

Neuropathy …

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As a pain specialist who manages cancer-related pain daily with both interventional and non-interventional approaches, I still encounter a frustrating reality: Too many patients suffer longer than necessary. Recent data show that roughly 44.5 percent of patients with cancer experience pain, and about 30 percent report moderate-to-severe intensity. While prevalence has declined modestly over the past decade, the absolute burden remains high, especially in advanced disease and among survivors living …

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A few months ago, a new patient walked into my clinic carrying a folder nearly two inches thick. She had undergone years of physical therapy, chiropractic care, epidural steroid injections, anti-inflammatory medications, opioid therapy, and consultations with multiple specialists. Before sitting down, she asked a question I now hear almost weekly: “Doctor, what about stem cells? I’ve heard they can regenerate my spine.”

It is a reasonable question and one that …

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