Post Author: Stephen E. Nadeau, MD

Stephen E. Nadeau is a behavioral neurologist.

U.S. opioid policy history: How politics replaced science in pain care

Richard A. Lawhern, PhD & Stephen E. Nadeau, MD

Meds

January 31, 2026

Based on our combined experience of over 70 years in patient advocacy, pain management, and behavioral neurology, we are convinced that U.S. public perception and public policy on treatment of pain have been driven almost entirely by sociopolitical and legal factors. Seldom in recent years has policy been significantly influenced by science.

The U.S. enjoyed a brief period of scientifically enlightened policy in the late 1990s through 2008. A large number …

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Pain medicine realities: beyond the opioid crisis

Richard A. Lawhern, PhD & Stephen E. Nadeau, MD

Conditions

November 23, 2023

In 1990, Ronald Melzack published a paper in Scientific American titled “The Tragedy of Needless Pain.” Many would regard Melzack as the “father” of pain science and the treatment of pain. In that paper, he described the science behind several observations that many clinicians and public health policy decision-makers would find startling in today’s hostile and fraught regulatory environment surrounding the U.S. opioid crisis.