Pain Management

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is talking when they should be listening

Physician
December 6, 2024

On May 9-10, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a workshop titled “Training health care providers on pain management and safe use of opioid analgesics — exploring the path forward.” I attended the workshop in person to offer comments on behalf of chronic pain patients. A summary of my observations at the time was published by the now-defunct Pain News Network. The following extended extract is from …

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Restoring compassionate pain care: a call to action

Conditions
November 14, 2024

As a patient advocate, I have witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of policies leading to untreated and undertreated pain. As a mother who has lost a child to drug poisoning, I have also witnessed how drug policy is driving an increasingly lethal street drug supply. With overdose deaths rising, well-intentioned policies have left many suffering without the medications they need for quality of life. Tragically, some patients, overwhelmed by unrelenting …

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The real cause of the opioid crisis isn’t what you think

Conditions
November 13, 2024

For years, the U.S. public has been hearing that prescription opioid pain relievers are always and forever a bad thing—and that doctors and big pharma companies are supposedly responsible for an epidemic of addiction and drug overdose-related deaths. However, these assertions are outright lies. Both the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Veterans Administration know it.

The recent national opioid settlement is as bogus as a three-dollar bill—and …

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How alternative therapies could be the key to ending the pain care crisis [PODCAST]

Podcast
November 11, 2024
YouTube video

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We dive into the pain care crisis in the United States with Cindy Perlin, a social worker and chronic pain expert. We explore the epidemic of chronic pain, the limitations of conventional treatments, …

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The shocking truth behind the DEA’s role in America’s pain crisis and doctor prosecutions

Physician
November 3, 2024

The United States federal government is a single entity, despite its three equal branches having more heads than a hydra and more arms than Mahakali. One part of that federal government is not supposed to create and propagate standards that another part arrests you for following, as confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Oregon. When it comes to the criminalization of medicine by the DEA and other …

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Why physicians need to become more educated about alternative pain treatments

Conditions
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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How the DEA’s use of predictive algorithms is worsening crises in urban communities and raising suicide rates among African Americans

Physician
October 28, 2024

The true definition of criminal behavior has always been problematic. Are we criminals because we break the law or because we have been convicted? Famous and revered people throughout history have clearly broken the law but are almost never defined as criminals. All the founding fathers of the United States self-admittedly committed treason against the crown, a capital offense. In contrast, others, like Stalin and Hitler, had every legal right …

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Why good doctors are being jailed—and what it means for you

Physician
October 27, 2024

Today, in America, if you are suffering from certain medical conditions, physicians are being taught that you cannot be trusted or even treated. This results from a decade of law enforcement targeting physicians, pharmacists, and nurse practitioners for making medical judgment calls the police don’t agree with when it comes to the treatment of certain conditions. I use the term “police” here to include federal agencies, knowing that, while policing …

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The choice between integrity and power in a world of chaos

Physician
September 27, 2024

The world is benefited by a variety of human beings. Almost everyone can contribute greatly to our societies, no matter what their personal drives. Even the selfish and hate-filled can give us people like Henry Ford, the antisemitic supporter of Hitler who had union organizers beaten, but also doubled the standard wage for his workers and gave us the assembly line, standardized production, and vertical integration. His closest parallel today …

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The use of artificial intelligence in the enforcement of health care regulations

Physician
September 24, 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a virtual construct that uses algorithms, data, and computational power to simulate human intelligence in machines. Physicians and health care professionals often imagine AI as a futuristic, benevolent, childlike humanoid with the unique ability to love, as depicted in the 2001 Steven Spielberg movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence. However, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) disagrees. In 2022, the DOJ announced the widespread deployment of AI, …

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The continued unjust prosecution of physicians

Physician
September 18, 2024

As the crescendo of a seven-year alleged health care fraud investigation, the trial in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania opened in late April 2024. The trial is one of less than two percent of the federal criminal cases filed that ultimately end up in a jury trial. This flawed prosecution targeted an exemplary physician who, like the majority of physicians in the United States, has spent most of their lives …

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The truth behind opioid use disorder

Meds
August 12, 2024

Anyone reading health care news today must be aware that American medicine – particularly pain medicine – is in crisis. Doctors are experiencing high levels of burnout due to administrative burdens, prior authorization demands, and a health care system that often prioritizes efficiency over patient care. This burnout is leading to mental health issues and, in some cases, physician suicides.

Medicare payments to physicians have decreased by 26 …

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Humanizing medicine in a high-tech world [PODCAST]

Podcast
July 15, 2024
YouTube video

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In this episode, we sit down with Francisco M. Torres, an interventional physiatrist and author of Beyond Diagnosis: Perspective in Medicine and the Human Experience. Join us as we explore the theme of …

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Why doctors risk jail time to treat pain and addiction

Meds
July 2, 2024

This is a strange time in America. While tools for treating pain and addiction, unchanged essentially from the late 1800s to the early 2000s, are now being developed, daring to try to utilize these medications and the science we have learned about them can be a huge risk. Not for the patient but for the doctor. There is a stigma that has always been attached to these areas of medicine, …

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Non-opioid alternatives and the future of reimbursement [PODCAST]

Podcast
June 27, 2024
YouTube video

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Join us as we sit down with Amy Baxter, a clinical associate professor of emergency medicine, to explore the future of pain management. We’ll dive into the challenges and advancements in non-opioid alternatives, …

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The doctor’s struggle: How prescription opioids can lead to addiction

Physician
June 22, 2024

In the heart of America, the opioid epidemic continues to surge, claiming lives and livelihoods with an unrelenting grip. While many believe that addiction stems from illicit drug use, a significant portion of opioid addictions actually begin with a prescription from a doctor. This troubling reality is exemplified by the experiences of Dr. Jeffrey Fraser, a family practice physician from Lincoln, Nebraska, who found himself ensnared in the very crisis …

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A consulting firm under fire: Examining a new criminal probe in opioid crisis

Physician
June 21, 2024

Roughly a month ago, a prestigious consulting firm found itself, once again, in hot water for its involvement in allegedly contributing to the opioid crisis. We saw many of the same headlines competing for the top spot in our inbox.

“Justice Department is investing in an elite consulting firm.”

“Top management firm under criminal investigation.”

Beneath that, we saw a second layer of headlines, with a more scandalous tinge of corporate gossip.

“Former partner …

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Opium wars to fentanyl crisis: a history of drug conflicts

Physician
June 19, 2024

Drug use has a complicated history in the Western World. Not quite two hundred years ago, starting in the Fall of 1839, Britain attacked the nation of China for having the audacity to ban an addictive substance, opium, that the British were selling to the Chinese people. Opiate addiction was rampant in China at the time, and the emperor had issued a prohibition on the drug. Britain destroyed much …

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30 years in pain management: Transforming lives beyond opioids

Physician
June 18, 2024

Over thirty years as a physician, I have proudly and intentionally developed my subspecialty in pain management. As an interventional physiatrist, it is my chosen calling to improve the quality of life of people in pain and help them get moving again. I’ve had the privilege of overseeing many remarkable recoveries, including those by patients who had little hope when they first came to my office. Though this has been …

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CRISPR and eEVs in the fight against chronic diseases

Conditions
June 11, 2024

In one of my favorite movies, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the original crew of the Enterprise has traveled through time, back to the, to them ancient, city of San Francisco circa the 1980s. It’s all about Earth whales and alien cetaceans being none too pleased that we killed them all … And Klingons, of course. There must be Klingons. But what stuck in my young mind at the …

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