Category: Pain Management Education for Patients

If we adopt the vector model of disease when addressing addiction for any valuable medicinal, whether it’s opioids, benzodiazepines or any other controlled medicine,  what’s at stake is our ability to ease and cure human suffering, not prevent addiction.

By R Carter In this era of opioid hysteria many doctors are rightly concerned about liability issues with regards to prescribed medications and it’s impact on patient behavior while operating an automobile or machinery. It’s not unusual for a patient contract for chronic pain while taking opioids to include one…

For doctors who advocate this way I suggest we test how strong their beliefs are in these methods. Let’s pound their hands with a hammer and then ask them to get by on Tylenol alone. When they can do that, then I’ll being willing to listen to their sales pitch.

The most encouraging information from this publication was seeing policies makers acknowledge what many in the chronic pain community has been saying since 2015, but more than that was seeing the 2016 CDC Guidelines placed in context

A prescription for America, a dose of rationality and facts not designed to make you afraid but to educate you and allow you to draw your own conclusions.

A drug that scientists originally developed to treat depression may have promise for the treatment of opioid withdrawal, researchers say.

Our findings suggest that trauma exposure is linked to elevated clinical markers of central sensitization but a critical factor in this relationship is the mediating effect of current PTSD symptoms.

Guidelines are still lacking and need further refinements for situations where chronic pain patients experience acute pain scenarios such as surgery, accidents and exacerbations of existing medical conditions

Imagine what would happen if doctors suddenly began prescribing fixed dosages of insulin for diabetics. If a diabetic died as a result of being under medicated, wouldn’t this be considered malpractice?

How many of us actually ask doctors, “What are the odds of having this complication listed here on this form?”