Archive for: April 2008

Excellent article by Dr. Forest Tennant explaining and demystifying chronic opioid therapy for chronic pain.

Article by Dr. DeLuca regarding Jacob Sullum\’s comments about a recent SAMHSA analysis showing low addiction rates for most substances of abuse, and also discusses Hurwitz\’ excellent 2005 analysis of Government data, the peer reviewed

Wichita Eagle article reporting on the release on bond of Dr. Stephen Schneider, Kansas family physician who cares for chronic pain patients.

AP news article about Dr. Schneider, who remains in jail awaiting the outcome of legal wrangling regarding conditions of his release on bond.

This is starting to get silly. Every time ANY motion comes before a judge regarding ANY aspect of the Dr. Schneider affair, Prosecutor Tanya Treadway raises her hand to say, “Oh, oh, Judge! Could you please also stop political activist Siobhan Reynolds from expressing herself?”

Blog post about a legal brief (full text link provided), a Memorandum and Order setting conditions for and releasing Dr. Stephen Schneider pending trial.

On the off chance that people remain unconvinced that there is indeed a terrible pain crisis, I will offer some thoughts which might help shed light on this situation. The World Health Organization has said that undertreated pain is the number one health problem in America.

Every time I think this action by Siobhan Reynolds on behalf of the abandoned pain patients of Dr. Stephen Schneider can’t get any worse, on the human-suffering scale, the Fed. lashes out again, digging themselves in deeper, making themselves look dopey; not to mention the State, as Congressional Clowns pander and Medical Board members dither… The band played on. [...]

This Resource Is an article discusses the failure of the ‘barriers to pain care’ literature to analyze those barriers from an ethical POV. The author relates this to ‘the collective failure of the profession to recognize the ethical implications of undertreated pain.’

When prosecutors want to convict a doctor of “drug dealing,” they often sow suspicions by alerting the media. But in a Kansas case, they appear to be fighting dirty by trying to prevent the other side from speaking out. [...]

Network, protesting a scandalous article by the paper about PRN’s involvement in the Dr. Schneider case. Excerpt: “In our movement to reestablish rule of law and to normalize the doctor-patient relationship, we are constantly faced with desperate patients who ask us what do after they have been turned away from care dozens of times. I explained to the reporter that these people were once prosperous, had full lives, and dreams and hope. But merely by suffering a crushing accident or a cancer diagnosis, they find themselves in chronic severe pain and in need of ongoing opioid therapy. They then find …

AP news item, begins: “Federal prosecutors asked a federal judge Friday to issue a gag order to silence a Haysville physician and his wife indicted for operating a “pill mill” linked to at least 56 overdose deaths. In court papers, the U.S. attorney’s office asked for a restraining order to keep physician Stephen Schneider and his wife, Linda, from talking to the media. Prosecutors also asked that the judge extend that order to include the Schneiders’ family members and Siobhan Reynolds, president of the Pain Relief Network, a patient advocacy group.” [...]

Blog post about an example of war on doctors Trash Journalism, which is analyzed. Excerpt: “So what is the message? Well one clear message to me is that the line between pain patient and ‘addict’ – that pitiable dregs of humanity; the walking dead; that criminal scourge; is thin and vague. In fact it is presented as the slippery slope if not an inevitability – people on chronic opioid therapy are, or will become, addicts. Pain patient, drug addict, who cares? Drug are bad, people who use them are bad, you and I are better than that; they deserve what …