PRN in ‘World of Pain’… Videos
PRN in ‘World of Pain’… Videos - Excerpt of Siobhan Reynolds interviewed by Associated Press from their ‘World of Pain’ media package, Aug. 2007; Alex DeLuca; War on Doctors/Pain Crisis blog of the Pain Relief Network; 2007-08-24. Revised: 2008-06-28.
See also these PRN-related videos:
Siobhan, Ronan, Dr. Cole and Dr. Siegle on Fox
AP interview with veteran James Fernandez
The Chilling Effect - documentary by S. Reynolds
War on Docs/Pain Crisis on YouTube
ALL OF WHICH, and more, is now available from:
The Pain Relief Network’s New! Media Page
A central source of audio and video by or about PRN
This is an addendum to my recent post: PRN on Video, which provided links to the three PRN related videos in the ‘See also’ section, above.
To those I add this short video of Siobhan Reynolds speaking about her husband, Sean Greenwood, co-founder of the Pain Relief Network, and chronic pain patient who died, in agony, earlier this year. This clip is part of the Associated Press media package, ‘World of Pain.’ (The link will open a QuickTime player, which can take a moment - be patient)
While the overall AP ‘World of Pain’ package has been very successful for the Associated Press, having made the front page in well over 50 newspapers nationwide, what is being done with a years worth of data gathering and interviews involving easily dozens of reporters and content producers, is disappointing in many ways. Jacob Sullum’s gets it exactly right in his criticism of the lead article, Pain Medicine Use Doubles - Pain Patients Suffer:
… A.P. has a confusing jumble of a story on the subject with an ambivalent tone summed up in the lead: “People in the United States are living in a world of pain and they are popping pills at an alarming rate to cope with it.” If people are “living in a world of pain,” why is their consumption of painkillers alarming”?
- (Sullum, Reason, 2007-08-20)
The AP video of the Pain Relief Network members Fernandez and Reynolds stand out in stark contrast to much of the rest of the work produced so far from ‘the world of pain’ that is the AP. I have more to say about the AP reporting on the prescription drug crisis/undertreatment of chronic pain problem, including some good things and interesting details I’ve noticed.
But for tonight, James Fernandez and Siobhan Reynolds and Ronan Greenwood speak simply and honestly, from real experience of what real Americans living with real chronic pain have to contend with every day in a system that cares more about catching and criminalizing the few drug ‘abusers’ than it does relieving the suffering of the many with chronic pain.
[END]
Tags: addiction, Art, associated press, Chilling effect, dea, ehlers danlos, fox, hurwitz, interview, james fernandez, mike and juliet, Opioid therapy, Opiophobia, Pain, Pain Crisis, pain relief, prescription drug abuse, prn, ronan, sean greenwod, siobhan reynolds, statistics, video, world-of-pain
Comment by
James Stacks
The video at the link above showing the Morning Show episode with Siobhan and Ronan is great! I was not aware that happened! Excellent exposure! Of course, it wasn’t real cool that they put the camera on Marc Siegel when introducing Siobhan, and little things like that matter with large scale media exposure. Communicating to the “the public” is like trying to communicate with an animal. “The public” does not understand language as a group. They only “sign”. So cheap little media tricks have huge effects in what becomes “public opinion”.
I am concerned here with the way the opposition held their side through Marc Siegel. His face is now associated with Siobhan’s name, and he counteracts her message. Unfortunately, those little things matter with national exposure.
I will not pretend to debate physicians on the practice of medicine. In my activist efforts, I will stick with what I know. What I can say is that Siegel used a tried and true method to give his opinions a “scientific” hue with the public. People love explanations based on “brain chemistry”, and they attribute expertise to people who invoke those explanations for common events and behaviors.
I have a question for Dr. Deluca and other physicians who may be working on this. Siegel’s repeated message was that opioids cause brains to stop producing endorphins (another trendy “technical” term that is popular with the public because of freshman level textbooks — I think the public likes endorphin talk more than sex). He stops short of explaining exactly what he means by that. In particular, he leaves us with the impression that the condition is permanent (e.g. that opioids actually do “brain damage”). That is a very effective fear tactic, and I suspect it was done on purpose. When you tell this public animal that something causes “brain damage”, they will avoid it and be frightened of it. Unfortunately, I think Siegel probably scored a lot of points with his rather incomplete argument.
Could some of the physicians here clarify the issue? If opioids do reduce endorphin production or release, is that condition not temporary? I was under the impression that opioids, for the most part, do no physical damage other than possible death from respiratory repression upon overdose. That is, I thought all effects of opioids were temporary and reversible. Is that not true? Could I get some quick and dirty medical education on this issue?
Comment by
doctordeluca
Ahh, yeah, sure, I can clarify.
James wrote:
“Could some of the physicians here clarify the issue? If opioids do reduce endorphin production or release, is that condition not temporary? I was under the impression that opioids, for the most part, do no physical damage other than possible death from respiratory repression upon overdose.”
Seigel’s just making it up, is the short answer. Of course opioid change receptor state - that’s how they work, Duh! But you are correct, and Siegels implication was false - opioids are non-toxic - literally they do not kill or ‘poison’ any organ systems of the body. There are no lasting physiological or anatomical effects of long-term opioid therapy on the brain or any other organ system. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same of chronic pain which has been shown to result in loss of brain mass, especially in the thalumus.
..alex…
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