Posts Tagged With: painkiller

The treatment of chronic pain is an issue of national importance. If petitioner’s conviction is allowed to stand then any single opioid prescription can be called into question based upon misconceptions which should not be allowed to permeate the atmosphere of The American Courtroom.

Take a moment to scan one or two of these Highly Recommended documents… good background reading for any serious student of the war on docs and the pain crisis. A Critical Assessment of the Impact of Drug Testing Programs on the American Workplace is a good review of this important related drug war topic that is currently in the news (govt push to drug test high school students);
War on Drugs, War on Doctors, and the Pain Crisis in America — this is probably THE CORE document; if you only …

There are so many who need opioid pain medications and can not get them… These people have their lives destroyed every day as they drag themselves from doctor to doctor being lied to, verbally and sometimes physically abused, forced into unnecessary rounds of expensive testing… They are sneered at by pharmacists, called addicts by doctors, drug tested, called “frequent-flyers” and other derogatory names by emergency room nurses and doctors, denied reimbursement…

Update on the case of USA v Dr. Martinez in Washington state. Martinez has been acquitted of all drug crime charges. The fraud charges remaining after her 2007 fed trial have also been dismissed, but the govt can bring the fraud charges anew. Also examined is a recent Yakima Herald article announcing “new” charges that are not, in any reality-based sense, “new” at all.

Excerpt: “As usual, the academics ignore the elephant in the living room. Regarding review articles that wring their hands about the lack of long term evidence of the safety and efficacy of opioid analgesic therapy, they never discuss the impossibility of measuring the efficacy and safety of a therapy that almost no physician is comfortable doing properly. For an excellent analysis of what we might call the “new academic opiophobia,” see the Pain Relief Network’s 2008 “WA State Tort Claim” pages 34 – 37.”

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 …

Newspaper article focusing on Siobhan Reynolds, founder and President of the Pain Relief Network (PRN) and her life experience of trying to get decent medical care for a husband in chronic pain, while raising a child and founding a movement for social change – the Pain Relief advocacy movement.

Associated Press story from their ‘World of Pain’ package. Covers changes in medical view of opioids for cancer and non-cancer pain, the chilling effect of law enforcement on appropriate prescribing, and offers some specific DEA statistics for Arizona.

Associated press article from their “World of Pain” mixed media package. Touches on the chilling effect, persecuted physicians, pain crisis in America, and the war on doctors.

Editorial from the Washington Times about DEA’s war on doctors and the pain crisis in America that has resulted in the casual and routine undertreatment of moderate to severe chronic pain. Article focuses on the tragic story of James Fernandez, a combat disabled vet of the first Gulf War.

Blog post about a Continuing Medical Education (CME) course based solely on one interesting and flawed article about the prevalence of addiction in primary care chronic pain patients treated with chronic opioid therapy.

“[Hurwitz] crossed the line from a healer to a dealer,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Gene Rossi told the jury in closing arguments April 18. Defense lawyers presented testimony from 10 former patients of Hurwitz. The defense portrayed him as a medical pioneer, a caring and courageous doctor who just wanted to help people in unbearable pain.

Blog entry regarding another in a series of articles by New York Times journalist John Tierney about the re-trial of Dr. William Hurwitz. This is my favorite Tierney-on-Hurwitz yet. This one is not so much about the law or courtroom tactics. This one is about people who hurt; bad. About desperate people; dying people. And about the doctor who wasn’t afraid to welcome them; who wasn’t afraid to try and help.

Excerpt from this blog post about the Dr. Nelson case, Billing MT: “DEA raids doc – seizes patient records – suspends doc’s DEA license forcing abandonment of patients – conducts an ‘inquiry’ that ‘focused on diversion’ that results only in media smear of doc, and loss of livelihood. No Charges 1 year later. No Charges 2 years later, and DEA is off the case, and U.S. Attorney Alme has ‘no comment’. Meanwhile, patients suffered, of course. ‘Innuendo and an investigation’ are all the government needs to close down opioid pain management in entire communities. The Nelson case is a travesty.”

Article by John Tierney of the NYTimes about the retrial of Dr. Hurwitz in federal court which isn’t over yet, but Dr. William E. Hurwitz is already doing much better than he did the first time. Judge L. M. Brinkema has dismissed the most serious charges against him.

No Relief in Sight (full text plus Related References) – by Jacob Sullum, Senior Editor of Reason Magazine, 1997. Source. ‘Brief Note’ added: 2009-07-14. **Brief Note:** A true classic in the annals of the pain crisis in America. This article, as much as any other one thing I can think of, altered my life from practicing physician to practicing pain relief advocate. I am also a big fan of Mr. Sullum’s 2004 book, *Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use*. ..alex… “Torture, despair, agony, and …

by Alexander DeLuca, M.D., FASAM – 2001-08-08; latest minor revisions: 2006-06-02. Source.

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1) it is just another long acting opioid. 2) long acting opioids are good for a lot of reasons including that they are far less abuse-able if used properly. 3) if you lock yourself in a refrigerator, you will suffocate. This is an example of the improper use of a technology. 4) there is no significant difference between MS-contin, Kadian, OxyContin and methadone as far as the brain is concerned. 5) if you spill …

by Alexander DeLuca, M.D., June 4, 2004. – MPH thesis submitted to Professor Michael Sparer, Ph.D., Health Care Policy, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York City. NOTE: Full-text is available. I recommend **the full-text PDF version** which displays the graphics which the HTML version does not. In HTML, the **Table of Contents** and Full-text are available. INTRODUCTION
There is a Pain Crisis in America. Its primary manifestation is the routine and widespread under-treatment of pain, especially chronic, non-cancer pain. Other manifestations include a severe and growing shortage …