Category: Meds

Gene therapies for chronic pain?

Gene therapy is starting to come into its own, and it will change medicine more profoundly than anything that came before. Just like when antibiotics were discovered almost exactly a century ago, we are on the cusp of another revolution in medicine. On…

Intralymphatic immunotherapy: a breakthrough approach for allergies

Are you or a loved one constantly battling the frustrating symptoms of seasonal or year-round allergies? You are not alone; millions around the globe are affected by sneezing, itchy, watery red eyes, stuffy, runny noses, and headaches. Avoidance of tri…

Euphoria-free pain relief: A gabapentin alternative you’ve been waiting for?

A groundbreaking discovery in pain management could revolutionize how we treat chronic pain. In a report from a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at New York University, in collaboration with colleagues…

Redefining medical caution: How recent studies challenge benzodiazepine prescription norms

I want to draw your attention to two fairly recent studies. One of these is the BIND study. I love it when studies use easy-to-remember acronyms because it really helps to keep them straight. The BIND study found that “Many prolonged symptoms sub…

Why new cancer treatments cannot save us

In 2020, the ICPerMed (International Consortium for Personalized Medicine) published a ten-year vision for how personalized medicine, a new form of medicine, has the potential to rebuild an equitable and accessible health care system by 2030. Precision…

What the DEA does not understand or does not care about medication cessation decisions

Reports sent back to Washington during the Vietnam War made it clear to everyone. The U.S. was winning. There could be no debate or doubt. It was right there in the numbers. When searching for a metric to measure “success,” U.S. politicians…

AI enforcement in health care: Unpacking the DEA’s approach to the opioid epidemic

In 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions became convinced that the opioid crisis was not the fault of cartels smuggling fentanyl across porous American checkpoints. And it wasn’t due to pharmaceutical companies corrupting drug approval officials a…

Ben Franklin’s timeless wisdom: a key to solving America’s opioid crisis

In 1736, Ben Franklin famously advised Philadelphians that preventing fires is better than fighting them. Mr. Franklin’s advice is just as applicable today in addressing America’s opioid crisis. Billions of opioid settlement dollars are bei…

Novel medications and genetic tests: a perfect storm for physician liability

The German pharmaceutical company Grunenthal has announced the start of a human addiction potential (HAP) trial of a first-in-class analgesic called cebranopadol, described as “less addictive” than previous medications. We’ve been dow…

What the media gets wrong when reporting on “overprescribing”

A recent article in the Macomb Daily reported that a “Shelby Township doctor was convicted last Thursday of all counts for conspiring to distribute more than 300,000 opioid prescription pills valued at over $6 million, following a trial in U.S. D…