The opioid crisis continues to ravage communities, and everyone, including politicians and federal agents, has a plan. However, no one has an actual solution. It’s time to examine the crisis from a more detailed perspective: the clinical percepti…
Category: Pain Management
Ending the opioid crisis starts with physicians
A recently published opinion article by opioid advocates attempts to assuage physicians’ prescribing guilt, arguing “doctors prescribing to their patients did not create the U.S. opioid crisis.” As lawsuit after lawsuit concludes, Pur…
Everything the government thinks it knows about the opioid crisis is wrong
“In July 2015, journalist Johann Hari gave a TED Talk that over 20 million people have since viewed. Hari offered convincing evidence that vulnerability to opioid addiction is a consequence of the conditions under which people live — the social d…
A physician’s journey through propaganda and misinformation [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! Join us for a fascinating podcast episode as we explore the dangerous consequences of propaganda and misinformation within the context of the opioid epidemic. Our guest, Jay K. Joshi, a fam…
Unmasking the truth: the shocking reality of the opioid epidemic and who’s really to blame
An excerpt from Burden of Pain: A Physician’s Journey through the Opioid Epidemic. Glide your hand over a piece of velvet and you notice the smoothness. You feel its aggregated smoothness, not the individualized roughness of each fiber. Each flee…
Why doctors aren’t to blame for the U.S. opioid crisis [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! Join us for an eye-opening episode as we discuss the truth behind the U.S. opioid crisis with our guest, patient advocate Richard A. Lawhern. Contrary to popular belief, doctors did not cau…
It’s time to replace the 0 to 10 pain intensity scale with a better measure
Adapted from The Right to Pain Relief and Other Deep Roots of the Opioid Epidemic. Published by Oxford University Press in January 2023. The 0-to-10 pain intensity scale that has become a familiar feature of clinical care had its origin in experimental…
The powerful bond that overcomes the toughest challenges
Towards the end of a busy clinic afternoon, I felt my phone buzz with a page in my jacket pocket. It is rare to receive pages on our phones in the middle of the day because we usually get messages through the EMR or direct calls to the office. I called…
Telemedicine in the opioid crisis: a game-changer threatened by DEA regulations
In March 2020, I was directing a federally qualified health center in rural New Mexico when the first flashover of COVID ripped through the state. In two days, the clinics transitioned from an entirely in-person model to a near-total remote model. The …
The real cause of America’s opioid crisis: Doctors are not to blame
We’ve all heard about America’s so-called “opioid epidemic.” Nearly 100,000 people died in 2021 of causes that included overdose by one or more narcotic drugs and often alcohol. We also hear assertions from anti-opioid advocates…
