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…
Category: Pain Management
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…
Critical thinking in pain management [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! In this episode, we welcome special guest Ronald A. Zent, a family physician, to discuss the ongoing opioid crisis. With a fourfold increase in opioid prescriptions and overdose deaths from…
From suffering to healing: the role of trauma in chronic pain
“Trauma is perhaps the most avoided, ignored, belittled, denied, misunderstood and untreated cause of human suffering.” – Peter Levine, PhD, Developer of Somatic Experiencing Therapy One frequent cause of treatment-resistant chronic p…
The power of listening: a poem from a chronic pain patient to their doctor
Per the CDC, 11 to 40 percent of Americans struggle with chronic pain. All physicians must treat patients with chronic pain, whether they are spine surgeons or primary care physicians. It is a disease we can not escape. We do not have a one-time pill …
Opioid addiction: Understanding the risk factors with a predictive model [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! In this episode, we’re discussing the opioid epidemic and its impact on our society. Our guest is Gary Call, a family physician, who shares the emotional and financial cost on individ…
