There’s one thing that links every patient I see as a pain management specialist: All they want is relief. And they want it in whatever way is going to be the most effective and least disruptive to their lives. And anyone in this role can tell you that…
On Monday, November 1, an Orange County California Superior Court Judge said, in a tentative decision, that the opioid pharmaceutical companies were not responsible for the opioid crisis. This particular case, going by the name of “The People of the St…
Chronic pain is an epidemic, currently affecting over 100 million American adults – more than diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined. This doesn’t include children, 1 in 3 of whom live with a chronic pain condition ranging from migraine to chroni…
For many years I was not certain physical pain existed. I know this is rude. But I felt so little of it. I could only assume that other people did too. Like a child, with a skinned knee. “All better,” I would say, and they would look at me. Quizzically…
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Family lore recalls that my grandfather, succumbing to stomach cancer in the mid-1960s, “died addicted to morphine.” Decades before the AIDS crisis sparked the hospice and palliative care movements, the confluences of pain, dependence, and addiction we…
“If we are serious about supporting the optimal health and well being of our nations’ patients and physicians, we need to start believing and implementing the science across the public and private sectors. We need to recognize that at its core, t…
“I find that managing chronic pain can be a bit of a dance between myself and the patient. Sometimes a little bit of a compromise. I always tell my patients that pain is subjective but many things can contribute to pain — certainly stress, lack o…
The Joint Commission of Hospital Accreditation requires hospitals to ask the patient for their level of pain, just subjectively. They require we use a 10-point scale, from 0 for no pain to 10 being the worst pain ever. I knew instinctively that this wa…
“I’m not impressed with his pain.” “I only give Norco if I see a bone sticking out.” “She says her pain is a 10/10 but …” On any given shift in the emergency room, I hear some version of these said by res…
