After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea - The New York Times
MUNICH — I recently had a hysterectomy here in Munich, where we moved from California four years ago for my husband's job. Even though his job ended a year ago, we decided to stay while he tries to start a business. Thanks to the German health care system, our insurance remained in force. This, however, is not a story about the benefits of universal health care.Thanks to modern medicine, my hysterectomy was performed laparoscopically, without an overnight hospital stay. My only concern about this early release was pain management. The fibroids that necessitated the surgery were particularly large and painful, and the...
Source: Psychology of Pain - January 27, 2018 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
Sexual Violence is Horrible, But First Look at Causes Outside the Brain
" At the brain level, empathy for social exclusion of personalized women recruited areas coding the affective component of pain (i.e., anterior insula and cingulate cortex), the somatosensory components of pain (i.e., posterior insula and secondary somatosensory cortex) together with the mentalizing network (i.e., middle frontal cortex) to a greater extent than for the sexually objecti fied women.This diminished empathy is discussed in light of the gender-based violence that is af flicting the modern society" (Cogoni et al., 2018).A new brain imaging paper onCyberball, social exclusion, objectification, and empathy went ...
Source: The Neurocritic - January 10, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: The Neurocritic Source Type: blogs
Narcan or Narcan’t?
Part 2 in a Four-part SeriesA 57-year-old man presented with acute onset altered mental status. His family said he had been behaving normally. Prior to dinner, however, he became difficult to arouse, and was speaking gibberish. He was somnolent but arousable to physical stimuli on arrival in the ED.He answered questions inappropriately and would then go back to sleep. His past medical history was consistent with hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and spinal fusion a month ago. His medications included lisinopril, atorvastatin, and hydrocodone. His vital signs were a blood pressure of 110/65 mm Hg, heart rate of 90 b...
Source: The Tox Cave - January 2, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
PhRMA Releases New Policy Proposals
On December 11, 2017, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) issued statements of support for several policy proposals focused on resolving the opioid crisis. The proposals included: limits on prescribing, a ban on prescribing of Schedule II opioids in an office setting, ongoing prescriber training, and expanded access to addiction treatment options.
Along with the policy proposals came an announcement that PhRMA and the Addiction Policy Forum have entered into a multi-year, multi-million dollar initiative to combat the opioid crisis and implement the Forum's plan to help solve the opioid crisis....
Source: Policy and Medicine - December 21, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Don ’t let the opioid crisis affect the treatment course for your patients
Mrs. Smith is an 81-year-old female. She worked a long time doing very physical work and is now on a fixed income and comes to my office with chronic pain. X-rays show she has degenerative arthritis in her hips, knees and lumbar spine. She has taken Norco twice a day for years and has been able to be very stable on this. She has always been compliant with her medications. She has not lost them or had them stolen. She lives with her husband, and they use a safe where they keep their medications. The patient has done well with acupuncture and massage in the past but is not able to afford these, and her insurance doesn’...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 21, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/t-j-matsumoto" rel="tag" > T.J. Matsumoto, PA-C < /a > Tags: Meds Pain Management Primary Care Source Type: blogs
Digital Health Supports The Fight Against Opioids
The widespread U.S. opioid & overdose crisis is an ever-increasing tragic concern for everyone: writhing victims, family members being fain to see their relatives suffer or die, doctors prescribing opioid pain-killers what they thought before as safe, and regulators imposed to handle a tough situation. Addiction. It’s painful to even read about the skyrocketing numbers of people suffering, thus we decided to map how digital health could help tackle the opioid crisis.
Why is it so difficult to deal with the opioid crisis?
Once you become addicted, it sticks with you for a long time, if not for life, just as a chronic...
Source: The Medical Futurist - November 14, 2017 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Bioethics Mobile Health Virtual Reality in Medicine AI artificial intelligence data data analytics drugs future gc3 Innovation opioid opioid crisis pharma technology wearables Source Type: blogs
Drugstore pain pills as effective as opioids in ER patients - AP
Emergency rooms are where many patients are first introduced to powerful opioid painkillers, but what if doctors offered over-the-counter pills instead? A new study tested that approach on patients with broken bones and sprains and found pain relievers sold as Tylenol and Motrin worked as well as opioids at reducing severe pain.The results challenge common ER practice for treating short-term, severe pain and could prompt changes that would help prevent new patients from becoming addicted.The study has limitations: It only looked at short-term pain relief in the emergency room and researchers didn't evaluate how patient...
Source: Psychology of Pain - November 7, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
The Modern-Day Plague
Part 1 in a Four-part SeriesA 32-year-old man was taken to the ED by EMS after being found unresponsive in a subway station. His pupils were pinpoint, and he was breathing at fourth breaths per minute. He had a blood pressure of 94/63 mm Hg, pulse oximetry of 91% on room air, and a heart rate of 51 beats per minute. He was given 2 mg of intranasal Narcan by EMS and became more responsive, breathing at 14 breaths per minute with a blood pressure of 125/82 mm Hg, heart rate of 74 bpm, and 98% on room air. He admitted in the ED to using three bags of heroin.The opioid epidemic is a national public health crisis in the U...
Source: The Tox Cave - November 1, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Reducing Opioid Abuse, A Quick Guide to Internet Resources
By DAVID HARLOW, MD
The opioid crisis has been upon us for years now, and we are now seeing the problem become more pervasive, with more than 90 deaths per day in the U.S. due to this scourge. The president recently said he would be declaring a public health emergency (which would free up some funds) but has not done so as of this writing. The public health threat is so persistent that it calls for responses on many levels, and those responses are coming. Some have been in place for a while, some are more recent. These responses may be broken down into a number of different categories:
Broader availability of naloxone (an...
Source: The Health Care Blog - November 1, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Charlie Baker Harlow Internet Massachussetts Opioid Opioid crisis Source Type: blogs
FDA Takes Important Steps to Stem the Tide of Opioid Misuse and Abuse
By Scott Gottlieb, M.D. America is awash in immediate-release (IR) opioids. About 90 percent of all opioid pain medications prescribed – or 160 million prescriptions a year – are for IR formulations like hydrocodone and acetaminophen or oxycodone and acetaminophen … Continue reading → (Source: FDA Voice)
Source: FDA Voice - September 28, 2017 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The Case For Confronting Long-Term Opioid Use As A Hospital-Acquired Condition
The first principle of medicine is to “do no harm.” Over the past two decades, the medical community has attempted to honor this principle by treating patient pain with opioid prescriptions. Unfortunately, these good intentions have driven an epidemic of opioid addiction and drug overdoses, now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States.
Inpatient overprescription of opioids such as morphine, oxycodone, and hydrocodone happens in a variety of ways—doctors prescribe too many doses, too large a dose, or allow patients to continue opioid treatment for too long. And many times, doctors could avoid opi...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 8, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Michael Schlosser, Ravi Chari and Jonathan Perlin Tags: Featured Health Professionals Hospitals Population Health hospital-acquired condition opioid epidemic overprescribing opioids pain management Source Type: blogs
Cutting down on opioids has made life miserable for chronic pain patients - Slate
On July 26, Todd Graham, 56, a well-respected rehabilitation specialist in Mishawaka, Indiana, lost his life. Earlier that day, a woman complaining of chronic pain had come to Graham's office in hope of receiving an opioid such as Percocet, Vicodin, or long-acting OxyContin. He reportedly told her that opioids were not an appropriate first-line treatment for long-term pain —a view now shared by professionals—and she, reportedly, accepted his opinion. Her husband, however, became irate. Later, he tracked down the doctor and shot him twice in the head.This horrific story has been showcased to confirm that physicians ...
Source: Psychology of Pain - August 30, 2017 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
