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
The Opioid Commission: Ringing The Right Alarm To Respond To The Overdose Epidemic
The 20-year opioid overdose epidemic confronting our nation has continued unabated largely because of an uncoordinated response that has over emphasized supply-side interventions (i.e. prescriber guidelines, Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, law enforcement) rather than dramatically increasing access to evidence-based treatment as occurred in other Western nations with great success. The White House’s Opioid Commission (chaired by Governor Chris Christie, R-NJ) in declaring a national emergency and breaking with this failed tradition offers much hope for stemming the overdose death rate.
The Opioid Commission’s in...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - August 21, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Arthur Robin Williams and Adam Bisaga Tags: Featured Public Health Quality Opioid Addiction opioid epidemic Source Type: blogs
It's Official: Anti-Tobacco Groups Willing to Throw Away the Lives of Smokers to Promote Radical Ideology
For months, I have been arguing that the major anti-tobacco groups in the United States have been waging a war against electronic cigarettes that is motivated not by a pure concern for the public ' s health, but by an ideological opposition to the idea that anyone could get pleasure from nicotine in whatever form -- even if they are improving their health and saving their life.Today, the American Thoracic Society (ATS) made it official.In aletter to the editor published in theWashington Post, the American Thoracic Society confirmed what I have been suggesting for months.The vice chair of the American Thoracic Society ’s ...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - August 10, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Nurses Leaning Into Uncertainty
Throughout history, nurses have provided care to those in need despite the cultural circumstances or political scenarios at hand. Nursing care, like medicine, is a necessary service that simply needs to be provided in a society at all times. No matter that bullets are flying or elections are being disputed, nurses are there with their patients even as uncertainty rules the day.Nurses Showing UpIf a nurse chooses to be dispatched on a medical mission to Syria, she knows that she is putting her life on the line to reach the people who need her most under very dire circumstances. For the nurse who does home delivery of methad...
Source: Digital Doorway - August 7, 2017 Category: Nursing Tags: healthcare healthcare access healthcare careers healthcare delivery healthcare economics nurse nurse career nurses nursing nursing care nursing careers Source Type: blogs
Communication in health care should be better than it is
A few days ago, just after dawn, while I was out walking the dog, our home phone rang and my wife answered it.
She’s used to my pager, cell phone, and home phone ringing at all hours, and so she was not all that surprised when an unidentified voice said,”We’re looking for the methadone dose for patient John Q. Smith.”
She told him I was out of the house at the moment, but to hold until I return, which they patiently did. On my return, somewhat puzzled, I spoke to the person on the other end, and they repeated this request: “What is his dose of methadone?”
I told him that I didn’t k...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - July 4, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/fred-n-pelzman" rel="tag" > Fred N. Pelzman, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Primary care Source Type: blogs
An interesting finding, and absence of another, in an intoxicated patient found down
CONCLUSION: Administration of subcutaneous terbutaline obviates the need for intravenous access and should be considered as an alternative to nebulized or inhaled beta-agonists to treat acute hyperkalemia in patients with CKD. As with the use of any beta-adrenergic agonist, close cardiovascular monitoring is necessary to avoid or minimize toxicity during therapy.Hypokalemic effects of intravenous infusion or nebulization of salbutamol in patients with chronic renal failure: comparative study.AULiou HH, Chiang SS, Wu SC, Huang TP, Campese VM, Smogorzewski M, Yang WC SOAm J Kidney Dis. 1994;23(2):266. To exami...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - July 1, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Steve Smith Source Type: blogs
Deploying The Cascade Of Care Framework To Address The Opioid Epidemic Means Taking A Closer Look At Quality Measures
In a March 13, 2017, Health Affairs Blog post, Arthur Robin Williams, Edward Nunes, and Mark Olfson propose repurposing the “Cascade of Care” framework, once used to combat the HIV/AIDS crisis, to fight the opioid epidemic.
Williams and colleagues propose developing performance measures to track the success of the state grants across the five framework stages:
Diagnosis among those affected
Linkage to care among those diagnosed
Medication initiation among those entering care
Retention for at least six months among those initiating medication
Continuous abstinence among those retained
We applaud Williams and colleague...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - June 21, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Mady Chalk and Tami Mark Tags: Featured Health Policy Lab Population Health Public Health Quality Cascade of Care data collection systems opioid epidemic Substance Use Disorders tracking and delivery system Source Type: blogs
Missing the Point of Buprenorphine Treatment
A forum reader wrote about concerns over a partner on buprenorphine. Her concerns pointed out a common misperception about the goals of treatment of opioid use disorder using buprenorphine, or using methadone for that matter.
Her question, amended for privacy:
I married the love of my life. He is still he love of my life but has been an addict for 15 of them. Our children have been greatly affected by his addiction. He made promise after promise that he was clean, and I dove back in with complete faith time after time only to get burned.
His addiction started with recreational pills increasing over time, but now he i...
Source: Suboxone Talk Zone - June 17, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Jeffrey Junig MD PhD Tags: Addiction Buprenorphine Suboxone treatment buprenorphine treatment opioid taper rapid detox Suboxone taper Source Type: blogs
Missing the Point of Buprenorphine Treatment
A forum reader wrote about concerns over a partner on buprenorphine. Her concerns pointed out a common misperception about the goals of treatment of opioid use disorder using buprenorphine, or using methadone for that matter.
Her question, amended for privacy:
I married the love of my life. He is still he love of my life but has been an addict for 15 of them. Our children have been greatly affected by his addiction. He made promise after promise that he was clean, and I dove back in with complete faith time after time only to get burned.
His addiction started with recreational pills increasing over time, but now he i...
Source: Suboxone Talk Zone - June 17, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: admin Tags: Addiction Buprenorphine Suboxone treatment buprenorphine treatment opioid taper rapid detox Suboxone taper Source Type: blogs
Missing the Point of Buprenorphine Treatment
A forum reader wrote about concerns over a partner on buprenorphine. Her concerns pointed out a common misperception about the goals of treatment of opioid use disorder using buprenorphine, or using methadone for that matter.
Her question, amended for privacy:
I married the love of my life. He is still he love of my life but has been an addict for 15 of them. Our children have been greatly affected by his addiction. He made promise after promise that he was clean, and I dove back in with complete faith time after time only to get burned.
His addiction started with recreational pills increasing over time, but now he i...
Source: Suboxone Talk Zone - June 17, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: admin Tags: Addiction Buprenorphine Suboxone treatment buprenorphine treatment opioid taper rapid detox Suboxone taper Source Type: blogs
Safe injection sites and reducing the stigma of addiction
Imagine a chronic medical condition in which the treatment itself has serious side effects. Examples of this are plentiful in medicine. For example, in diabetes, giving too much insulin can cause hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), a dangerous and potentially life-threatening condition. That doesn’t happen very often, but imagine that it was a common complication of treating diabetes because doctors couldn’t really tell how powerful a given dose of insulin actually was. And suppose that doctors and patient safety experts advocated for places where patients with diabetes could be carefully monitored when taking their insuli...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - June 2, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Scott Weiner, MD Tags: Addiction Behavioral Health Brain and cognitive health Mental Health Pain Management Source Type: blogs
Is Suboxone Potent?
We get about 5000 readers of SuboxForum per day who ask question, provide answers, or share their experiences with buprenorphine medications. If you’re a patient on buprenorphine, consider joining us. It is free, and you’ll find help for starting buprenorphine, tapering off the medication, and everything in between. Or if you’re a buprenorphine prescriber consider joining to see what patients are doing and thinking, and to help answer their questions!
Yesterday someone wrote about the high potency of buprenorphine. He also wrote that it is hard to get off buprenorphine medications. I ended up writing mo...
Source: Suboxone Talk Zone - April 26, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: admin Tags: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Is Suboxone Potent?
We get about 5000 readers of SuboxForum per day who ask question, provide answers, or share their experiences with buprenorphine medications. If you’re a patient on buprenorphine, consider joining us. It is free, and you’ll find help for starting buprenorphine, tapering off the medication, and everything in between. Or if you’re a buprenorphine prescriber consider joining to see what patients are doing and thinking, and to help answer their questions!
Yesterday someone wrote about the high potency of buprenorphine. He also wrote that it is hard to get off buprenorphine medications. I ended up writing mo...
Source: Suboxone Talk Zone - April 26, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: admin Tags: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Is Suboxone Potent?
We get about 5000 readers of SuboxForum per day who ask question, provide answers, or share their experiences with buprenorphine medications. If you’re a patient on buprenorphine, consider joining us. It is free, and you’ll find help for starting buprenorphine, tapering off the medication, and everything in between. Or if you’re a buprenorphine prescriber consider joining to see what patients are doing and thinking, and to help answer their questions!
Yesterday someone wrote about the high potency of buprenorphine. He also wrote that it is hard to get off buprenorphine medications. I ended up writing mo...
Source: Suboxone Talk Zone - April 26, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Jeffrey Junig MD PhD Tags: Addiction Source Type: blogs
