F.D.A. Urging a Tighter Rein on Painkillers - NYTimes.com
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday recommended tighter controls on how doctors prescribe the most commonly used narcotic painkillers, changes that are expected to take place as early as next year.The move, which represents a major policy shift, follows a decade-long debate over whether the widely abused drugs, which contain the narcotic hydrocodone, should be controlled as tightly as more powerful painkillers like OxyContin.The drugs at issue contain a combination of hydrocodone and an over-the-counter painkiller like acetaminophen or aspirin and are sold either as generics or under brand names like Vicodin or Lo...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 25, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Funny Bone, Serious Problem
Part 2 in a Series
Elbow dislocations are quite painful and often times accompanied by other injuries. ED providers caring for a patient with an elbow dislocation must be sure to properly examine and x-ray patients prior to putting an elbow back in place. Be wary of the associated complications to dislocations including fractures and nerve or artery injury. Soft tissue damage and swelling are also very common.
Acute elbow dislocation.Photo by Martha Roberts
Like many relocations, slow and steady traction and countertraction with your magical and carefully calculated combination of sedation and analgesia is the hal...
Source: The Procedural Pause - October 3, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Medical Mispronunciations and Misspelled Words: The Definitive List.
Hearing medical mispronunciations and seeing misspelled words are an under appreciated joy of working in healthcare. Physicians often forget just how alien the language of medicine is to people who don't live it everyday. The best part about being a physician is not helping people recover from critical illness. The best part is not about listening and understanding with compassion and empathy. Nope, the best part about being a physician is hearing patients and other healthcare providers butcher the language of medicine and experiencing great entertainment in the process. Doctors c...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - October 2, 2013 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: Tamer Mahrous Source Type: blogs
i can tell when it hurts
Having been a patient for most of the last seven years, I can tell how some things have changed.One thing that seems quite different is pain management. After my mastectomy and my diagnosis of metastasis in 2006, I was given loads of painkillers - morphine, Oxycontin, percocet, Tylenol with codeine and others - all in small amounts. I never finished a prescription and I always brought the leftovers to the drug store for disposal.Fast forward to my brain surgery last fall. I was fortunate to be sent home after two nights in the hospital (you heal much better at home). The last thing that they sorted out was pain manage...
Source: Not just about cancer - September 20, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: metastatic guilt breast cancer brain metastasis community my friends mastectomy pissed off cancer blog rants chronic illness Source Type: blogs
Facts about Prescription Opiate Abuse
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 100 people in the United States die from drug overdoses every day, and death rates as a result of drug overdoses have more than tripled since 1990. The CDC also reports that nearly three out of four prescription drug overdoses are caused by opiates.
Opiates are commonly referred to as painkillers. They are derived from opium or synthetic versions of it and used in pain relief. Common opiates include Vicodin (hydrocodone), Percocet, OxyContin, oxycodone, Fentanyl, and codeine. They work by binding to the receptors in the brain to decrease the perception of p...
Source: World of Psychology - August 31, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Donna M. White, LPCI, CACP Tags: Addiction Disorders General Medications Substance Abuse Treatment Alarming Statistics Cdc Research Centers For Disease Control And Prevention Centers For Disease Control And Prevention Cdc Death Rates Drug Overdoses Fentanyl Medi Source Type: blogs
Deaths in Painkiller Overdoses Rise Sharply Among Women - NYTimes.com
PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — Prescription pain pill addiction was originally seen as a man's problem, a national epidemic that began among workers doing backbreaking labor in the coal mines and factories of Appalachia. But a new analysis of federal data has found that deaths in recent years have been rising far faster among women, quintupling since 1999.More women now die of overdoses from pain pills like OxyContin than from cervical cancer or homicide. And though more men are dying, women are catching up, according to the analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the problem is hitting white women harde...
Source: Psychology of Pain - July 3, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Funny Allergy Quotes, Jokes, Stories and a List of Crazy Reactions.
If you're looking for funny allergy quotes, jokes and stories you've come to the right place. I asked my readers from facebook to provide me with their experiences they've had regarding crazy allergy reactions and they did not let me down. They relayed dozens of incidents they've experienced through the years. Over the years I've discovered several funny allergies myself, including allergies to prednisone, diet products and the color red. Some patients have dozens of allergies. My experience is that most of these allergies are not allergies in the physiological sense. The te...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - July 2, 2013 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: Tamer Mahrous Source Type: blogs
Profiting From Pain - NYTimes.com
NEWS ANALYSISProfiting From PainBy BARRY MEIERThe use of narcotic painkillers, or opioids, has boomed over the past decade as drug makers and doctors have promoted them for a new use: treating long-term pain from back injuries, headaches, arthritisand conditions like fibromyalgia. Insurers have also grown to see pills as a cheaper way to treat chronic pain than other methods.MultimediaSome patients are greatly helped by opioids, a large family of medications. Among the more widely used opioids are oxycodone, which is found in Percocet and OxyContin, and hydrocodone, which is used in Vicodin. Other poten...
Source: Psychology of Pain - June 23, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Which Prescription Drugs Do Americans Abuse Most?
By: Laura Sciuto
According to a 2010 study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, approximately 7 million people in the United States -- or 2.7 percent of the population -- annually abuse prescription drugs. This abuse primarily occurs when people take medication not prescribed to them or take their own prescription drugs at a higher dosage than recommended by their doctor.
The most commonly abused prescription drugs fall into three categories: Opioids (pain relievers), depressants and stimulants. Below is a breakdown of each category, compiled using the latest statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse:
O...
Source: PharmaGossip - May 3, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Please Poke My Paronychium!
THE BASICSWhat is more satisfying than draining a pus-filled paronychium? Seeing the look of relief on the face of your patient when his painful, pulsating digit is relieved of all that tension! This rather elementary procedure could be perceived as stale and uneventful for some of you. The more thorough and astute clinicians, however, realize these tiny infections around the nail root may open the door to a mixed bag of insidious and harmful bacterial infections including MRSA, chronic reoccurrences, cellulitis, subungual abscesses, osteomyelitis, herpetic whitlow, or even the dreaded felon.
Whatever your pleasure, thi...
Source: The Procedural Pause - May 1, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
What's Tylenol Doing to Our Minds? - James Hamblin - The Atlantic
This study was small. Theheadlines are grandiose. The way people pass moral judgments is not necessarily indicative of their level of existential anxiety. But acetaminophen indeed appears to be affecting people's perspectives, which further muddies our already complex relationship to the drug. As Randles sees the value of their findings, "For people who suffer from chronic anxiety, or are overly sensitive to uncertainty, this work may shed some light on what is happening and how their symptoms could be reduced."Even though these changes in judgment are abstract and seemingly for the better, inclining people ...
Source: Psychology of Pain - April 22, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Curb prescription drug abuse by following Mayor Bloomberg
A version of this column was published in USA Today on April 1, 2013.
Prescription drug abuse is a growing national tragedy. One of the biggest culprits is opioid painkillers, such as Oxycontin and Percocet. Shockingly, more than 200 million of these types of drugs are prescribed annually, and they account for more than 16,000 deaths a year. And for every death, significantly more become addicted to opioids, many of which have chemical similarities to heroin.
Continue reading ...
Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 20, 2013 Category: Family Physicians Tags: Kevin's Take Emergency Medications Primary care Source Type: blogs
My tooth hurts, and I don't want narcotics!
It's Sunday evening, and a patient with tooth pain signs into triage. This pleasant but teary 44-year-old woman had a root canal two days earlier. Many ED providers would agree that dentists should not schedule root canals on Fridays unless they are truly emergent.
But the patient is in the ED asking for your expert dental advice. The good news is you can assist her temporarily until she gets back to her dentist. This quick and effective ED procedure will save you time and heartache.
THE BASICS
No other medical problems or surgeries.
Allergies: ASA, NSAID.
The culprit: Tooth #17
Medications tried: Vicodin, Percocet, an...
Source: The Procedural Pause - March 29, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Imagine That Game With Baby Zachary (Cute Video).
Our Zachary turns two years old next month. Imagine that! That also just happens to be a game Zachary likes to play. I've discovered playing imagine that with Zachary is a great way to interrupt periods of time where communication is difficult. Zachary loves to listen and to use sign language he's picked up over the last couple of years. In fact, I'm amazed every day at how much he's paying attention to everything around him. However, communication with a crying toddler can sometimes be difficult.
I've discovered a little art of diversion can be quite helpful in resetting our Zac...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - March 13, 2013 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: Tamer Mahrous Source Type: blogs
Painkiller-abuse proposal divides healthcare community, even in same hospitals | cleveland.com
Doctors at top health centers including the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals want the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to toughen rules for prescribing powerful painkillers like OxyContin and similar opioids, saying this could curb addiction and drug abuse.Yet there is pushback -- from, among others, medical professionals at some of the same hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic, public records and interviews show.These doctors and clinicians say they, too, want to halt addiction and deaths from the over-consumption and abuse of opioid painkillers, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control calls an epid...
Source: Psychology of Pain - March 8, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
