Archives for October 2016

Solving the Opioid Crisis Won’t Be “Cheap, Quick, or Easy”

“Last Week Tonight” is a late-night television show that satirizes the news. Therefore, you probably wouldn’t expect the show’s host, John Oliver, to make the news. Yet he did (see Rolling Stone, Time, Newsweek, Slate, and more) when he did a segment about the opioid crisis.

Using Humor to Discuss the Opioid Crisis

Oliver tackled a difficult topic. He used humor to discuss the controversy of opioids, addiction, and overdoses. Of course, Oliver is not a physician or a scientist, so fact-checkers might have expected to find errors in his broadcast. However, in my opinion, his content was largely accurate and, therefore, I believe that every American should see the video.

This is the Reason OIC Is No Joking Matter

Why Joking About OIC Isn’t Funny

According to a recent Washington Post story, six in ten American adults take prescription drugs, and this has created a “vast market for new meds to treat the side effects of the old ones.” The article is titled: “The drug industry’s answer to opioid addiction: More pills.”

The article describes Jonathan Moss’s working on a treatment for “opioid-induced constipation,” or OIC.

You may have seen the controversial Super Bowl ad for Movantik, a drug that’s meant to treat constipation in people who use opioids for pain. Movantik is a new class of medication that reverses OIC.

Will the Opioid Epidemic Ever End? A Closer Look

“Abuse of opioid painkillers and heroin has been spreading throughout the U.S. population, from inner-city youths, jobless rural residents and high school students to wealthy suburbanites, young professionals and pop stars,” according to Peter Katel‘s recent CQ article, “Opioid Crisis: Can recent reforms curb the epidemic?” He continues, “More adults use prescription painkillers than cigarettes, smokeless tobacco or cigars combined, according to a federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report released in September.”

How Media Fuels the Opioid Crisis

Data reporting by the media about the opioid crisis can be confusing, but when it is repeatedly reported inaccurately, it creates a perception of truth. Misinformation by the media can lead the public to demand quick fixes that won’t solve the problem and can make things even worse.

Inaccurate Media Reporting

Here’s an example of how that works, and why it is important that we have accurate reporting:

The United State of Grief

Steven D. Passik’s mom (Fran) and dad (Ike), and their granddaughter (Sofia). That was almost exactly 22 years ago.

This is a follow up to a guest blog my friend, Steve D. Passik, posted here on September 21, 2016, called “The Painful Later Years of Frances Passik.”

Steven D. Passik, Ph.D., is a Pennsylvania-based pain psychologist. I’m proud to call him a friend. He is a giant in the field of pain medicine, but that doesn’t make his family members immune to the problems that other chronic patients face.

How Canada’s Addiction Treatment Approach Compares to the U.S.

Canada and the United States are good neighbors, and share many values.

Although Canada and the United States are part of the North American family, and we feel a kinship to them in so many ways, we have different mindsets about some key issues. Specifically, we do not feel the same way about some healthcare issues.

Differing Treatments to Heroin Addiction

Canada seems to be more progressive than the U.S. and is quicker to see the needs that the U.S. denies — for example, the treatment of heroin addiction with heroin, and the potential benefits of medical marijuana.