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Recent Posts

  • Treating Babies with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome
  • Rare Diseases and Orphan Drugs
  • Marijuana and Pain
  • Virtual Reality Therapy for People in Chronic Pain
  • Breaking Bad 2018
  • Response to People in Pain
  • Everything Isn’t as Perfect as It Seems in Ireland
  • Yes, Restrictions on Opioids Are a Threat to Human Rights
  • David C. Holzman Shatters Addiction Myths
  • Opioid Lawsuits Threaten Lives of Pain Sufferers
  • Utah Opioid Crisis Summit
  • Repeating the Mistakes of the Past
  • Prescription Drug Advertisements
  • Family of Pain
  • The ACPA Presents Programs for Migraine Sufferers

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  • Kenneth R. McClelland on Why Keep a Pain Journal
  • JUST ANOTHER GUINEA PIG on Suicide and Chronic Pain
  • Jim Gibson on Marijuana and Pain
  • John D. Waldron on Breaking Bad 2018
  • Deborah Scheers on Suicide and Chronic Pain

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Rare Diseases and Orphan Drugs

Rare Diseases and Orphan Drugs by Lynn R. Webster @LynnRWebsterMD

Many Types of Pain Are Considered Rare Diseases

According to Scientific American, there are approximately 6,800 rare diseases, most of which have no approved treatment. To be considered a rare disease, it must affect fewer than 200,000 Americans. Most rare diseases have limited treatment options. Unfortunately, many types of chronic pain are considered rare diseases for which there are few effective treatments.

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Virtual Reality Therapy for People in Chronic Pain

Virtual Reality Therapy for People in Chronic Pain Lynn R. Webster @LynnRWebsterMD

Virtual Reality Beyond the Holodeck

If you’re a fan of television’s “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” then you’ve seen virtual reality (VR) at work in the episodes that featured the holodeck. In the series, the holodeck was used mostly to entertain the Starfleet crew. While the holodeck is still science fiction, a goggles-based form of virtual reality has been around for some time and now is being used to treat pain.

Some people may be surprised that the therapeutic value of VR has been researched for more than 20 years. There have been at least 120 papers written about how virtual reality may reduce pain.

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Opioid Lawsuits Threaten Lives of Pain Sufferers

Opioid Lawsuits Threaten Lives of Pain Sufferers by Lynn R. Webster @LynnRWebsterMD

Implications for People With Chronic Pain

Several lawsuits have been filed against several opioid manufacturers, distributors, and physicians for participating in what was allegedly a scheme to cause incalculable harm for profit. I am one of the physicians named as an alleged “conspirator.”

The opioid lawsuits are far more than legal matters that involve the defendants. They also have serious implications for people in pain.

The opioid crisis and resulting lawsuits have significantly impacted regulatory scrutiny of prescribing, which in turn has had a chilling effect on physicians who are increasingly unwilling to treat people in pain for fear of losing their license. Unfortunately, the lawsuits and the hyperbolic charges they contain fail to recognize the scientific, medical realities of chronic pain patients.

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Family of Pain

Family of Pain by Lynn R. Webster @LynnRWebsterMD

Failing to Understand the Experience of Pain

Most people in pain do not like talking about their pain problem with others. When they do mention it to friends and family, they generally are disappointed at the responses. People are well intended, at least initially, but they can be insensitive. Fundamentally, they fail to understand what someone in pain is experiencing, so they can only provide a limited amount of support.

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Why Is Chronic Lyme Disease Controversial?

Why Is Chronic Lyme Disease Controversial by Lynn R. Webster @LynnRWebsterMD

Novelist Amy Tan’s Experience With Lyme Disease

On her web site, bestselling novelist Amy Tan shares her belief that she has late-stage neuroborreliosis, or Lyme disease. She suspected she might have Lyme disease because of her mysterious symptoms that included migrating aches and neuropathy, a racing heart, hallucinations, getting lost in familiar places, difficulty talking, plunging blood sugar, insomnia, and fatigue. She finally found a doctor who was able to confirm the diagnosis. After years of expensive treatment, Tan can now manage her symptoms, but she doesn’t expect to ever be cured.

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Please Send the FDA Your Comments

Please Send the FDA Your Comments  by Lynn R. Webster @LynnRWebsterMD

New Opioid Policy Steering Committee

On September 29 of this year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a notice — Opioid Policy Steering Committee; Establishment of a Public Docket; Request for Comments — in the Federal Register, The Daily Journal of the United States Government.

The FDA is seeking comments from members of the public, including chronic pain patients and their families, healthcare professionals, academic institutions, and industry relative to the FDA’s new Opioid Policy Steering Committee (OPSC).

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. has expressed his commitment to confronting the opioid crisis and reducing the possibility of opioid addiction. He established the OPSC, and charged the committee with seeking input from the public.

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The Backlash of Government’s Efforts to Curb Opioid Prescribing

The Backlash of Government’s Efforts to Curb Opioid Prescribing by Lynn R. Webster @LynnRWebsterMD

Turn the Tide Campaign Brings Unintended Consequences 

It began just about a year ago, when the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain provided “recommendations for primary care clinicians who were prescribing opioids for chronic pain outside of active cancer treatment, palliative care, and end-of-life care.” The emphasis is mine. The goal, as the CDC’s web site stated, was to improve “… the way opioids are prescribed through clinical practice guidelines” and to “ensure patients have access to safer, more effective chronic pain treatment while reducing the number of people who misuse, abuse, or overdose from these drugs.”

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Why Fentanyl Is So Deadly

Why Fentanyl Is So Deadly by Lynn R. Webster @LynnRWebsterMD

According to Martha Bebinger of WBUR, “About 75 percent of the state’s men and women who died after an unintentional overdose last year had fentanyl in their system, up from 57 percent in 2015 (PDF). It’s a pattern cities and towns are seeing across the state [of Massachusetts] and country, particularly in New England and some Rust Belt states.”

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“Step Therapy” Puts Insurance Companies Ahead of Patients

Step Therapy Puts Insurance Companies Ahead of Patients by Lynn R. Webster @LynnRWebsterMD

 

This article was originally published in the Salt Lake City Tribune.

A Process Called Step Therapy

Gary developed excruciating pain in his shoulder and arm following a cervical disc herniation several years ago. He was athletic and otherwise in good health, but the pain is now disabling.

For years, Gary was prescribed pregabalin for this condition. It provided him substantial pain relief until he changed insurance companies. The new insurance company sent Gary and his physician a letter indicating that before they would pay for pregabalin, Gary first had to try two generic drugs that were less expensive. This meant that Gary had no choice but to endure excruciating pain, once again, so that he and his doctor could prove to his insurance company that these medications were ineffective and that he required pregabalin.

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The Survey Says…the CDC Opioid Guideline Needs to Be Honestly Assessed

The Survey Says...the CDC Opioid Guideline Need to Be Honestly Assessed by Lynn R. Webster @LynnRWebsterMD

One-Year Anniversary of the CDC Opioid Prescribing Guideline

On the one-year anniversary of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) opioid prescribing guideline, an online survey of patients, doctors, and healthcare providers conducted by Pain News Network and the International Pain Foundation (iPain) found that the guideline has “harmed pain patients, reduced access to pain care, and failed to reduce drug abuse and overdoses.”

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