opioid crisis Archives - The Painful Truth

Virtual Reality Therapy for People in Chronic Pain

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.

Everything Isn’t as Perfect as It Seems in Ireland

Is the Opioid Crisis Uniquely an American Problem?

For the past two weeks, I have been visiting Ireland. I attended a meeting for a few days in Dublin, but then my wife and I toured parts of the beautiful country boasting deeply green meadows that connected huge historic cathedrals and exquisite castles.

On the way from the airport to our hotel when we arrived, we listened to the taxi’s radio broadcast about the heroin crisis in Dublin. The news particularly caught my attention, since we have been hearing from our major media outlets that the opioid crisis is uniquely an American problem.

Lessons Learned from Someone Who Has Struggled With Addiction

In the February 19, 2018 Refinery29 documentary, producer Jacki Huntington shares the stories of Dr. Lipi Roy, Kassandra Frederique of the Drug Policy Alliance, and Cortney Lovell. These women are working to solve the opioid crisis through their work in addiction medicine, drug policy, and recovery services.

Courage in Escaping the Grip of Addiction

In an accompanying essay, Cortney Lovell courageously tells her story of trying to escape the grip of addiction. Lovell has been in recovery for heroin addiction for ten years, and she understands the tremendous effort and frustration that goes into reentering society while bearing the stigma of addiction and a record of incarceration.

Will Tom Petty’s Death Move Funding for Research Forward?

Free Fall Into Opioid Use

“And I’m free, free fallin’
(Free fallin’, I’m-a free fallin’)
Yeah I’m free, free fallin’
(Free fallin’, I’m-a free fallin’)”

When Tom Petty’s song, “Free Fallin’,” was released in 1989, he probably didn’t expect that his death would occur in October 2017 at age 66 as the result of an accidental free fall into opioid use.

According to National Public Radio, the LA Coroner determined that his death was caused by the accidental overdose of a mix of opioids, including fentanyl. He had been taking these drugs to treat pain from knee problems and a fractured hip, as well as other ailments.

Unintended Consequences of Limiting Prescribed Opioids

Arbitrarily Reducing Opioids

Payers, legislators, and healthcare systems are implementing limits on how many pills may be dispensed to people with pain in an effort to curb the opioid crisis.

CVS announced this past September they would limit the number of pills new patients with acute pain can obtain to a seven-day supply.

Last July, Maine passed legislation limiting new prescriptions for opioids to 100 morphine milligram equivalents per day for most patients.

The giant prescription benefits manager, Express Scripts, began a program last September limiting people with new opioid prescriptions to a seven-day supply, not to exceed 200 mg per day.

Can Francis Collins Help Solve the Opioid Crisis?

The problem of opioid addiction is more complex than lawmakers, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the media would have us believe.

Pressuring doctors who treat pain patients to prescribe fewer opioids may reduce the amount of opioids prescribed. While that doesn’t decrease the need for opioids, it may drive people who need pain medication to the streets to find relief.

Today, opioids are the only effective, affordable treatment for some chronic pain conditions. They certainly are an imperfect medication associated with significant risks for some patients. But they are the best tools doctors have for delivering compassionate treatment to many people with intractable pain.

President Obama, Overprescribing Isn’t the Only Reason for the Opioid Epidemic

President Barack Obama wrote in the January issue of the Harvard Law Review, “As their [prescription opioids] use has increased, so has their misuse.” This is true, but blaming only overprescribing of opioids for the current opioid crisis demonstrates a lack of understanding about the complexity of the problem.

The putative argument President Obama and many others assert is that the opioid problem was created by an excess supply of painkillers flooding our communities. Excessive prescribing is part of the problem, but without demand, there would be no crisis.

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.

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:

3 Reasons the New CDC Guidelines May Contribute to the Cost of Addiction

In the September 13 issue of Vice, Maia Szalavitz challenges the myth that the U.S. can solve the opioid crisis by reducing the supply. According to her biography published in Wikipedia, “[Szalavitz] has been awarded the American Psychological Association’s Division 50 Award for Contributions to the Addictions, the Media Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the Drug Policy Alliance‘s 2005 Edward M. Brecher Award for Achievement.”

Szalavitz is an informed and highly accomplished neuroscience journalist who applies common sense to the opioid epidemic. She says, “If America really wants to reduce the death toll from its opioid crisis, we need to focus on reducing demand, not supply.”