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Through my research about all things migraine and pain, I’ve compiled this recommended list of articles regarding opioid therapy, and my and many other’s opinion that it did not cause the opioid/OD crisis. I worry about pain patients and pain doctors, whose decisions have been shackled by the 2016 CDC Opioid Prescribing Guidelines and government legislation that takes the oversight of the practice of medicine away from medical boards and gives that oversight to the Department of Justice and the DEA.

I never wanted to learn about this, but I have had to do so since 2015 (and before) when my doctors started questioning me and my pain therapies.

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Reduced Opioid Therapy Impact on Pain Patients

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  • UAB team investigates suicide, opioid prescription changes

    UAB News

    by Adam Pope

    November 02, 2020

    “However, starting in 2016, UAB’s Stefan Kertesz, M.D., a professor of medicine, began to see a concerning pattern: Some suicide attempts took place after doctors attempted to reduce prescription of pain medication, including opioids.”

    READ FULL ARTICLE

  • 10 Pain Medication Myths: Challenges In Selecting the Appropriate Analgesic

    Practical Pain Management

    July/August 2016, Volume 16, Issue #6

    “Much of the increased risk and many of the adverse effects suspected with these medications can be addressed through appropriate monitoring or counseling by providers. Furthermore, providers who follow their patients closely can help dispel myths surrounding these medications.”

    READ FULL ARTICLE

  • Patients still struggle to get pain meds after losing doctor

    WWNY 7News/WNYF FOX-28/MeTV

    By Keith Benman

    Published: Jan. 4, 2022 at 1:56 PM PST

    “Milefski is a former patient of Dr. Juan-Diego Harris at Claxton-Hepburn. When he left there in November, his patients were given a 30-day supply of pills and told to seek other care. That other care has been almost impossible to find for some - and for a reason.”

    READ FULL ARTICLE

  • Medical Racism Is Fueling the Black Overdose Crisis, Advocates Say

    Truthout

    by Mike Ludwig

    December 20, 2021

    “Years of research shows that Black (as well as Latino and Asian) patients are far less likely to receive pain medication than white patients and are systematically undertreated for pain, often because providers wrongly believe Black people have a higher pain tolerance or suspect they are “drug seekers” abusing or selling painkillers. The latter racist bias, of course, is rooted in the war on drugs that has targeted Black communities for decades.”

    READ FULL ARTICLE

  • Hulu’s “Dopesick” Revives a False Narrative and Pain Patients May Suffer

    CATO Institute

    By Jeffrey A. Singer

    October 11, 2021 1:45PM

    “Federal policymakers are finally starting to rethink their failed opioid policies that are based on the mistaken narrative that America’s overdose crisis is the direct result of doctors overtreating their pain patients with opioids, condemning them to a life of addiction. Now the streaming service Hulu comes out with a new miniseries, based on the 2018 book Dopesick, threatening to breathe new life into this false and dying narrative.”

    READ FULL ARTICLE

  • New AMA Substance Use & Pain Care Task Force urges action to help patients

    American Medical Association Press Releases

    September 29, 2021

    ““Physicians must continue to lead by example to help our patients with pain, SUDs and mental illness,” said AMA Board Chair and Task Force Chair Bobby Mukkamala, M.D. “Removing barriers requires policymakers to join us in establishing a more effective and humane approach. Failure to adopt these policies will prolong the epidemic and our patients’ suffering.””

    AMA Substance Use and Pain Care Task Force Recomendations

    READ FULL ARTICLE

  • Dr. Bobby Mukkamala on 2021 Overdose Epidemic Report findings | Moving Medicine for Sept. 27, 2021

    AMA YouTube Channel

    Sep 27, 2021

    “AMA CXO Todd Unger discusses the details of—and numbers from—the newly released 2021 Overdose Epidemic Report with Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, chair of the AMA Board of Trustees and the AMA Substance Use and Pain Care Task Force.”

    WATCH VIDEO

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Opioid Therapy

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  • Myth: Long-Term Opioid Therapy Is an Ineffective Treatment for Chronic Pain

    PainScale

    “The assumption that opioid therapy is not an effective treatment for chronic pain is simply not true. While some individuals with chronic pain do not experience pain relief from opioid therapy, many do.”

    READ FULL ARTICLE

  • 10 Pain Medication Myths: Challenges In Selecting the Appropriate Analgesic

    Practical Pain Management

    July/August 2016, Volume 16, Issue #6

    “Much of the increased risk and many of the adverse effects suspected with these medications can be addressed through appropriate monitoring or counseling by providers. Furthermore, providers who follow their patients closely can help dispel myths surrounding these medications.”

    READ FULL ARTICLE

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The War on Drugs

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  • Dr. Carl L. Hart: The Possibilities of Responsible Drugs Use

    Town Hall Seattle Channel - YouTube

    Streamed live on Jan 20, 2022

    “Is it possible for drug use to be part of a responsible, balanced, and happy life? Dr. Carl L. Hart, a prominent neuroscientist and professor of psychology at Columbia University, believes so; but he didn’t always see it that way.”

    READ FULL ARTICLE

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Government Intervention: CDC/DoJ/DEA, Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs)

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  • CDC Proposes New Opioid Prescribing Guidelines

    MedPage Today

    by Judy George, Senior Staff Writer

    February 10, 2022

    “New draft guidelines for primary care and other clinicians proposed by the CDC Thursday no longer promote hard thresholds on opioid prescribing.”

    READ FULL ARTICLE

  • NKY doctor accused in federal opioid case gains back prescribing powers, sparking statewide change

    WCPO Cincinnati

    By: Courtney Francisco

    Posted at 7:26 PM, January 05, 2022

    “Wednesday, Dr. Kendall Hansen was permitted to begin prescribing controlled substances at his Crestview Hills clinic after taking on the state medical board in court. The district court judge told the board it is time to change their restriction policy in these types of cases. Families from across Northern Kentucky said this means they can get some relief.”

    READ FULL ARTICLE

  • Against The Pain: The Opioid Crisis And Medication Access

    WAMU: The 1A

    Chris Remington

    November 11, 2021

    “When the hospitalist entered the room he didn’t even introduce himself. The first thing he said is, “I looked at your PDMP, and I would like to know why you’re given Ativan.” So I told him it was for PTSD. And he asked what from and since I didn’t realize that being honest would be used against me, I told him it would be for childhood abuse. And he specifically asked me if it was for sexual abuse and I told him yes. At that moment, his entire demeanor changed. And he said, “Due to your history of sexual abuse, I cannot give you IV pain medication.”

    LISTEN HERE

  • The Pain Was Unbearable. So Why Did Doctors Turn Her Away?

    Wired Magazine

    by Maia Szalavitz

    AUG 11, 2021

    “On her fourth day in the hospital, however, something changed. A staffer brusquely informed Kathryn that she would no longer be receiving any kind of opioid. “I don’t think you are aware of how high some scores are in your chart,” the woman said. “Considering the prescriptions you’re on, it’s quite obvious that you need help that is not pain-related.”

    Back at home, about two weeks later, Kathryn received a letter from her gynecologist’s office stating that her doctor was “terminating” their relationship. Once again, she was mystified. But this message at least offered some explanation: It said she was being cut off because of “a report from the NarxCare database.””

    READ FULL ARTICLE

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Opioid Therapy in the Courts

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  • A Court Rejected the Disease Theory of Opioid Addiction. Will We Listen?

    Filter Magazine

    by Stanton Peele

    November 22, 2021

    “The idea that opioid painkillers are inevitably addictive was put on trial and refuted. But this modern disease theory seemingly can’t be extinguished as long as it is granted “scientific” credibility by prominent experts and unquestioned acceptance by the media.”

    READ FULL ARTICLE

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Anti-Opioid Groups & People

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  • More Anti-Opioid Tripe. This Time From Forbes - And Stanford

    American Council on Science and Health

    by Josh Bloom

    February 4, 2022

    “Just when there are signs that people, elected officials, in particular, are starting to understand that what we've heard about the opioid epidemic is largely a myth (one that does little more than harm pain patients) along comes an anti-opioid hit piece in Forbes. It's based on an interview with an anti-opioid zealot, the chairman of an anti-opioid commission at an anti-opioid university. Let's take it apart.”

    READ FULL ARTICLE

  • Anna Lembke: 'Addiction is the modern plague', which will be lasting

    Fox News

    By Charles Creitz

    Published October 13

    “"What happened to me in midlife is I basically got hooked on romance novels. And it was really the Kindle-- the technology of the Kindle-- that then had me reading later and later into the night, essentially chain reading, until I developed tolerance to kind of "The Twilight Saga," which was my entry into this world."

    "And I developed tolerance and started needing more and more graphic forms of the romance novel, and ultimately progressed to reading the kinds of erotica that's not actually consistent with my values," she added.”

    READ FULL ARTICLE

  • A Court Rejected the Disease Theory of Opioid Addiction. Will We Listen?

    Filter Magazine

    by Stanton Peele

    November 22, 2021

    “The idea that opioid painkillers are inevitably addictive was put on trial and refuted. But this modern disease theory seemingly can’t be extinguished as long as it is granted “scientific” credibility by prominent experts and unquestioned acceptance by the media.”

    READ FULL ARTICLE