Category: August 2019

18 upstate hospitals, health centers agree to limit opioids prescribed after surgery 

By ELLEN ABBOTT • AUG 12, 2019 Dr. Jeffrey Albright. ELLEN ABBOTT /  WRVO PUBLIC MEDIA Surgeons from 18 upstate hospitals and health agencies hope changing the way they prescribe medication can impact the opioid crisis.  Dr. Jeffrey Albright, a surgeon at Upstate University Hospital, remembered when he was going through medical school almost 20 years ago. “It was still…

Are Prescribed Opioids the Culprits or the Scapegoats?

10th August, 2019 By Lynn Webster, M.D. This article, in a slightly edited form, first appeared on Pain News Network on August 10, 2019. The Washington Post has recently published a series of stories about the volume of opioids distributed over the past several years. Over 76 billion pills have been distributed throughout the U.S. from 2002 through 2012.…

Uhh—We Don’t Want to Be Sick

National Pain Posted on August 10, 2019 By Liza Zoellick “Patients have figured out that by adopting the sick role and signing up for disability, they can pay their bills and yet in order to validate the sick role status, they have to participate in the healthcare system, which means taking certain types of pills.”…

PAIN DR. When Politicians Play Doctor

August 10, 2019 When politicians play doctor: patients lose, but politicians still win. The political and media assault on an important new pain medication, Zohydro ER, continued this week. New actions by state officials have provided further proof that our elected leaders would rather grab headlines than help their pain-suffering constituents – another needlessly sad…