Alternative Pain Treatment Directory

  A friend of mine I’ll call Paul was admitted to the hospital recently for surgery for suspected lung cancer. Fortunately, the tumor was benign, but the surgery was extensive. It involved a deep incision in his chest, spreading his ribs and removing a portion of his lung. He anticipated being in the hospital for a few days after the procedure but there were no beds available, so he was discharged home less than 24 hours after the procedure with no home care plan in place. When he expressed concern to his surgeon, he was told they weren’t running a hotel. Paul is 75 years old and lives alone. I spoke with Paul a few days after the surgery and offered to stop by with some of my non-pharmaceutical pain management tools. Paul told me that he was doing okay with pain management. The hospital had sent him home with opioids, but he didn’t want to take them. Instead, he had been managing his pain with Tylenol. He said the first day getting in and out of bed was excruciating but it had bee...

  The opioid crisis continues to be in the news. Besides the frequent reporting about opioid addiction and overdose and the shortage of addiction treatment, a new Netflix series, Painkiller, has just been released. The series portrays the role of Purdue Pharma in instigating the opioid crisis and how the company’s owners, the Sackler family, literally got away with murder. In addition, the Supreme Court just agreed to hear a federal appeal of the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy settlement, which let the Sacklers walk away with billions and granted them immunity from any further civil or criminal liability. In other news, a widely reported recent study found that opioids work no better than a placebo when prescribed for acute and subacute back and neck pain. But what is glaringly missing from all of these reports is any discussion of the many alternatives to opioids that are available for pain relief. This article will review the dangers of opioids and the reasons why marijuana is a good o...

  The United States has 5% of the world’s population and uses 80% of the world’s prescription opioids. What’s up with that? And how do other countries treat pain? The opioid epidemic has wreaked havoc in the United States, but have you ever wondered if the same is true in other countries?  Researchers in the Netherlands set out to answer that question, designing a  study  that analyzed opioid use and related adverse effects in 19 European countries between 2010 and 2018. They found that “Apart from the British Isles and especially Scotland, there is no indication of an opioid crisis comparable to that in the US in the 19 European countries that were part of this study.” Why are European countries using less opioids? In an  article  that appeared in  The Lancet  on October 22,2022, study authors presented several hypotheses as to why the opioid epidemic is not widespread throughout Europe: “Universal health care has been a major factor in preventin...