| Video
Dr. Stanos reviews the development of evidence based medicine and offers some pointers to primary practitioners on how to intelligently assess guidelines and clinical trials. Critical evaluation can help clinicians become better users of clinical and research information.
| Article
Recent press coverage highlights the work of congressional representatives and key opinion leaders to impact insurance carrier policy with respect to nonopioid and abuse deterrent opioid treatment alternatives for pain. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) recently sent a letter to the CEOs of UnitedHealth...
| Article
New research presented last week at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society may point the way to a more effective treatment response for overdoses of opioid combinations—including fentanyl combined with heroin--that are at the heart of the epidemic of substance use disorder. The new...
| Video
In addition to other shortcomings, current prescribing guidelines are particularly ill-suited to the needs and challenges of patients already on opioid therapy. Drs. Heit and Gourlay discuss the roots of the problem and the role of primary care as talented amateurs in addiction medicine.
| Article
American women who are pregnant or of reproductive age and use opioids for nonmedical reasons are also likely to use other substances including nicotine, alcohol, and/or cocaine, according to an analysis conducted at University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. The study is described as the...
| Article
Senior PAINWeek faculty member Douglas Gourlay, MD, MSc, FRCPS, FASAM, has spoken often of the need for frontline practitioners with an interest in pain to become “talented amateurs” in addiction medicine. A new consensus document released by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) may...
| Article
A news story and accompanying article appearing last week, and authored by National Public Radio correspondent Craig Lemoult, highlights the problem of postoperative pain management in high risk patient populations. The story details the tragic death last December of 23-year-old Max Baker, a...
| Video
It's important for practitioners to be "in the know" about drugs of abuse, whether new ones, or new abuses of well-known drugs.
| Podcast
Practitioners routinely wrestle with the issue of medication aberrant behavior (MAB)--What should I do about this? Should I discharge the patient? Will I get in trouble if I don't discharge this patient? Often there is no one right answer, and practitioners struggle with what to do in the face of a...
| Podcast
The field of pain management has undergone a circuitous adventure, much like a rabbit hole. As the economic, mental health, and medical consequences of prescribing opioid medications have mounted, the prevailing logic regarding the usefulness of prescribing opioids for chronic pain has shifted. The...