pain

To Taper a Pain Patient? It’s Never One-Size-Fits-All

Many years ago, I broke my ankle⁠—tibia and fibula⁠—in a fall from a horse. It was compound and comminuted, meaning…

July 22, 2019

How Did We Come to Abandon America’s Pain Patients?

Overdoses—not those involving prescription opioids, but of heroin and illicit fentanyl, often combined with benzodiazepines—continue to go up. But opioid…

July 15, 2019

Pain Patients Like Me Are Rising Up Against Discrimination and Suffering

If it were up to me, it’s unlikely I would be sitting down to write about my life with chronic…

May 13, 2019

How Helpful—Or Harmful—Are Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs?

Before admitting new patients to his practice, Dr. Miguel Diaz checks their prescription history. Diaz, a family medicine physician with…

April 9, 2019

Why Are Methadone Patients Still Being Punished for Marijuana Use?

Marijuana, which is now legal for medical use in 33 states and counting, can help treat pain—something which opioids also…

March 31, 2019

“Nation’s Most Comprehensive Lawsuit”—Now NY Takes On Purdue and the Sacklers

Museums around the world, from New York City's Guggenheim to London's Tate Modern, have begun refusing donations from the Sackler family,…

March 29, 2019

My Life of Overusing Pills for Back Pain in a Grueling Factory Job

I have a factory-floor job here in Montreal, Canada. I wake up each morning at 5 am for what is…

January 28, 2019