AMA TAKES A CRITICAL STANCE ON NEWLY PROPOSED CDC OPIOID GUIDELINES
Insights from White Collar Criminal Defense Attorneys Trusted Nationwide
For the last six years state regulators, federal prosecutors, insurers and other stakeholders in the healthcare space have propped up the 2016 Guideline for Prescribing Opioids as a new standard of care for opioid prescribing. Paid government expert witnesses have clambered to witness stands across the country to exalt the guidelines as a new de-facto standard of care and to heavily criticize doctors in failing to rigidly apply dosage thresholds, risk assessments, urine drug screen monitoring policies and the like. The impact was widespread, creating a wave of “pain refugees” – legitimate pain patients cast aside by doctors who were unwilling (or unable) to accept the risk of federal prosecution needed to maintain proper pain management of their patient population.
Defense attorneys representing physicians in opioid prescribing prosecutions were left to wrangle a new federal standard for prescribing opioids as prosecutors were quick to misapply the guidelines to gain an edge in heavy-handed criminal prosecutions against physicians whose only crime was compassion for their patients and an unwillingness to cede to the CDC’s take on the sacred practice of medicine.
After a wave of popular support brought about by physician advocacy groups such as “Don’t Punish Pain” and “Doctors of Courage”, as well as widely publicized rebukes by even the AMA – the guidelines began to buckle under their own weight. On the heals of a new public health emergency brought about by the widespread dismantling of the physician patient relationship in opioid prescribing- the CDC finally decided to correct course.
Changes in the 2022 Opioid Prescribing Proposed Guidelines
And now, six years later – the CDC “Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids” are changing.
The only question is whether the CDC will claw back the dangerous guidelines of the past that have subjected prescribers to unnecessary scrutiny, unwarranted criminal prosecution, and confusion surrounding their duty to treat patients. The proposed guideline was posted for public comment recently and the American Medical Association released its comment on April 11, 2022 with a firm statement to the CDC – “you didn’t go far enough”. Physicians subjected to federal scrutiny through criminal prosecution, DEA sanction, or civil monetary penalty action may find refuge in the newly proposed guidelines and the AMA’s harsh rebuke of the previously adopted 2016 CDC Guidelines. But more can be done.
The new proposed guideline makes three critical changes intended to un-ring the bell that so deeply impacted the United States pain population. First, the proposed guidelines do away with the 2016 recommended dosage and day limits for appropriate prescribing. Second, the newly proposed guideline emphasizes patient-physician shared decision-making instead of the rigid application of standards called for in the prior guideline that turned physicians into detectives instead of caregivers. Third, the CDC acknowledged that the prior guidelines were widely misapplied and incorporated into state regulations, PBM audits, insurance policies, federal prosecutions, and DEA administrative hearings.
The AMA’s Reaction
Many will see the newly proposed CDC guidelines as a step in the right direction. But the AMA wants the CDC to go one step further and demands that the CDC to urge “all relevant state, national and federal stakeholders, including legislatures, regulators, health plans, pharmacy chains, and pharmacy benefit companies to remove all vestiges of inflexible numeric thresholds based on the 2016 Guideline”. The AMA also urges the CDC to “undertake a national marketing and communications campaign to make clear to the general-public, law enforcement, and all health care professionals that the final CDC 2022 Guideline should not be a replacement for clinical judgment or individualized, person-centered care.”
In the words of the AMA – “this would help restore the balance in pain care to show that opioid therapy is a legitimate form of treatment”.
The AMA also believes that the CDC needs to go further in order to help remove the stigma of opioid therapy for all patients. The AMA recognized that the 2016 Guidelines created widespread stigma of pain patients. Pharmacies abruptly cut off patients receiving opiates if their dosage was deemed too high, providers did the same when there was any sign of aberrant behavior, and diagnostic tools such as urine drug tests became a deciding factor in whether a patient would receive care. The AMA wants that stigma to end immediately because it recognizes the impact on the vulnerable pain community.
Where Do We Go From Here
Physicians are still being prosecuted for their prescribing decisions. Pain patients are still being “cut off” by their risk adverse providers for any slight sign of aberrant behavior. State regulators, insurance companies, Medicare, and PBMs still apply dosage limits to what they believe is “appropriate care”. The stain of the 2016 guidelines will not be immediately reversed even if the new proposed guidelines take effect. Prosecutors will continue to put “expert” witnesses on the stand and claim that the principles in the 2016 guidelines are longstanding principles ingrained into the practice of medicine in an attempt to hold providers accountable for failing to adhere to their subjective standard.
For now, the best avenue of relief is through the courts, administrative bodies, and tribunals securing individual victories on behalf of providers subjected to scrutiny for their failure to adhere to guidelines that are now severely in question – if not completely rebuked. When the new proposed guidelines come out, we must prevent their admission in cases against physicians and if an expert dare apply the guidelines against a particular physician the jury must know that these guidelines are not a replacement for patient centered care and shared decision-making.
And widespread relief in the courts may be on its way as the Supreme Court prepares its decision in Ruan v. United States.
Ronald Chapman II is the founder of Chapman, Dowling & Mallek and a top-rated Michigan federal criminal defense attorney who represents clients in federal courts nationwide. His practice is focused on defending individuals and organizations in complex federal prosecutions, including white-collar criminal matters and healthcare fraud investigations.
Throughout his career, Mr. Chapman has helped clients avoid more than $550 million in potential penalties, primarily in cases involving physicians, healthcare providers, executives, and professionals facing federal charges. He is widely recognized for his work as a Michigan healthcare fraud defense attorney, as well as for his results in white collar criminal defense in Michigan, where cases often involve parallel civil, regulatory, and criminal exposure.
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31 Comments
Exccellent
Amen!!
this would be awesome. Campaigning to correct the misinformed
The Harrison act of 1914 started this muddling mess by strictly controlling a proven over centuries of use, a safe plant based pain medicine. It then became a controlled substance prescribed by physicians, which makes the doctor's decision the final word. They are educated experts on the effects, dangers and standards of application. The FDA oversees the legal manufacture, monitors the strength and number of legally manufactured opioids. These two overseers are more than adequate for the clinical, safe and effective use of opioids as a medicine.The physician/patient relationship and care plan should not be overseen by the DEA in their efforts to show the American taxpayer that they're making great strides in stopping the opioid crisis by targeting patients and their physicians. It is lazy on the part of the DEA to pick the low hanging fruit; doctors and pain patients, as the source of the opioid crisis. Cartels are dangerous, organized, armed and psychopathic in their business practices, which makes them undesirable to arrest. Unfortunately, that is the work that the DEA was formed and funded to do by the federal government; stop the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S..Why are we still funding this very ineffective agency, which has shown abysmal success since its formation in the Nixon administration? This most recent debacle of ruining the careers of doctors and causing deaths of citizen pain patients, many of which were injured veterans, by imposing unscientific MME's is criminal. How and why the CDC accepted MME's as a standard is a mystery that needs to be fully explained. Their decision to not question, or investigate and ask for proof of MMEs, undermined and soiled the CDC's reputation. Four years later, millions of Americans refused and still refuse to accept the COVID vaccine, causing a longer pandemic, countless deaths and long hospitalizations. This was vastly different from previous generations of Americans' compliance and acceptance of vaccines, because the science was solid, their reputation was unblemished due to their sticking to disease as their focus. The CDC should adhere to solid science, double blind trials, and carefully evaluate their decisions, questioning why these sweeping restrictions are being applied and who is affected, short and long term. The big picture, not a knee jerk reaction.
Blurring illegal fentanyl use and its typical buyer; a teen -young adult recreational user, with medically diagnosed older adults -senior citizens under doctor supervised care, who have no connections to illegal procurement of fentanyl, is wildly insane. What a wicked mess our government agencies have made by veering away from facts, data and science in an attempt to solve a much bigger problem that is none of the CDC's business, but should be have been managed by the historically ineffective, misguided and lazy DEA. Now, the judicial courts are involved. History repeatedly shows that the biggest problems have been caused by ignorance and denial of science, ignorance of relevant, proven facts and its supporting solid data.
Note, my cousins granddaughter died after being given illegal fentanyl by her online date. If the DEA had been doing their job tracking illegal fentanyl instead of lazy, misguided indictments of doctors and senior citizen pain patients, she and others; Prince, Heath Ledger, Phillip Seymour Hoffman as examples, might still be with us. It's tragic and the agency we fund to prevent these deaths is grossly ineffective in it's plans and efforts.
We the pain patients are suffering due to these guidelines… we should not have to suffer
I couldn't say it better myself!!!!! This MUST happen! The suffering of patients is dishonorable & inhumane. So MANY lives ruined & patients injured & harmed by these 7 year long guidelines!!!!! Whose head is on the chopping block 4 this????? 7 years folks! 7 years. As a practicing nurse I have been fighting for exactly THIS!!!!! I agree wholeheartedly with the AMA. Thank you for speaking these truths as LIVES depend upon it!!!! Do I think the CDC cares or will do the right thing??? NOPE 7 years & they have yet to do the right thing! It's time to revoke these horrific guidelines for good!!!😡😭🇺🇸💔
I pray something happens soon, I live in fear that my daughter will end her own life due to pain. She was born with a kidney disease that continues to produce kidney stones. Constant blood in urine and UTI, she is 36yrs.old and getting tired of the pain. It makes me sick that no Dr. can or allowed to help her.
Please help those of us with chronic pain that are using our meds as prescribed and find relief. Personal responsibility needs to be taken seriously and let adults make their own decisions on what is best for their bodies and health.
I am a Registered Nurse working in a well known Hospital system in the state of Indiana. I am personally disgusted with how pain, acute or chronic, has been left untreated. I have seen traumas with multiple bone fractured being treated with Tylenol, Gabapentin, and a lidocaine patch. I personally took care of a patient with 14 large caliber gunshot wounds treated with the same medications. My own wife is a Systemic Lupus patient who was force weaned down to an eighth of her previous disease. They took a functioning person who is no longer able to function and have any of quality of life. She and her PCP were given no choice in the matter. The large Hospital system did not and would not fight on behalf of patients that visit their employees (PCP). I myself have been ashamed of the way people with pain have been treated and how biased experts have been allowed to apply incorrect studies to all pain patients. The drug Fentanyl has been applied incorrectly by biased media reporting. The Fentanyl that is prescribed by Doctors is not the same as the Carbafentanyl being mixed with heroine. Carbafentanyl is made in some building or garage under illegal circumstances. I say shame on the whole medical field that have allowed this biased treatment. The deaths have only increased since the 2016 CDC guidelines were implemented. I only wish I had the space to elaborate on how the CDC has damaged healthcare.
Please don't make people like myself, with chronic pain (fibromyalgia, lupus, migraines, to name a few) suffer. I am a responsible adult that takes my meds AS PRESCRIBED by my pain management doctor. This is nonsense and I wouldn't wish pain on ANY of you. Get your heads straight and think about the damage you are doing to us...the people in REAL PAIN.
Having lived the past 2 decades with progressive degenerative spinal anomalies, ie; Kyphoscoliosis, DDD, Spinal Stenosis, OA, Peripheral Neuropathy & Fibromyalgia - I can wholeheartedly attest to the fact medically supervised/ monitored Rx opiate therapy is a much needed & valuable part of my plan of care. Having utilized ALL alternative Tx modalities up to & including 5 spinal surgs, rendering my spine now (Titanium) fused from C3 > Sacrum/ Pelvic fixation. Yes, my ambulation ability was restored, however, the constant deep throbbing/ pulsating never-ending pain is still w/me.
My pain levels were adequately & effectively managed up until the 2016 Opiate Prescribing Guidelines became de-facto law ... even under treatment by Board Certified Pain Mgmt Specialist physicians. These days, I STRUGGLE & am in misery just completing ADL's, personal hygiene & meal prep.
Therefore, the management of pain should not be overseen by the CDC, DEA or DOJ, by exercising their biased, interest conflicted & corrupt judgement tactics.
Restore the decision-making about medications to only the medically educated Dr. & patient. The 'Guidelines' & any proposed updates should be REVOKED & completely ABOLISHED!
When you live with severe chronic widespread pain & inflammation throughout your spine n neck it's torture.. & when you try to live during this period without proper pain control, it's like a triple sword on fire piecing through your veins! Pain patients deserve to have proper pain control, not treating our pain, is not & never will be the right answer , our health n quality of life is what's important . Pain patients deserve the same respect as anyone else with health challenges.
Writing as a subject matter expert in public policy for regulation of prescription opioids and of clinicians who employ them, I have done a deep dive of the 211-page draft "revised" CDC guidelines. I characterize the draft as "A Little Shop of Horrors, Version 2.0". The supposed "improvements" identified by AMA and this article are illusory. As written, the draft guideline repeatedly admonishes doctors to perform a "risk versus benefits" analysis when first considering prescription opioids and any time increases in dose are contemplated. But buried deeply in the document where few non-lawyers will read it is explicit acknowledgement that there are no validated patient profiling tools for reliably accomplishing such an analysis. Moreover, the draft continues to assert that non-opioid therapies are "preferable" to opioids -- despite the fact that exhaustive review of literature reveals no trials of such non-opioid therapies as replacements for opioids. Seven out of twelve CDC recommendations are identified as "Category A" -- applicable to almost all patients by all doctors -- despite being founded upon very weak research evidence.
Any reasonable hospital or practice lawyer will see through these deliberate misinterpretations. The guidelines will continue to wreck the practice of pain medicine by alerting doctors that THEY are at risk if they prescribe opioid pain relievers to any patient for any reason.
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Congress must direct the CDC to cease, halt, and desist from generating "guidelines" for any branch of medical practice other than communicable disease. CDC and its public health "experts" have never treated patients in pain. They have neither the expertise nor the moral compass to direct treatment decisions between real doctors and their patients.
The CDC can't regulate medications or the "PRACTICE"of medicine! The CDC opioid prescribing guidelines have tremendously harmed chronic pain patients. Chronic pain patients are being FORCED to suffer inhumanely and cruelly. It's unnecessary. Opioids have been used for the treatment of pain for over 5,000 years. The CDC opioid prescribing guidelines are completely anti-opioid biased. There's no mention of the benefits of opioids for pain relief of moderate to severe pain. Improved function and Quality of Life. They would rather have inhumane and cruel suffering than give each individual human being a better quality of life. We only have one life. Stop making chronic pain patients prisoners to their pain and stop the torturing that's been allowed to happen since 2016! The treatment of pain is a basic human right. America should be proud it's becoming a 3rd world country for the treatment of pain. America went from being the so called #1 prescribing country for opioids to #8! Meanwhile, illicit fentanyl poisoning overdoses and deaths have skyrocketed. The CDC pushed the false narrative/propaganda of prescription opioids causing the overdoses and death. Showing pill bottles and pills. No illicit fentanyl and illegal drugs. Just recently, enough illicit fentanyl was confiscated that could kill every American! Let that sink in CDC. And all the unnecessary suicides caused by the disastrous CDC opioid prescribing guidelines!
Chronic and intractable pain patients are medically dependent on opioid medication. Drug addicts are not medically dependent on opioid medication. The groups have nothing to do with the other. They should have never been included together in any consideration of any kind. The focus and pushed agenda of opioid abuse by the CDC guidelines has harmed every pain patient. Yes, this should be addressed in the courts, to remove all of the harms that have been created because of them and make sure every doctor and pharmacy is informed that pain patient can get medication they need. Also, to increase domestic opioid medication production to pre-guidelines levels to prevent shortages and provide compensation for the patents and families affected.
As a licensed Pharmacist with decades of experience in dealing with chronic pain pts...Any effort that references the MME system should be declared worthless, as this article clearly explains... https://www.acsh.org/news/2022/03/01/true-story-morphine-milligram-equivalents-mme-16154 The MME system has NO SCIENCE nor any double blind clinical study behind it. The MME system is not - and never has been - referenced in FDA professional prescribing literature. It was cobbled together back in the 70's & 80's when opiate rotation was in vogue, as a means to facilitate moving a pt from one opiate to another to address a perceived tolerance by the pt to a opiate that they had been taking for some time. I find it both humorous and pathetic that the MME system is suppose to give a reference to a particular medication ability to provide pain management, yet physicians today are recommending pts take a NSAID or Acetaminophen and none of those medications have a MME value assigned to them. Maybe because the max recommended dose of those meds, the MME may not reach a "1" when a pt is dealing with moderate to severe acute or chronic pain. For a pt to use them long term at max recommended dose could cause kidney or liver damage and long term under treatment of chronic could lead a pt to have Addison's disease and/or complications to numerous comorbidity issue. As well as hypertension that regular "blood pressure meds" will not lower and often leaving a pt in a hypertensive crisis level with their pressure being north of 200/100... putting the pt at risk of strokes, heart attack, eye & kidney damage. Under treated pain can cause the pt to develop anxiety & depression and potential suicides. Last year there was two settlements for what I have labeled as "prescriber induced suicide" because the pt with severe chronic pain had their pain meds reduced... one settlement was for SEVEN MILLION and the second was for ONE MILLION. IMO, the large healthcare corporations don't fear chronic pts, because few pts have been able to take them to court and take some money out of their "deep pockets" for the damage they have done to so many pts' quality of life.
Those of us with chronic pain have been treated horribly since the 2016 CDC guidelines came out. It's way overdue to correct the harm and great suffering they have created in this country. Opiates have been used for centuries to help people with health issues that cause chronic pain! Doctor's and provider's everywhere are scared to prescribe opioids when they're called for. The DEA isn't doing their job at controlling the flow of illicit fentanyl coming into the country from China and Mexico. What happened? Patient's that were using opioids to control their pain were forced to wean down or completely off their medications. I am one of those people. We're being blamed for the opioid crisis. I am 68 and have had very painful conditions since I was eleven years old. I am not an addict nor have I ever used my medications against doctor's orders. My mother was an RN and she knew I needed pain relief badly. No one had to tell me when to take them and when to stop. I used them as NEEDED. The CDC guidelines have only made it much more difficult to receive the proper amount (I've been cut down from my normal dosage because it was a bit over the 50 mme's the CDC has been pushing.) Some of my pain changes from day to day. Most of it stays the same or is becoming worse. My provider didn't need to cut me, but the group she works with has taken the guidelines as law.
People with painful conditions should not be held to any type of dosage limits. That should be between the patient and doctor. The damage that's been done is going to be historical. It's been absolutely outrageous the way human beings are being forced to live with excruciating pain after surgeries, accidents, and existing conditions. The harm has been done. It's widespread and undeniable. What happened to "Do no harm" and life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? I truly hope that the AMA can set the record straight. Abolish any mention of the CDC mme restrictions! Get government out of our doctor's office! It will bring much relief to millions of those suffering. Myself included. Thank you for hearing our thoughts and feelings.
The 2016 recommendations caused a wildfire. It cautioned against its misapplication, as the 2022 iteration does a bit stronger. After six years of the hard limit applied universally, the 2022 draft DOES NOT address that impact whatsoever! No matter how innocent & unintentional, they shouldn’t repeat that incendiary document! They must repeal the 2016 Guideline & 2022 draft and stop covering up the adverse events they caused and correct their Coding lies as Congress mandated in 2018! Instead of correcting what misled the nation to begin with they worked on more lies and deceit by setting the same fire, with an even more evil 50MME/day limit!
I am a 63 year old female who has been treated for chronic pain for 19 years. I have seen 3 doctors in all those years, who have prescribed my pain medication. I have NEVER violated my opioid medication, testing on a regular basis to prove I am taking medication as prescribed, above reproach! I seriously doubt I would have been allowed by ANY doctor to continue treatment had I violated my medication in any way! Since the 2016 CDC Guidelines, I have been forcibly tapered off my medication. I understood my Pain Specialist was under scrutiny from the DEA and the CDC for prescribing opioid medication. I have been seeing that Pain Specialist for 7 years and have a positive, trusting relationship with him. In March, the DEA revoked his license to prescribe opioid medication. Prior to my scheduled appointment in March, I was notified another practice had taken over his, and would be seeing all his pain patients at their next appointment. The new doctors, cut 95% of my former doctors patients off of their opioid medication, cold turkey. I have been suffering incredible pain, not to mention devastating withdrawal symptoms of the pain medication I have been taking for 19 years! The practice of cutting patients off of long term opioid medication is so dangerous, and should be illegal. It is a complete and total result of the 2016 Guidelines. I detest the CDC and the DEA and have lost complete faith in my Government for allowing this to happen to pain patients. The 2016 Guidelines are a total sham and the 2022 Guidelines are no different. The CDC has admitted they have been misapplied, but not loudly enough to make a difference to the doctors who have cut patients off of medication without taper. Shame on them!!! I know the patients at my (past) Pain Specialists practice are only a few of the millions of pain patients who have experienced this. How can the government of this country allow this to happen? I am trying to find a new Pain Specialist, however I've been treated like a drug addict with no help.. I have no quality of life. I do not want to think this is the future of my existence! The CDC Guidelines must be abandoned!
I am a former long haul truck driver who became permanently disabled at 52 due to spinal degeneration. I began experiencing severe sciatica due to the nerves in my spine being pinched. The pain was so severe I could not stand to cook meals for my family or wash dishes and the worst part was I couldn’t go on family outings with my children and Grandchildren. I sough help from many doctors who prescribed many different non-opioid treatments. None of them touched my pain. After 3 years of trying everything to mitigate the pain, armed with recent MRI images, I made an appointment with a pain management specialist. Based on all the verification of my medical history, they prescribed opiate pain relievers. I went from a housebound 55 year old to a vibrant woman who was given a second chance to have a more enjoyable almost pain free life. I followed the doctors orders to a T and even agreed to have a Lumbar Epidural Spinal Injection. It provided approximately 25% decrease in my pain level. This only lasted about 3 months. I was able to start walking around my neighborhood and lost 70 pounds. Then, the CDC took it upon themselves to ruin the trusted doctor-patient relationship I had with my pain management physician. After the devastating and foolish 2016 guidelines were issued, the staff at the pain management practice I had been going to started to have conversations at every visit about tapering the medication that allowed me to not function as a cripple. Altogether I had 3 spinal injections, the last of which was excruciatingly painful and did nothing. At the last visit which was in January of 2021, I was given an ultimatum. Agree to a 4th spinal injection or have the medication abruptly stopped. I had become aware that those injections are not even FDA approved and have caused serious adverse effects in some patients. I did not appreciate the fact that I no longer had any input into my own healthcare decisions. As a child, I stood every school day and pledged allegiance to the United States of America and everything it stood for. Never in my nightmares did I ever imagine the leaders who are in office to insure the wellbeing of every citizen in America could and would cause such suffering of innocent law abiding citizens. I have given up trying to find a compassionate pain management doctor. The ones who cared either no longer care or have been arrested and lost their license. Shame on the CDC and the DEA for causing our suffering. We are NOT criminals or addicts. We are human beings who are in real pain.
Is about time the AMA stood up to the CDC. There is no excuse for the way Chronic Pain Warriors and Pain Management Physicians have been left behind by the CDC and the AMA. The effects of the 2016 Guidelines were totally predictable. I have never violated my relationship with my Pain Management Team but I am being tapered and my physician is simply apologetic. Apologies don’t reduce pain. Please focus on the totality of the Opioid issue. There is a big difference between Prescription medications and illicit street drugs.
This is excellent! I read the AMA Comment but I wish I'd seen it before the comment session ended for CDC guidelines. Both were a very hopeful read and I just hope CDC listens and applies what real doctors are saying if they have to put their bs out at all!
It's going to take a very long time to reverse this travesty CDC has created. I don't care what Kolodny says they were all complicit in creating guidelines for their own nefarious agendas! They're trying to say all these pain groups are from big pharma. I have participated with many of these groups and know of many more but haven't heard of one that's with big pharma. Man I hope to God they can get the innocent docs out of prison and others get their DEA registrations back, etc. I'm a cpp who has been severely affected by the guidelines myself. I just hope I can survive long enough to come out the other end and have some quality of life once again plus I know it would actually add some years to my life when I can get out of my bed and ease the stress, etc., of this never ending debilitating pain! CDC guidelines are the only thing killing me faster than my medical physical condition! Maybe that was their plan after all being as they're not listening or hearing the cries of the less fortunate who have not chosen this life!
I'm suffering and being tortured to death.
I can not take this pain anymore its killing me. I need help. Please stand up for pain patients and our veterans who are crying and begging for help. Chronic pain is the worst pain imaginable that never stops.
the CDC guidelines have ripped away our pain medications that we desperately need to live and get pain relief. These pain medications are miracle for us to get pain relief 💔 this should of never happen to us .
If doctors, surgeons, medical professionals would of fought for us in the beginning we would of not suffered and lost so many innocent pain Patients to suicide 😢.
I was taken down on my pain medications when new pain doctor took over the pain center in 2008 he started taking pain patients down on their pain medications. It was terrible you could hear pain patients cry and beg to not force them down on life saving pain medications. I've been out here crying and begging for help 😢 I'm in so much pain I can't do anything or take care of my self and I'M alone. I'm in suicide pain.
This doctor does not care. No other pain center around. Is there a doctor out there who will help me ...please
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH WHO FOUGHT FOR OUR LIVES AND RIGHTS 💞🌹🙏
Your generalization of who is affected by pain and who generally is an addict is not true at all. Signed, a young person, who is stocking up for the numerous young population of pain patients. Disease can hit at any age, pain and disease do not discriminate.
I have been looking at legal assisted suicide options. Vermont seems to be the winner. Before the summer of 2022 is out if things don't change NOW! I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANY LONGER! SEVERE OSTEOARTHRITIS IN ALL MY MAJOR JOINTS, BACK AND NECK! Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency caused by steroids to treat it. I CAN'T TAKE IT MUCH LONGER. I get little to no sleep and now have developed ocular migraines. SOMEONE HELP US... PLEASE!!!
There is mention in the new guidelines that 50 MME daily is enough to treat anyone’s pain. That any dosage higher is superfluous. That if a physician has any doubts they can look at the proof from WA state, and “how well it was implemented there”. My fear is that now patients that are already living in torture at only 90 MME, are going to be tortured even more as the anti-opioid zealots go after anyone prescribing above that 50 MME mark.
I was greatly saddened by the fact that there were not millions of comments made on the new CDC Guidelines. There should have been comments by millions of physicians. And the millions of patients, their families, friends, and caregivers. But there weren’t. Have most physicians “drunk the koolaid”? I understand not wanting to lose everything one has worked for. I understand the fear of that, and the fear of prison. But, supposedly their is strength in numbers. We needed every pain physician to step up and stand up for their patients.
We patients are paying for substandard care, and substandard care from our insurance companies also. It’s time, we, as consumers stand up and fight for our rights. I hate that I have incurable conditions, that I require medical care, and physicians to maintain my health. If it wasn’t for my family still wanting me, and needing me, I would boycott insurance participation, and western healthcare as a whole.
My story and living with 2 chronic pain diseases is life altering, then they cut you because of big pharma, insurance not wanting to be sued??? Political get their Dark money and we suffer needlessly... I can't do this much longer, I can't live, eat, sleep, I do cry, and deal with this horrific pain in silence.. What is there to say? I'm dying, I know it, down to 90 lbs from 130.. My Crps spread to 2 internal organs, and my deg disc disease 12 the operation put on covid hold 2 yrs ago. Migraine now every day! Your body just can't take all this! No Dr, is willing to have the DEA on them, one size fits all!! Sorry not working for me, I've never failed a urine, never ran out etc:: going on 19 years now, i🙏 for my life back, but short of a miracle I won't be here to see one.. Family, they are as upset as me, and feel helpless in doing anything, because they can't!! Cdc is a govt arm if it wasn't apparently true before covid it is now! Teachers Unions keeping schools closed, and CDC allowed them to run the show!! Everyone has lost confidence in anything they say, wonder why??
What really angers me is the ONLY factor being taken into consideration by the CDC when stating that non-opioids are preferable to opioids is a risk--risk, not certainty--of addiction. Shouldn't "preferable" mean whatever works best for the patient with the least side effects? If a patient is suffering from severe pain and an opioid is the only drug that works as long as the patient takes it as prescribed (which the vast majority do), what is the problem? The CDC would "prefer" that same patient take a non-opioid that doesn't work and may cause liver or kidney damage? How is that "preferable"? "Hey, bummer your liver is shot and your pain was never addressed, but hey! Look at the bright side! At least you weren't at any risk--however slight--of addiction! Woo hoo!"
Morons.
I wish I could attach a response from the CDC and their admittance of wrong doing and how they hope to change it. They emailed me directly and I'd like to share this with this attorney as it also states and I quote " Please note: CDC is not authorized to diagnose, treat, prescribe, provide referrals, or otherwise give personal medical advice" I'm just wondering how they are able to break the law where 100 of thousands of us pain patients are either going to the streets or committing suicide because those are our ONLY two options? Please help!!