Perspectives in Pain

This book chronicles one doctor's journey to understanding the challenges faced by patients with chronic pain and addiction and the persecution of physicians striving to alleviate their suffering. In the United States today, millions of patients with severe chronic pain and addiction are being denied proper care by their doctors. Not because of evidence-based principles but because their doctors are afraid. Leading to abandonment and death due to counterfeit medications laced with fentanyl and xylazine. In this book, the author reflects on his childhood and military background, explaining the roots of his skepticism about federal law enforcement's ability to self-regulate and outlining how easily the government can infringe on individual liberties. The federal prosecutor's focus has moved from doctors selling prescriptions with criminal intent to physicians truly trying to save the lives of complicated patients. While doctors who truly have criminal intent should be held accountable, the government extends its persecution beyond these cases, spending millions of taxpayer dollars on fake patients and undercover operatives who deceive to obtain prescriptions. These true criminals are given a free pass while government-paid witnesses argue to medically inexperienced juries that seeking treatment is synonymous with drug-seeking, that physical dependence equals addiction, and that patients with abnormal drug screens must be "fired" and denied effective care. This approach aims to turn physicians into agents of the state, reminiscent of the Soviet societies so many Americans fought to protect this nation from, and in the process, criminalizes the compassionate and effective practice of medicine in the United States. Through detailed articles and clear explanations of chronic pain and addiction science, this book helps both laypersons and experts understand the current challenges we face. The facts are that addiction can be treated more successfully than high blood pressure or diabetes. Severe chronic pain can be made tolerable by the compassionate application of effective medications. And America does not need law enforcement to determine who is worthy of what medical treatment. While there is a need to be more cautious when we start patients on opiate medications, simply cutting patients off once started predisposes them to death by overdose and suicide. The federal government does not have the right to dictate the practice of medicine in America. But they have the power to do it anyway unless enough people come to understand the science behind the decisions that doctors are making and demand a right to private, compassionate, and effective medical treatment in America. To aid in this understanding, this book covers the subjects of medical training, genetics, epigenetics, medications for pain and addiction, reversal agents, and the neuroscience of addiction and chronic pain.