Siobhan Reynolds, head of the pain patient and doctor advocacy group the Pain Relief Network, has been targeted for a grand jury invest

The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is beginning a "massive new program" to reduce overdoses, diversion, and inappropriate use of powerful opioid pain relievers, especially targeting extended-

Acting on a petition from the public interest group Public Citizen, a Food & Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel last Friday voted narrowly to recommend that a widely used opioid pain medi

We haven't reported lately on the issue of under-treatment of pain, so this weekend day seemed like a good time to link to a couple of the sites whose people labor in trenches of the pain struggle every day.

First, the war on pain doctors continues, with the latest major battle being that of Wichita-area Dr. Stephen Schneider and his wife Linda Schneider. The Schneiders were charged with the deaths of 56 patients by over-prescribing pain medications, but the judge has now limited the case to just four. My guess is that most of these patients passed due to the medical issues that led them to seek treatment, just as one would expect to happen in any medical practice that takes on seriously ill patients; and that a few might have needed the drugs for pain but misused them (as one would also expect to happen sometimes). I haven't examined the case closely enough for that to be more than a guess, but it's an educated guess, as that is usually what is going on in these pain doctor trials. Visit the Pain Relief Network news update page for info.

How have things come to this? Big topic, but Dr. Alex DeLuca has a post last week on his "War on Doctors / Pain Crisis" blog, "The Distortion of Medicine and Confusion of Standards," that goes into some of it. A key part of the problem is that while modern pain management textbooks recommend "titration to effect" -- e.g. "gradually increasing the opioid dose until the pain is relieved or until untreatable side effects prevent further dosage increase" -- most doctors just don't do that. And so patients in ongoing, serious pain go without adequate treatment.

This makes the typical standard of pain care below medical standards. But it also means that doctors who wrongly believe they shouldn't be relieving a patient's pain are available to testify in trials for the prosecution -- hence the Schneider trial and many others. Even when the defense brings in experts to testify as to what the expert view really is, it creates confusion that can lead to false convictions. This is in fact what happened in the famous William Hurwitz case. DeLuca goes into this in more detail in an interview filmed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, linked to in his post, so check it out.

Another physician victim of the pain wars, Dr. William Mangino, recently submitted a Reply Brief in the appeal of his case. He is imprisoned in Pennsylvania, and he wrote the brief himself. It paints a pretty terrible picture of the what the government is doing in these cases. Dr. Mangino sent us a copy, via one of his friends, and we've posted it here.

Millions of people worldwide are suffering unnecessarily from treatable pain, Human Rights Watch said in a report

Open to the public; sponsored by Floridians for Criminal Justice Reform, Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), November Coalition and Pain Relief Network.

Medical marijuana patients are routinely discriminated against in medical settings.

A study released this week charted a startling increase in deaths from "fatal medical errors," particularly those associated with people mixing street drugs and alcohol with prescription medication

The Pain Relief Network (PRN), a nonprofit organization waging a lonely battle to protect the rights of doctors who prescribe opioid pa

As always, we ask that you help PRN fight to protect the rights of patients and the doctors who treat them. Please click the link below.

Link

Pain Treatment Advocacy Group Sues State of WA

Jun 25, 2008

By: Donna Gordon Blankinship

The Associated Press SEATTLE - A pain treatment advocacy group filed suit Wednesday in federal court to challenge the restrictions Washington state officials have put on prescription pain medication.

The nonprofit Pain Relief Network says the guidelines for prescribing narcotics, written by the Washington state Department of Health and published in March 2007, have influenced pain treatment across the country and have made doctors afraid to give opiate prescriptions[...]

Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, Damages a class action lawsuit by Laura Cooper (lead attorney) et al., Filed: 2008-06-24

Exhibit 1: The WA state Opioid Dosing "Guidelines" by Agency Medical Directors Group (AMDG); Mar. 2007; Filed 2008-06-24

Exhibit 2: Findings of Fact Laura Cooper, Esq.; Filed 2008-06-24 www.painreliefnetwork.org

Lawyers for a Haysville, Kansas, physician facing a 34-count federal indictment alleging he acted as a drug dealer in prescribing pain medications fought back last Friday, filing in federal court <

Schneider Defense Calls DOJ Prosecution Unconstitutional: Read the Briefs

As always, we ask that you help PRN fight to protect the rights of patients and the doctors who treat them. Please click the link below.

Schneider defense calls DOJ prosecution Unconstitutional

This case is an effort by the federal government to define and regulate the practice of medicine masquarading as a criminal prosecution. This case should not be about whether Dr. Schneider fell short of the standard of care for certain patients, but whether he engaged in the legitimate practice of medicine [...]

Memorandum of points and authorities in support of the defendants' joint motion for absention

The federal government has usurped the authority of the State of Kansas to regulate medicine within the State by bringing a halt to its regulatory process, and assuming that authority, impermissibly, through the federal criminal process. If any part of the Indictment is not dismissed as unconstitutional or otherwise defective, this Court should abstain, allowing the State process to run its course [...]

Competetive Enterprise Institute Joins Pain Relief Network in the battle against untreated pain

May 16, 2008
Cei.orgToday, millions of Americans live in chronic pain, without adequate access to prescription pain medications, because their doctors are too afraid of being harassed or even arrested by the Drug Enforcement Administration to prescribe sufficient doses. Everyone agrees that doctors should not be using their positions to supply addicts with narcotics or feed the illicit drug market. Many doctors, however, have been arrested or threatened with loss of their medical licenses simply for prescribing opiate-based pain medications in doses that federal drug authorities believe are too high [...]

www.painreliefnetwork.org

Federal prosecutors in the case of Haysville, Kansas, physician Dr.

As part of its 2007 Annual Report, released Wednesday, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) issu

In a drama that has been played out all too many times across the country in recent years, the Justice Department's campaign against prescription drug abuse -- if you can call it that -- came in cr

Haysville, Kansas, physician Dr.

A new study has found that while emergency room prescribing of opioid pain medications for ER patients complaining of pain has increased in recent years, doctors are less likely to prescribe them f