Barry Meier, a reporter for the New York Times, has written several important and enlightening books on the topic of painkillers, including Painkiller: A “Wonder” Drug’s Trail of Addiction and Death and A World of Hurt: Fixing Pain Medicine’s Biggest Mistake.
Washington
The Washington State Agency Medical Directors website harbors some progressive thinking on the matter of dealing with dependency on opioid painkillers. It’s kind of technical, but worth inspecting. While you’re on the site, click on the PDF called Cautious, Evidence-Based Opioid Prescribing.
California
Penney Cowan, the founder and director of the American Chronic Pain Association, provides a constructive, non-opioid painkiller perspective for patients here.
Missouri
I met Dr. Heidi Prather, D.O., Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Neurology and Co-Director Director of Orthopaedic Spine Center at Washington University School of Medicine, at a spine surgery conference where many of the other doctors (mostly surgeons) did everything they could to avoid me. Dr. Prather and I chatted for a couple of hours about her interests – women’s health; in particular, low back pain, radiculopathy, sacroiliac joint pain and pelvic dysfunction. A few weeks later, I had a woman call her who had been scheduled to undergo a two-level spinal fusion…but who turned out not to need any type of surgery. It can be tough to get a hold of Dr. Prather – her office tends to put people off, telling them she only sees dancers and athletes. Not true. If you’re in the St. Louis area, keep trying, because it’s worth it.
