Promising Results for New Trigeminal Neuralgia Drug - National Pain Report
http://bit.ly/1uzi9kP
This is a novel compound, not a patent extension or reformulation. It's another sodium channel blocker, but it is being specifically developed for Trigeminal Neuralgia. I doubt this will be a game changer, but I do believe that having another treatment option has the potential to help many people.
Pills for Breakfast: Five Things I Wish I Knew Sooner About Chronic Pain- National Pain Report
http://bit.ly/1uVOIve
I'm sure we all have many things we'd line to add (feel free to list them in the comments below), but this it's a great article.
Steve
FDA Approves New Opioid Addiction Treatment - National Pain Report
http://bit.ly/1oQMbPd
This isn't a new drug, just a new formulation of buprenorphine, but it's worth noting anyway.
Some of you may be wondering why I'm paying about an addiction treatment and it's a valid question. As pain patients, we are constantly grouped with addicts and we need to stay informed. Also, some PMs have prescribed Suboxone for pain, which is stupid because buprenorphine only treats pain with doses below 0.3mg/300mcg per day (Butrans is the only buprenorphine product capable of treating pain). The reason why doses above 2mg don't work for pain is that buprenorphine is a partial mu-opioid agonist (it acts like naloxone/Narcan and naltrexone at high doses and blocks opioids).
If we don't know the names of these addiction treatments, PMs can lie to to us.
SUBOXONE, BUNAVAIL, BUPRENEX, SUBUTEX, ZUBSOLV, AND ALL GENERIC BUPRENORPHINE PRODUCTS ARE FOR ADDICTION TREATMENT ONLY, DO NOT TAKE THEM FOR PAIN. Buprenorphine pills aren't for pain, only buprenorphine patches treat pain.
Steve
Generic Celebrex (celecoxib) Approved by FDA- National Pain Report
http://bit.ly/UhqsXD
While the prices will drop a little once these are available, the real price drop will occur in about six months, when multiple generics become available for each strength (Teva has exclusivity on 100mg, 200mg, & 400mg celecoxib & Mylan has exclusive marketing rights for 50mg celecoxib).
Of course, for insured patients, generics typically have a set generic copay and the only price drop they'll see is in their copay.
For uninsured patients, multiple generic manufacturers are a necessity because they have no price insulation.
Don't forget to ALWAYS use an Rx discount card for any prescription not covered by your insurance (if you have any).
Also, the Partnership for Prescription Assistance can help you find programs that offer free & discount drugs (my wife gets 30 Duragesic per month for $0.00, courtesy of Johnson & Johnson (owner of Janssen) thanks to PPARx.
http://pparx.org
My Story: The Dark Side of the Anti-Opioid Campaign - National Pain Report
http://bit.ly/1unVrhi
This article, and the comments, really say it all. The anti-opioid propagandists are doing nothing to fight drug addiction, but their restrictions are destroying HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of lives. Even the lucky few who have prescriptions are afraid to sneeze wrong or risk being cold turkeyed.
Bill Would Force Drug Makers to Make Painkillers Tamper Resistant- National Pain Report
http://bit.ly/1kYSnVB
I know that this story is about two years old, but there is talk of reviving this bill in light of the Zohydro (non-tamper-resistant hydrocodone ER).
There are several problems with tamper-resistant opioids:
1) tamper-resistant opioids don't always work as well (or at all)- they're tested on healthy people who have an easier time absorbing them (the healthy people have to absorb them within a 30% tolerance)
2) they don't stop people from abusing them, but it does weaken the "high", which causes them to go to diacetylmorphine/diamorphine/heroin
3) they increase pharmacy prices, which makes it harder for pain patients to afford their medications
3b) increased pharmacy prices lead to increased street prices, which causes addicts (& sometimes even pain patients) to switch to heroin
3c) street heroin has unknown potency, unknown impurities, & poor oral absorption causing people to resort to intravenous injections
The ONLY way to reduce the harm caused by drug addiction is to switch from the law enforcement model to a treatment based model and to LEGALIZE ALL DRUGS (private prisons and the DEA would lose money, so they spend a small fortune fighting this). Legalization (& the drop in prices that this would cause) would eliminate the violence, crime, and disease (people inject heroin because it HA poor oral absorption & injecting is cheaper- same high from less drug; legal drugs also lack the dangerous impurities found in street heroin).
Miss Understood: The Ungrateful - National Pain Report
http://bit.ly/1kli7qr
So many people around us take for granite their health, even with us as constant reminders. They make underhanded comments/remarks about being on disability/not having to work and how they have no free time because they actually work. If course what they fail to realize is that being in chronic pain, or having any chronic illness is like having fulltime job with erratic mandatory overtime.
Because there original post basically says everything that needs to be said, I'm going to leave you with that.
Steve
P.S. Please remember to click the red post you'll title (this post title says "Miss Understood: The Ungrateful" in bright red) everytime you read a post from the homepage. They're are three reasons that I ask for this:
1) It allows you to read the comments
2) that page allows you to add your own comments, which I HIGHLY encourage
3) It allows my Google Analytics to tell me how many times reach page is loaded & allows me to judge popularity of individual posts
Thank you
A Pained Life: I Know You Can Read - National Pain Report
This article really says it all, so I'm just going to ask you to read it and leave it at that.
-Steve
Miss Understood: Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst- National Pain Report
http://bit.ly/1mAWCcR
"I used to think if I packed a hospital bag I was basically giving up hope that my doctor would be able to find a quick fix and send me home. It was like if I went in thinking I might be staying, then I must want that for myself. But over the years I've done away with that superstition.
It's like when someone is waiting for test results. They hope everything is great and that they have a clean bill of health, but they also prepare themselves in the event they get bad news."
Living with Pain: The DEA’s War on Pain Patients Reaches California | American News Report
"The DEA is using a meat cleaver when a scalpel would do. To simply cut off pharmacies without first determining the nature of the customers being served suggests something more sinister."
Pills for Breakfast: Dear Stupid - National Pain Report
http://bit.ly/1ji4mN4
Doctors are stupid, especially the ones at Mayo, UPenn, Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic, and all of the other "must go" hospitals. I was never treated worse than when I went to Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, MD), UPenn (Philadelphia, PA), and Milton S Hershey Medical Center (Hershey, PA). They give up on us the second we get complicated.
FDA Commissioner: Zohydro Won’t Increase Drug Abuse - National Pain Report
http://bit.ly/1ji539p
This is common sense, but we all know how rare "common" sense is.
New Life for Old Injectable MS Drug - National Pain Report
http://bit.ly/SeALL3
This reincarnation may be a improvement in dosing and patient, but the vast majority of these drugs are just insurance funnels meant to drain our premium dollars. We as patients must always be careful not to jump on the newest drug simply because it is the newest drug. Lunesta/eszopiclone is just the left hand isomer of zopiclone/Imovane/Zimovane/Imrest, which is in the same class as all of the Z-drugs (like zolpidem/Ambien). Levocetirizine/Xyzal is just Zyrtec/cetirizine. Lexapro/escitalopram is the patent extension for Celexa/citalopram. Pristiq/desvenlafaxine is the patent extension for Effexor/venlafaxine. Prevacid and AcipHex are "me too" drugs for and Nexium/esomeprazole ("The Healing Purple Pill") is just the active half of omeprazole/Prilosec ("The Purple Pill"). Of course, none of these are inherently superior, just more expensive.
Steve
New Fibromyalgia Blood Test is 99% Accurate - National Pain Report
http://bit.ly/1foViqE
Once this test is finally covered by insurance, the price will really drop, and clinical trials will actually be limited to Fibromyalgia patients and there is a chance that will finally get an FDA approved drug that treats Fibromyalgia (not the <10% effective psychiatric drugs that we have today).
FDA Warns about Epidurals - National Pain Report
http://bit.ly/1iq0mdA
I can't tell you how many people were FORCED into these injections so that crooked doctors could make big money from insurance and avoid prescribing opioids. This NEVER would have been an issue if it wasn't for a combination a Opiophobia and greed/for profit healthcare.
Marijuana Rated Most Effective for Treating Fibromyalgia - National Pain Report
http://bit.ly/1mGkviy
With 10% of patients getting relief from FDA approved "Blockbuster" drugs and well over half of Fibromyalgia patients getting relief from cannabis, why spend ~$300/month for toxic drugs when safe, all natural cannabis can be grown at home for roughly free?
Simply...
Drug companies make billions by keeping cannabis illegal through corruption & big money in politics
The most effective drugs don't get approved without patent protection (cannabis, ibogaine, and countless others)
The worst part is that cannabis is the safest drug of all time (ZERO deaths in the thousands and thousands of years of recorded use) and Cymbalta/duloxetine, Lyrica/pregabalin, and Savella/milnacipran kill countless people every year.
Judge Overturns Massachusetts Ban on Zohydro - National Pain Report
Apparently, I missed this while sick with an eight day stomach bug, but in case you've missed it Zohydro AND compounded hydrocodone are both available in Massachusetts. The judge set a powerful precedent, and I'd personally thank her for using her brain and not giving in to opiophobic propaganda and paranoia.