Good News on Pain Management
Physicians and patients working through the distressing process of how to best manage pain – both safely and effectively – have good reason to be hopeful. In what comes as ‘very good’ health care news, it was announced yesterday that TR Processing, a botanical-derivative manufacturer, served as the Cannabidiol (CBD) supplier for a clinical trial evaluating CBD safety and impact on post-operative pain. More options to best manage pain could be on the horizon.
For medical progress to advance, patients require innovative therapies and medicines to deal with pain. What’s needed for better patient outcomes is a diversity of pain options and treatments. And progress has been slow. Policymakers and health care practitioners have struggled to control America’s crushing opioid crisis. The most recent report of fatal drug overdoses from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirms that America suffered more than 100,000 overdose fatalities in 2021.
The horrific overdose numbers come after the 2016 CDC guideline for prescribing opioids for chronic pain was released. The CDC recommendations were issued to combat the overdose crisis. However, the opioid crisis has only worsened. The nearly 108,000 fatalities in 2021 is a far worse number than in 2017, when President Trump declared drug deaths a public-health emergency. With pain management, opioid prescriptions, and overdoses, we have been progressively advancing backwards – i.e., the wrong direction.
Central to the CDC’s 2016 guideline report is the recommendation to limit the number of opioid prescriptions doctors could provide. Consequently, many doctors – fearful over possible adverse consequences – have moved their patients off of the medications that have successfully worked to control pain. We have the worst of both worlds. That is, more opioid overdoses even as doctors stop prescribing opioids to patients who desperately need them.
Physicians Richard Menger and Jeffrey Singer recently wrote in Reason:
“Because the government and medical boards limit surgeons' ability to prescribe opioids, surgeons, like us, can no longer treat a patient's complex pain using our best clinical judgment without administrative oversight. This system builds a wall between patients and their doctors, creating an adverse environment. This is not what we expected when we took the Hippocratic oath.”
For this reason, the TR Processing/clinical trial announcement is absolute welcomed news in the advancement of medical progress. Former President Bill Clinton – cited in the TR Processing press statement – said, “The Clinton Foundation has worked for years to reduce opioid addiction and deaths. To succeed, we need non-addictive alternatives to pain management. The results of the trial conducted by NYU Langone, with TRP’s CBD ingredient, are very encouraging and I’m eager to see the results of the next round.”
The Opioid epidemic has raged in the background during the Covid-19 pandemic. What’s more, during the Covid crisis, the public health community was distracted by a number of unprecedented controversies– from extended lockdowns and school closures to mask mandates and nursing home directives. Added to the pandemic polemics is the CDC data showing an excess of 100,000 overdose deaths in 2021.
New methods, ingredients, treatments, and medications are desperately needed… yesterday. This is why the TR Processing/NYU Langone clinical trial is such goods news today.
Jerry Rogers is the editor of RealClearHealth and the host of the 'Jerry Rogers Show' on WBAL NewsRadio. Follow him on Twitter @JerryRogersShow.
