An amazingly informative video prepared and submitted by St. Michael’s Hospital physician Dr. Irfan Dhalla for the FDA. In the video are some very scary statistics about Opioid misuse in Ontario. Among the statistics Dr. Dhalla points out: As many as 33% of opioid patients meet the criteria for an opioid use disorder Elderly patients [...]
Purdue Pharma, makers of Oxycontin, are weeks away from having one of their most controversial and addictive pain killers become generic – or in other words having a formula that other drug companies can use and sell with no brand name for less. Think of it like Mr. Christie being the only baker able to [...]
There are a number of media outlets covering the story of Oxycontin and the generic formula. Two worth reading, both of which are through the National Post: The first is a news article, by Sharon Kirkey, and paints a very clear, balanced and detailed picture of the issue and debate. If you want to understand [...]
We took this photo a few weeks ago on one of the evenings before we opened. It’s been on Facebook and gotten very positive feedback, so we thought it would post it here too. The area will be used as a focused space for patients recovering from procedures, infusion therapy, and as a clinic space [...]
If older pain patients take Opiodis, research shows it can dramatically alter their lives, and not necessarily for the better. The first line of treatment should be non-opioid based, in many cases. KevinMD.com posted a great blog about it, written by Steven Reznick, MD. A 2010 research paper in the Archives of Internal Medicine looked [...]
There are some very interesting studies being published about the link between migraine headaches and increasing likelihood of suicide: From a pool of 4,765 persons randomly screened in the community (Detroit, Michigan area), the researchers arrived at a final sample of 1,186 respondents with full assessments via face-to-face interviews: 1) migraine (N = 496), 2) [...]
Despite the makers of OxyContin saying they are doing everything they can to limit or try and prevent the abuse of their products, statistics show an exploding rate of addition to their pain killers. To make the medication harder for addicts to abuse or concentrate, the makers of the drug have released OxyNEO (details of [...]
There is an impressively comprehensive article written on the Huffington Post website titled The War Over Prescription Painkillers by Radley Balko. Worth a read because it’s well-researched and very clear if you’re wondering how and why the situation with respect to such a massive patient population has gotten this way. He’s also done a good [...]
This article in the Windsor Star is one of the most comprehensive and balanced looks at painkiller abuse and addiction in Canada we have come across in recent months. With an aging population, a brewing controversy surrounds the increasing number of painkillers hitting pharmacies in 2012, given the associated risk of addiction – and even [...]
As deaths related to drug overdoses and narcotic abuse rise in Georgia, the state is doing what it can to limit the abuse and close clinics that sell prescriptions. That includes working on enacting a law that will bypass the current system: taking months and spending tens of thousands of dollars on sting operations, under [...]
