Arthritic Chick

This is an open letter the University of Queensland, in relation to their recent press release. And to all the media outlets that have blindly republished their press release. This is the press release. https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2024/09/prescription-changes-lead-drop-oxycodone-use-0 This is flawed research that is twisting the data to suit their narrative, rather than allowing the data to dictate … Read more

More from Adele Ferguson and Chris Gillett on the over-treatment and overcharging from some anaesthetists and surgeons when treating chronic pain patients. It uses the same phrase that I used in my article – chronic pain patients are ‘cash cows’. And as one of the people in the article stated, its a betrayal. People living … Read more

What if I’d been diagnosed sooner? It took four neurologists to diagnose my CIDP.  Looking back over old tests, the evidence was there from day one. But it took EIGHT years to get the diagnosis and to start treatment because my doctors stereotyped me as a malingerer and/or drug seeker or blamed my arthritis for … Read more

And how Explain Pain has harmed people living with chronic secondary pain. We’ve all heard about ‘pacing’ as a strategy to manage chronic pain. I have a problem with that idea, or at least part of it.  Because, once again, pacing is a very different proposition if you have chronic primary pain, as opposed to … Read more

The data on spinal cord stimulators is in, and the news is NOT good. Recent research, done in Australia and led by Dr Adrian Traeger, published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews found: “Data in this review do not support the use of spinal cord stimulation to manage low back pain outside a clinical … Read more

I’ve had a few issues with Australia’s Take Home Naloxone program, most specifically the way it has been marketed. The constant implication is that chronic pain patients on long term opioid therapy are in need of naloxone because they are overdosing left right and centre. That is not true.  Chronic pain patients on long term … Read more

This article was shared by Chronic Pain Australia, the consumer voice for Australian’s living with chronic pain, as part of National Pain Week.  https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/breaking-the-vicious-cycle-of-chronic-pain/ It quotes the President of Chronic Pain Australia, Nicolette Ellis, an advanced practice pharmacist, discussing the results of the National Pain Survey and the case of Dean Colling who experiences pain … Read more

In my many years working as a patient advocate, in the area of chronic pain, I have seen and heard a lot of…garbage.  People talk a lot of garbage, and pain science seems to attract a lot of garbage science.  And yes, garbage scientists. It also attracts a lot of anti-opioid zealots.  People who, for … Read more

I have been working as a patient advocate in chronic pain for many years. As I have learned about chronic pain, the science, and the neuroscience of pain, I have realised that a huge part of the problem, and a reason for the untreated pain epidemic we are now experiencing in Australia, is as simple … Read more

In recent years, as part of the fear campaign against the use of opioids in pain management, there has been a push to use less, or even no, opioids for pain relief post- surgery.  Non-opioid medications, such as paracetamol (Tylenol) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories are being used more and more, even for major, invasive surgeries, and … Read more