In this Weekend Rant edition of the Colorado Switchblade’s podcast. We talk about how the CDC just Friday released the revised and expanded pain treatment guidelines that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published that mention "patient abandonment" eight times. They also include two occurrences of this warning, in bold and italics: "Clinicians should not abandon patients."
This should give you a sense of the nightmarish impact of the original version of the CDC's advice, published in 2016, on medical care for chronic pain patients.
Things have gone terribly wrong when medical professionals have to be reminded that they should not abandon patients. The CDC's acknowledgment of these issues signals its willingness to address the needless suffering caused by the 2016 guidelines, which resulted in undertreatment, reckless "tapering" of pain medication, denial of care, and procrustean policies that prioritize reductions in opioid prescribing over the interests of patients.
This is a very personal story to me—One that has had devastating effects on my entire family. You will hear why in the podcast.
In the podcast, I reference an article in Reason Magazine you can read here.
This is a topic I will continue to cover in the future.
