Medicine Costly, Where’s the Gain?

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It’s been seven years since starting this blog April 2009.

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To find information:

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1. SEARCH – small rectangle, top left above my photo

2. TAGS – size indicates frequency the topic was posted, bottom left narrow column

    

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Sorry there’s no time to make the site easier for you to find your way around.

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I hope you all have a good summer. Get some much needed rest.

 

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It has been a blessing to have this resource as a way to structure and teach myself the many research publications and ideas I come across in Pain Management, Neurology, Integrative Medicine, Neuroimmunology and, yes, maybe politics of medicine. I only wish I had had this tool decades ago so that I didn’t have to recreate the ones I’ve already reviewed and forgotten in the last 41 years, long before MRI scans and decades before computers in daily medicine. Now we all risk carpal tunnel from repetitive injury, which is why I need to stop posting for awhile.

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This great experience and months of effort has rewarded me, bringing me in touch with the RSD Organization, device manufacturers, editors, publishers, academics, CEO’s, scientists, physicians and patients from around the world. Thank you all!

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The politics of the world is spinning fast, harsh winds are blowing, prices of drugs are beyond belief, beyond beyond — $50,000 to $100,000 a year for new drugs. My own colleagues cannot afford $5,000 insurance deductible for visits and medication. If you are diagnosed with cancer, pray it is January before your $5,000 or $10,000 deductible comes up again at end of year. Medical care in this country is in a down spiral, affordable to the few.

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Until I see something exciting to write about, I’m over and out. What more is there to say?

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Give us some hope in research for pain and major depression. Something more we can use now, something covered by healthcare insurers who seem not to cover much of anything anymore.

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Many insurance companies have not updated reimbursement rates for some specialties for 10 or 20 years. The specialties that had the highest percentage of doctors who accept insurance are cardiology, oncology and orthopedic surgery.

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Only 55% of psychiatrists accept insurance. How sad is that? When people need Mental Health Care more than ever, what do they do but in desperation, some turn to drugs, self treating, while the $3 trillion dollar war on drugs has created and perpetuates the spiral of addiction and endless funding that only serves to enrich the military prison industrial complex.

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War does not work. Medical care works. Instead of war on drugs, war on addiction, we need medical care not war. Medical care for addiction, medical care to prevent pain, to prevent and support mental illness, to prevent addiction.

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While setting writing aside, I shall enjoy turning more of my attention to my patients. It is a privilege to work with so many fine people, striving to put disabling conditions into remission.

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If you find exciting news, please post news below.

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I wish you all a wonderful summer – get some time out!

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For those with CRPS RSD, note a new comment on this site, this past week, on Neridronic Acid.

It was posted in an unrelated section at bottom on my home page.

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 For my Home Page, click here: 

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Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

 

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This site is not for email or medical advice.

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It is not legal for me to give medical advice

unless you are my patient

which means I have done a medical history and examination.

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I generally accept only those

who have failed most or all known treatments,

and only those who I feel I can help.

 

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I interview each patient before accepting.

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Any advertising below is not recommended or condoned by me.

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Side Effects of Neridronic Acid – Neridronate

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Neridronate

Neridronic acid

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This is a long response to detailed comments from Julie who had a reaction to the neridronic acid protocol for CRPS.

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The clinical trial on neridronic acid is extremely important and unique. It is important because it does not just cover symptoms, it actually may put CRPS into remission.

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If I had CRPS, I would not hesitate to accept short term side effects if I thought I could get long term benefit, even possibly remission. We need this study. It will not be available for anyone unless many enroll in the double blind study and hopefully soon so that results can be submitted to the FDA for approval.

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Please read her comments first, at the end of my post. And then my comments below.

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And because neridronic acid relates to bone metabolism, much later I will mention an area of research that is likely to be be valuable because it is the largest receptor system in the body, the endocannabinoid receptor system, the body’s own cannabinoid system.  Two ideas from Raphael Mechoulam, professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel are keenly interesting:

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The Skeletal Endocannabinoid System

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The Entourage Effect

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Glia make one of the cannabinoids in the brain, and glial research is where I suspect some of the best research will come

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Hopefully these ideas will stimulate  research.

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In response to Julie, I wrote:

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Julie, I am so sorry to hear of the difficulty you had to go through for such a long time. And relieved that you got through it. I and, I’m sure everyone else, thanks you for volunteering. We will all benefit. And we all hope that if any reaction is to occur, please let it be rare. It appears that yours is rare.

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I know everyone is with you, and we bring all our hopes for the unknown. No one has the answer of what to do with intractable pain of any kind, not just CRPS pain. We must, MUST, begin to do more research on intractable pain in humans. Neridronic acid is an important beginning to look at a new mechanism.

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CRPS has, in some people, escaped every known rational approach to treatment. Neridronate may be the best thing we can get. It takes time to learn how new medications work, and they have chosen wisely, I am sure.

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Be assured, I think good minds are working on the best. But it is unknown territory.  Numbers are needed – CRPS can be very dynamic. Flares and remissions wax and wane, so long term study must be done.

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We all see patients after CRPS flares and there is nothing more to offer. Not one thing. We urgently need something that works. We are hoping neridronic acid will be that rescue.

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Will remission last 12 months or 3 months or less?

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What are long term risks?

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How often could it potentially be given, or will remission really last for years in some? We all need to see numbers.

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Huge hopes are on this drug.

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We must balance hopes and fears.

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We recognize it is a new drug for a new purpose. We hope this research will drive many more studies on CRPS and/or intractable pain.

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Julie, thank you for allowing others to see details. It may help other volunteers to set aside time to recover any post infusion effects, if needed. Hope for the best, plan for the worst is the saying.

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No one yet knows how good the potential is for duration of effect. Remission could potentially be total, in some. How many?

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We are all learning how to treat chronic intractable pain.

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Skeletal Endocannabinoid System

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The highly decorated scientist who discovered THC and the body’s endocannabinoid system, Raphael Mechoulam, professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, recently mentioned the SKELETAL CANNABINOID SYSTEM in a 2014 documentary on his discoveries.

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The cannabinoid system interacts powerfully with the immune system in ways not yet studied. Why does your CRPS immune system affect the skeletal system and create pain?

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Cannabinoids are anti-inflammatory, analgesic, healing. The body makes its own. We need to study the biggest receptor system in the body. It is a gaping hole that is left out of existing work on the immune system.

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And how much are glia and our innate immune system in CNS— how much are they studied?

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Please let there somehow be funding for many studies on humans – but let’s begin one study, guided by Distinguished Professor Linda Watkin’s lab. She is the only scientist who is doing translational work from  basic research in the lab to humans.

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Professor Watkins has the best clinical solution I have seen: IL-10 has remarkable potential to bring your pain to zero for 3 months or more at a times. Your brain makes it. It is *the* anti-inflammatory cytokine. Her lab has been the world leader in glial research. Where is the funding for what may be the most important area of work for intractable mood disorders and treatment resistant depression?

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Glia

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How do hundreds of now usable drugs create pro-inflammatory cytokines thus make more pain or more major mood disorder?

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And which of these hundreds of drugs on our formulary reduce inflammatory cytokines?

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What is the role, if any, of some of the medications used by rheumatologists to dampen the hyperactive immune system in autoimmune disease? Risks, but possible gain. We will never have all the answers. ALL the answers for everyone is hard to imagine.

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How do hundreds of existing drugs affect the balance of CNS cytokines?

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Skeletal Endocannabinoid System – see Raphael Machoulam’s lab in Israel. May be critical for CRPS and for osteoporosis in seniors.

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Mechoulam’s lab would bite at the chance to get funded to work with the Italian and USA CRPS study.

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Julie — I am heartened that you may be able to see Professor Ott who may be one of the foremost researchers on bone metabolism if not number one.

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I posted three times on bisphosphonates last year and hope they are a good review for others.

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The Entourage Effect

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Mechoulam also has an important concept that probably applies to my method of trying to modulate these powerful intractable pain syndromes.

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Simple concept – brilliant:

The Entourage Effect. Drugs are like politicians. A famous politician may walk unrecognized, but when you surround him or her with many people, even of lesser status, the politician has a far more powerful effect.

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I don’t know how you guys do it.

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Respectful best wishes.

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I know some of you ignore this, but I have to repeat:

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The material on this site is for informational purposes only.
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It is not legal for me to provide medical advice without an examination.

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This material is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided

by a qualified health care provider.

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This site is not for email and not for appointments.

If you wish an appointment, please telephone the office to schedule.

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For My Home Page, click here:  Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

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