Welcome to my blog on Pain Management! Thanks for stopping by.

It is very exciting to have this resource as a way to structure the many research publications and ideas I come across in Pain Management, Neurology, Integrative Medicine and, yes, 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 30 years.

Medicine is an endlessly interesting and rich field, and it feels as though I have just discovered a gold mine in my work this week: a new use for an old medication that may possibly change much of what I've ever been taught. If that proves to be true, it should be published.

Chronic pain is often much more difficult to treat than cancer pain. It is tragic that only 0.67% -- less than 1% -- of the NIH budget goes for pain research, though 10 to 20% of the population in the US suffers from chronic pain, an estimated 60 million Americans, and the conditions are more prevalent among the elderly. Persons of all ages that I see tend to be more debilitated, often with anywhere from 3 to 11 different identifiable pain syndromes.

Many, including physicians, mistake pain as a symptom, failing to understand the reorganization that has occurred in the central nervous system due to neuroplasticity; and they overlook the associated comorbidity causing insomnia, weight gain due to medication or inactivity, depression, anxiety, spiritual and financial burdens. The lives of families and friends are diminished along with the person who has pain.

In the future, as time permits, I'll be adding publications and articles to the site and occasionally posting with a frequency yet to be determined, hopefully twice a month.

For now, I am learning to use this site and it has me stumped quite a few times. How and when do all the 54 categories that I added appear? Pending...... hmmm. Well, OK, perhaps they only appear by linkage after entering a post. Now if only I can get back to change the choice of font and increase the size.

In the meantime, my website will soon be undergoing restructuring and spring cleaning. Do visit if you can or give me a call at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla.

And if you are planning to be in San Diego for the annual meeting of the American Pain Society, say hello.

Please bear in mind, no information in this blog is intended to diagnose or treat any condition.

The opinions expressed here are my own, and are subject to change
as new research becomes available.

I hope you enjoy this beautiful music:

Show Me

by John Legend

Oh God of love, peace, and mercy, why so much suffering?

the High Sierra Trail

Join me on this journey......