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ashbetFYI for headache/migraine/facial-pain patients -- Red Lawhern has been a tireless advocate for people with trigeminal neuralgia, and the show will likely apply to others with rare diseases and pain disorders, who are often abused by the medical system:
Dear friends,
I have been invited to interview online with Dr. Peter Breggin, MD, from 4-5 pm eastern time on August 6th. Dr. Breggin is a prominent critic of mainstream psychiatry and the excesses and dangers of psycho-active drugs. The hour will revolve around my September 2013 editorial published on Mad in America and re-published on the Rxisk blog of Dr. David Healy, MD. "It's NOT All In Your Head" [http://www.madinamerica.com/2013/10/head/] speaks to the abuses suffered by chronic pain patients and others with rare medical disorders who have been written off as "head cases" by medical doctors who have failed to understand, diagnose, or treat their real medical disorders.
The program will be available live via Progressive Radio Network on the internet at: http://www.prn.fm/ . It will not be broadcast by conventional radio.
Following the program, it will also be archived here as well as on prn.fm : http://drpeterbregginshow.podbean.com/
All are welcome
Sincerely,
Red Lawhern, Ph.D.
* * * An excerpt from the linked Mad in America article * * *
In the volunteer work that I do with pain patients these days, I’ve taken time to ask them about their experiences with medical doctors who referred them for mental health evaluation for symptoms that the doctor couldn’t put a disease name to. In an alarming number of cases, females among this population are written off as “hysterical” — a common rejection or shunning that is quite well established as an issue in both lay and professional literature. The same kinds of referral also occur with men, but significantly less often. For many patients, a better course of treatment emerges later with a different doctor who finally recognizes what is going on after several others have missed the diagnosis. For some, the light never appears at the end of the tunnel. Suicide is a real risk among those who have been told “it’s all in your head.”
The term “hysteria” casts a long shadow over issues of chronic pain. The contemporary roots of the term go back to a French neurologist named Charcot and to one of his students, Sigmund Freud. In my studied opinion, Freud’s theory of “female hysteria” is one of the most widely accepted mythologies ever invented out of thin air and academic surmise. Professionals who regard themselves as learned have invented an entire field of psychological practice around the term. We call that field psychosomatic medicine, and politely ignore the reality that its practitioners are rarely able to help their patients get better in any consistent way.
http://www.madinamerica.com/2013/10/head/
Dear friends,
I have been invited to interview online with Dr. Peter Breggin, MD, from 4-5 pm eastern time on August 6th. Dr. Breggin is a prominent critic of mainstream psychiatry and the excesses and dangers of psycho-active drugs. The hour will revolve around my September 2013 editorial published on Mad in America and re-published on the Rxisk blog of Dr. David Healy, MD. "It's NOT All In Your Head" [http://www.madinamerica.com/2013/10/head/] speaks to the abuses suffered by chronic pain patients and others with rare medical disorders who have been written off as "head cases" by medical doctors who have failed to understand, diagnose, or treat their real medical disorders.
The program will be available live via Progressive Radio Network on the internet at: http://www.prn.fm/ . It will not be broadcast by conventional radio.
Following the program, it will also be archived here as well as on prn.fm : http://drpeterbregginshow.podbean.com/
All are welcome
Sincerely,
Red Lawhern, Ph.D.
* * * An excerpt from the linked Mad in America article * * *
In the volunteer work that I do with pain patients these days, I’ve taken time to ask them about their experiences with medical doctors who referred them for mental health evaluation for symptoms that the doctor couldn’t put a disease name to. In an alarming number of cases, females among this population are written off as “hysterical” — a common rejection or shunning that is quite well established as an issue in both lay and professional literature. The same kinds of referral also occur with men, but significantly less often. For many patients, a better course of treatment emerges later with a different doctor who finally recognizes what is going on after several others have missed the diagnosis. For some, the light never appears at the end of the tunnel. Suicide is a real risk among those who have been told “it’s all in your head.”
The term “hysteria” casts a long shadow over issues of chronic pain. The contemporary roots of the term go back to a French neurologist named Charcot and to one of his students, Sigmund Freud. In my studied opinion, Freud’s theory of “female hysteria” is one of the most widely accepted mythologies ever invented out of thin air and academic surmise. Professionals who regard themselves as learned have invented an entire field of psychological practice around the term. We call that field psychosomatic medicine, and politely ignore the reality that its practitioners are rarely able to help their patients get better in any consistent way.
http://www.madinamerica.com/2013/10/head/
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Date: 2014-07-15 04:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-15 01:22 pm (UTC)(I'm also glad that I'm good at reading medical documents, because it was my own research that found the studies that separated TN Type 1 from TN Type 2, and explained why my type of pain, and my response to the usual TN drugs, was different. If I hadn't found that out, I'd probably still be taking ineffective meds, or I would have had a surgery with a much-lower-than-usual chance of success -- TN2 is its own beast, and it's rarer than TN1, and harder to treat. Luckily, unline TN1, it tends to respond well to opiates -- which is why my current pain-management regimen, after almost 6 years of NOTHING working, is actually quite effective.)
Now I just wish that my body didn't hate opiates so much -- well, if I'm wishing, I'd like the TN to go away, and the EDS, too! -- but I'm really grateful that I have a treatment option that actually *works*, even if it's not a perfect solution.
*hugs!*
-- A :)