The Dismantling of Pain Care by Addiction Medicine, And the Patients Sacrificed. A Decade of Harm.

About this episode

The episode discusses the detrimental impact of addiction medicine on pain care in the U.S., highlighting policy decisions that have harmed patients.

This episode documents how pain care in the United States was dismantled, not accidentally, but through deliberate policy choices that elevated addiction medicine over pain treatment and left millions of patients behind. Bev Schechtman , Vice President of The Doctor Patient Forum (DPF) , walks through the history of opioid policy, the rise of addiction medicine’s influence over pain care, and the real-world consequences for patients and doctors. This includes how clinical judgment has been replaced by fear, risk profiling, and enforcement-driven medicine. The discussion covers: How the opioid crisis narrative reshaped pain care How CDC prescribing guidelines moved from recommendations to de facto law How litigation, settlements, and funding structures reinforced opioid elimination How algorithms, risk scores, and liability concerns now override patient care And why patient harm has never been measured The episode also includes a first-person account of being denied pain care in the emergency room despite documented kidney stones, not based on medical findings, but on trauma history and perceived risk. 🎧 Source & Context This episode is drawn from a live X Space hosted by Dr…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Liza Lockwood

Guest: Bev Schechtman

Topics covered

• pain care
• addiction medicine
• opioid policy
• patient harm
• healthcare policy
• clinical judgment

Keywords

• opioid crisis
• pain treatment
• risk profiling
• enforcement-driven medicine
• CDC guidelines
• patient care

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Doctor Patient Forum, CDC

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