The Truth About The Opioid Epidemic In America
To the many thousands of us who belong to the general facial pain community on Facebook, this man needs no introduction. For the rest of you, please meet Red.
Richard A “Red” Lawhern, Ph.D. is the spouse of a chronic facial pain patient. He has advocated for pain patients and their family members for twenty years with online research, physician referrals, authoring of websites and critical commentaries. From Red’s website:
“I retired as a systems engineer and operations research analyst… In my so-called spare time, I support an online community called “Living with TN” as a moderator and content author, providing literature and internet research to chronic face pain patients. I also mentor young people who are struggling with life in our times.”
Lawhern is calling for the immediate withdrawal of the guidelines published by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding prescription of opiates to adult non-cancer, chronic pain patients. The grounds for this challenge include exceptionally poor science, professional bias, and known harms to patients and doctors in the arbitrary withdrawal of care.
These articles, letters, speeches, and interviews are part of Red’s relentless pursuit of ending the war that the US government is waging against chronic pain patients and restoring common sense to the prescribing of opiates.
Please feel free to download and use the following document for your use in lobbying your Congressional representatives.
Written by Red:
- Stop The War On Chronic Pain Patients
- The CDC Opioid Guidelines Violate Standards Of Science Research
- Tracking Down the “Research” Behind the CDC’s Opioid Prescribing Guidelines
- Somatic Symptom Disorder
- It’s Not All In Your Head
- Psychogenic Pain and Iatrogenic Suicide
- How Would Opioid Prescription Guidelines Read if Pain Patients Wrote Them?
- The CDC’s Fictitious Opioid Epidemic, Part 1
- The CDC’s Fictitious Opioid Epidemic, Part 2
- Red’s Contributions to the Global Summit on Diagnostic Alternatives
- Letter to the Editor, Capital Times (Madison, WI)
- Warning to the FDA: Beware of “Simple” Solutions in Chronic Pain and Addiction
- An Open Letter to the President’s Commission on Combating Addiction and the Opioid Crisis
- A Second Open Letter to the President’s Commission on Combating Addiction and the Opioid Crisis
- Institutional Schizophrenia in the US Government
- An Invitation: We Want a Few Good Men and Women to Commit Themselves
Interviews with Red:
- In Search Of Sane Pain Policies: An Interview With Richard Lawhern, Ph.D.
- Red in Psychology Today
- Red on The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour