30 Responses

  1. Exactly what studies are showing him this?? Ones that have been cherry picked to show the data he wants?? I and thousands of others have been taking the same dose of meds for years and never had an increase so this is a flat out lie!! As usual per any of his comments!

  2. Actually, his responses are not necessarily true when it comes to tolerance or even increased pain over time. There have been studies on rats and known cases of humans that exhibit opioid-induced hyperalgesia or allodynia from the activation of the microglia; however, through pain research it has been found that there are other medications that modulate the activation of the microglia and in turn calm neuroinflammation, which is the cause of increased pain. The key is for the doctor to realize what agents suppress and which agents aggravate the microglia. Many doctors understand very little about pain. They know how to treat symptoms and that’s about all. Unless you see someone that is versed with treating various pain conditions, it’s likely you won’t get the treatment you need. The efficacy of one drug used to modulate the microglia is Minocycline. Patients report less breakthrough pain, less flares and patients were often able to reduce the MME of opioids.

    It has also been found that with long term use of opioids that it can cause an imbalance of hormones. Hormones are key to producing the effects of opioids. If hormones are out of balance a person may feel as though the dosage that they are on is no longer sufficient to control their pain. This is why testing hormones regularly while on opiates as well as given hormonal replacements is necessary to maintain the strength and preserving the effects of the opiates without continually bumping up the dosage.

    Unattended pain can be more dangerous and have more side effects than using opioids responsibly. Under the classification of major complications of persistent pain the endocrine, cardiovascular, immune, neurologic and musculo-skeletal systems are affected when pain isn’t managed. People that have intractable pain conditions, meaning that there is no cure and will be lifelong, have a right to compassionate care, including the option of certain types of pain medications as part of their pain treatment plan. It seems to me that Mr. Kolodny isn’t very versed in pain management. Anything that deals with the central nervous system is complex and isn’t easily determined by short-term studies on rats or by correlation studies. Mr. Kolodny, you put in a good effort in ignoring the patient’s concerns while forwarding your agenda.

    You have made a huge push for the drug Suboxone. There is a large money trail and huge profits to be made if you push every opioid medication user on this drug. You have indicated that it is a miracle drug, perhaps you should read this New York Times article about your miracle drug: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/health/in-demand-in-clinics-and-on-the-street-bupe-can-be-savior-or-menace.html

  3. Dr. Kolodny, do you believe that all patients who use long term opioid become addicted? NO ONE has preformed a long term study to see if this is true, correct? These statements are made regarding opioids loosing their usefulness when used long term, but you nor anyone else has even mentioned how a patient metabolizes these medications. There is a BIG difference between addiction and dependency. Just because a patient uses opioids long term doesn’t mean that he/she will become addicted correct?
    I have seen MANY patients who have been on the same dose for many years and the medications still help them without requiring a higher dose. Taking Tylenol and Advil together long term can cause gastrointestinal problems AND patients can over dose on these over the counter medications just as easily if not quicker than opioids. Incurable diseases like Adhesive Arachnoiditis and Reflex Sympathetic
    Dystrophy are very hard to treat due to the complexity of these diseases. MANY patients who suffer with these conditions have found great relief using opioids. What do you say to these hundteds of thousands of patients who suffer with these dibilitating pain conditions considering there is NO cure as yet for these and many other rare chronic pain diseases? What is your suggestion to them for pain treatment when all else has failed and the only relief they do receive is from opioids? This is NOT a one size fit all situation, nor is there ANY studies to show that chronic pain patients become addicted. You can NOT throw legit pain patients in with the addicts just because they use opioids. Show me the long term studies to back up what you are saying including how patients metabolize these MEDICATIONS. Then and ONLY then should you be making statements such as this.

  4. 1) he did not listen to the patient
    2) he has no evidence for his opinions
    3) there is certainly no evidence for dropping patients from long term opioids
    4) heroin pills? Really?
    5) follow the money – he wants all
    Pain patients labeled as addicts so they come to Phoenix House for treat enemy
    6) follow Phoenix house and it’s problems.

    • I guess it won’t really help to know how sorry I am for what you’ve been through, Dr. Ibsen. As much as I dislike doctors, I’m still able to recognize a good doctor when I see one. Thanks for standing by us and remaining in the fight. 🙂

    • Doc, you are absolutely correct on all points! However HE is the one that the powers that be are choosing to listen to! I have sent proof of what a disgrace he & his group are to his supporters, yet they still ignore it & claim that everyone that oppose him are supporting or being paid by big pharma!
      What REALLY upsets me is how he use the neg. outcomes of all these gestopo restrictions that HE has had a big hand in passing, to justify HIS views!! Like how the death rate of opioids has gone up & that many were legit patients & is proof that opioids ALWAYS leads to addiction even in legit/compliant pain patients & that dependence is addiction!
      What he fails to show is how many were stable, legit, & compliant pain patients forced off their meds. leaving them w/ no choice but street drugs (w/ fake fentanyl being a HUGE killer right now!) or suicide!

      The REAL epidemic is under treatment & discrimination of innocent & sick pain patients that are having our rights violated & taken w/o due process & having our lives put in danger!
      He & many others, should be arrested for attempted murder or manslaughter or held responsible in some way criminally or civilly!

      The only difference between a terminal pain pt. & a chronic pain pt. is that the suffering will end soon for one of them!

      My bro. in law who had severe 24/7 pain due to MS ended his suffering after his doc no longer felt comfortable & got tired of all the red tape that went along w/ treating pain w/ opioids! So w/ 1 loud shot his pain was gone & ours began!!!

  5. All I can say is to be a doctor he is really ignorant… I’m sure he hasn’t ever strained or worked a minute of his life hard enough to know what true pain from a true injury could remotely feel like… I bet if he worked a day doing a small percentage of the hard labor jobs many of us have done for years, he would be singing a different tune… Yes of course over years and years people sometimes need stronger meds… But for chronic pain injuries or diseases, this is years.. Years… If the doctors just monitor patients closely most people would die from old age before their tolerance whole build up as much as he is saying… I know because I was on lortab for 8-10 yrs following the start of my chronic pain before I had to have another med added…but with many illnesses and injuries that cause chronic pain, that isn’t much because people build a tolerance as it is most of these illnesses and injuries worsen over time, therefore the pain gets worse… It’s the condition worsening thats is the reason patients need an increase in pain medication…the reason Most chronic pain illnesses and injuries are considered Chronic, is because the symptoms, the pain is continuous, never gets better and gradually gets worse… So we should be punished and labeled that we build immunity to the effects of the meds because these conditions worsen… That’s mother nature.. Or whatever you may choose to call it… But regardless it isnt the patients fault or the pain medications fault… It’s how chronic illnesses and injuries affect us..pain is considered chronic when lasts longer than so many months… The more time that passes the worse the illness gets… Therefore the more and worsening the symptoms, pain included… And when a person gets relief from one dose for one level of symptoms and pain.. Of course when the illness progresses and worsens therefore the symptoms and pain worsens, that same med or same dose isn’t gonna be quite as effective… But it is sure more effective than nothing.. Terminal illnesses don’t start and end the same, they worsen.. The symptoms worsen.. The same with what is a Chronic illness/injury, it starts out not even called chronic until its been present for at least 6 mos… And the symptoms are not going to be the same level the first year someone develops the illness or injury as the symptoms will be after 5 yrs.. After 10yrs etc… Chronic usually means never getting better only gonna get worse… If a person is given a certain amount of pain med for pain from a chronic illness when first develop or first show symptoms and it helps then 5 yrs later that same amount of pain med still helps just as well…Thats when something is wrong because that means that person doesn’t have a true chronic pain condition.. Because chronic pain conditions, the condition is gonna continue to worsen.. The pain is gonna continue to worsen over time.. So yes a true chronic pain condition will need stronger or more medication to control that pain the same as it use to.. That’s because of the condition and the pain it causes…nothing to do with the patient, their tolerance, or the pain medication itself.it amazes me how some doctors spend so much time in school, but know so little about common sense.. And it really amazes me how anyone would give our government, politicians, Center for Disease Control, pharmacists and especially law enforcement so much power over people’s health with little to no training.. If I were a doctor and government, lawmakers, and centers for disease were given more power than me, after I had years of medical schooling and training, I would be very upset.. It’s like saying.. Yeah go to school for 8-10 yrs to become a doctor, but someone with a fourth of that education will be telling you how to do your job… Or a pharmacist with less education mainly of just meds not diseases will have more power over you.. I bet eventually there becomes a even bigger shortage of doctors.. Because why go to school to be a doctor when your controlled by people who never stepped foot in medical school…

  6. Maybe he and Jayne Ballantyne would like to donate blood to help patients who need it after NSAID-induced GI bleeds. NSAIDS, antidepressants, and anticonvulsants don’t help all pain

    • Yeah right! The truth of the matter is that an opioid like oxycodone, when properly prescribed to a legit & compliant patient is one of the safest rx or otc med. there is as it does not damage the body like most other meds.!
      My pain started 45yrs.ago due to a severe birth injury to both hips by a negligent doc. diagnosed w/ RA at 14, fibro. at 24, DDD at 33 along w/ various injuries (was a figure skater/dancer for 10+yrs.) epidurals, joint shots, surgeries that only made things far worse!
      For many yrs. I managed w/o any rx meds. & was anti opioid & is why I agreed to all those damaging procedures. But the worst was yet to come!
      I was put on Celebrex, which did help w/ some of the pain, however it RUINED my LIFE as it left me w/ congestive heart failure & uncontrollable high bp & have suffered 7 mini strokes! I now take 3 different bp meds & the lowest that they can get it down to is 143/98 w/ ave being 155/109! When the fluid gets bad I am put on a strong course of Lasix for about 10days & will loose upwards of 30lbs. in water!
      My left foot, ankle, leg, stays so swollen & hurts so bad that I cannot wear shoes & end up having to wear my husbands slide on sandals when I have to go out & look like clown shoes as he wears a 15 ww!
      This is what disabled me, not the pain! All of this after only taking it for 8-9mo. in effort to avoid going back on “EVIL & DEADLY” Opioids!
      Guess what taking oxycodone for 20yrs. did to me? Gave me some relief from 24/7 pain!!

      Had I been given the TRUTH about ALL meds. & treatment risks & allowed to choose what I was willing to risk for MY BODY, I would have chosen the small risk of addiction over all this in a heartbeat!!!

      MY BODY, MY CHOICE!!!

  7. Yeah he deletes it immediately when and blocks you when you counter him with cold, hard facts. I’ve been on opioids for 16 years this month….”high” doses for most of it and they have truly changed my life for the better. I’ve been on a stable dose for years….with the exception of last summer when I was forced to taper because my doctor was now too fearful to prescribe.

  8. As far as I’m concerned the good doctor is full of crap! I can really only speak of my personal experience but hydrocodone has saved my life. As with the caller I have had a very hard life filled with countless injuries to every part of my body, before my pain specialist found a cocktail of medications that works for me I too had seriously thought about taking a half ounce lead pain pill. As far as I’m concerned my doctors have been miracle workers and the quack from this interview has no idea what he’s talking about. It’s been over 3 years and my dose of hydrocodone has not gone up a single milligram and I’ve been controlling my pain to a livable level for the entire time. Yes I have my good days and bad ones too but for the most part I’m surviving with the opioid dose that’s prescribed to me.
    I’ve had doctors in the past tell me that climate change has nothing do with the pain intensity either but I know differently. I moved to a warmer climate and I’ve felt much better in the winter months then I did when I lived in a cold state like Michigan. My point is that one doctors personal opinion about opioid pain medication can be different from another’s, and 1 doctor might believe that the climate has no effect on pain intensity and another might disagree.
    Science is based on results not opinions so why is the government and it’s alphabet agencies so afraid to produce the facts? I’ll tell you why, it’s because of the heroin epidemic that’s engulfed our country. Illegal drugs have been a problem in the US for many years and the public wants answers on why in recent years heroin has moved from the getto to the suburbs and the DEA can’t give anyone an honest answer other then that they have failed. So to camouflage their short comings they targeted something that they thought they would be able to control, opioid medications. Boy aren’t they making another huge mistake? By them putting the hammer down on legally prescribed medications, it will only drive relief seeking pain sufferers to the streets for the only help they will be able to get. I really don’t think that it’s because they don’t care, I think it’s because they are too busy covering their own asses to profile the future.

  9. Andrew Kolodny: Giving doctors a bad name, every single day.

  10. Now is he even listening to what this poor man said?

    • Do you think he cares? Do you see any signs of concern on his face or in his eyes? He wasn’t interested in helping this poor, old man — his only interest is in advocating for the opioid war (and his own financial interests).

  11. I would really like to know when dr. kolodny became a pain specialist & what he is basing his “medical findings on”! This man has caused NOTHING, but suffering & death w/ his anti opioid BS! I know for a FACT that opioids can be used long term safely & w/o having to raise the dose extremely high, because I have been on them for 20 YEARS on w/ a few breaks here & there to try other things. I have NEVER become addicted nor have I had to raise the dose very often as there are ways to manage tolerance for most people!
    I have also seen this in most of my long term patients of 10+ years w/ the exception of a fraction over all!
    Education, trust, & honesty is the key, which Dr. Kolodny is SEVERELY LACKING! I wish that I had been able to talk to him as I would ask him the hard questions that he & PROP NEVER want to answer because every time I try to discuss this w/ ANY of them, they block me! He has even erased & closed all comments on all his videos due to patients asking questions that he can’t answer!
    He has stated several times that he does not have ANY training in pain management, yet HE is the one dictating how to manage it!! I am SO SICK of him & work hard to show people who & what he really is, but I cannot change anything alone or w/ just a handful of CPP’s.

    I am VERY upset w/ the pain community right now as we have got to get it together!! It is estimated that 100 million suffer chronic pain; but where are they? Because they certainly did not post to the CDC as There were only around 5000 total that did! 5000! REALLY?!?
    Look I get it, you are sick & it is hard I know as there are days that I don’t even go online as the stress overwhelms me & get discouraged that anything will change!
    However, I still do all that I can to educate & spread awareness because as bad as it is now, what will it be tomorrow when “they” win?

    The time is now & the hour is late, So I am calling to all 100 million CPP’s to raise your voices & fight until they can no longer ignore us!!! Let us show them all that while we my be broken & bruised; we can still be warriors to reckon with!!!

    • I also am living proof… I was on lortab, not alot a day, for 10 years before they had to make any changes and even then they added a long acting pain med, not a strong one either just one longer lasting and continued the lortab for breakthrough but fewer a day.. And my chronic pain illnesses and injuries began in 1995 but I tried everything else until 1996 so since 1996 I still get by with the same other than adding a longer acting pain med every 12 hrs… But still not as strong as some pain meds as I use to see some people on with fewer chronic pain conditions as I have but they just had doctors who were over prescribing… Yes there were doctors over prescribing but don’t come down on the good doctors and make the people with true chronic pain suffer all because of a few bad ones…. They could have shut down the pill mills and doctor’s wrongfully prescribing without making all doctors scared to help their patients. And I have some chronic pain illnesses that state “there is no cure… People with these never get better they only get worse” and I do get worse but but over time and its none of my chronic pain from my chronic illnesses and injuries have has gotten worse do quickly that I need my meds constantly increased to get by without suffering… So I too have no idea where this idiot and some others like him, get their data and information from… I know, they don’t take any data or statistics about true chronic pain patients taking pain meds for legitimate pain, they only get their data/info/statistics from drug abusers/addicts, patients being treated with pain meds who don’t have chronic pain at all, and just their wild imaginations… No data to prove any of it.. I swear it’s just getting out of hand.. The doctors who are against pain meds are believed by all agencies as knowing everything about everything yet a doctor just as educated and trained (if not more) who believes in pain meds for chronic pain, is treated like “they don’t know what they are talking about” and their beliefs and theories just overlooked and tossed out..

      • The opioid war is based on many other drug wars, like the one against medical cannabis. We laugh at reefer madness today, but back when the theory was in its prime, the majority of people thought that marijuana was the devil’s weed. If you tried it, you would immediately turn into a drug addict and criminal. Sound familiar?

  12. The effects of chronic pain on the brain are never considered by pretend addiction “experts” like Mr. Kolodny. And if there really was a god, this man would have been stricken by lighting already, as he continues to lie and lie, mostly for financial benefit.

    Does anyone want to file a FOIA request for Mr. Kolodny’s and Phoenix House’s tax returns? Let’s see how much money he gets from the government and what his profit margins are. But more importantly,someone should ask Mr. Kolodny for Phoenix House’s success rates. How many drug addicts that he allegedly treats end up relapsing, how many overdose, and how many commit suicide? Inquiring minds want to know.

    • I so agree!! I would also like to what relationship he has w/ the makers of suboxon because while he demonizes big pharma. he pushes the shit out of suboxon!!

      • Here’s an old article that explains Kolodny’s role with Suboxone:

        https://painkills2.wordpress.com/2015/01/06/april-2005-the-bitter-pill/

      • Yeah.. And he talks about opoids being basically pill form heroin… But the suboxone is also addicting.. First people with true chronic pain don’t need to be weaned off pain meds, they need pain meds to have a tolerable life.. But those who do need weaned off opiates, it’s not like they take suboxone and boom they are off pain meds… They are given sub ozone and gradually and very slowly.. Weaned off the suboxone, the sub ozone has an opiate in it.. But the from what I’ve read and heard, the withdrawl from cold Turkey off suboxone is worse than cold Turkey off any pain medicine.. Those who don’t need continuous pain management for chronic pain.. If given pain meds for temporary injury or if it’s an addict who got on them, just wean them off the pain med… Why give them suboxone that they have to be weaned off even slower? I know because these doctors can charge a fortune for their treatment and the pharmacy can charge a fortune for the drug… They wouldn’t be able to pad their pockets of just weaned off the pain med itself… And if they did that then they may not have as many laime excuses as to why chronic pain patients don’t need opiates or pain meds either..i have never been to or do I know anyone who has had suboxone treatment because I am a chronic pain patient, but I have researched it alot and I cannot see how these suboxone doctors legally can practice as a doctor, not take a single drop of insurance for payment for visits, and their cash price be so outrageous… Yet I was told these doctors won’t Bill instance for their visit.. Yet if a person has insurance they will bill the insurance for the drug tests and they abuse that by running many many expensive tests on urine and blood.. I mean checking for nicotene for example.. But I was told they run $3000-$4000 in tests monthly on urine… If they don’t bill insurance for visit how can bill for anything? Then they charge $400 plus per visit… My God an office visit with my neurosurgeon isn’t that much.. And he is a neurosurgeon.. How can there not be a limit a doctor who is doing no real medical treatment can charge..and any Dr can take rest to be licensed to treat suboxone… Psychiatrists, family doctors, as long as a medical doctor…thats why there is gonna be a shortage of doctors of specialties when they all see they can charge a fortune, not fool with insurances, and basically have no restrictions and do nothing but sit behind a desk and make more money than being a regular medical doctor or even a highly trained specialist like a neurosurgeon… There has to be something illegal about this suboxone scam written somewhere in the rules and regulations for doctors….

        • Most of what you’re saying is true, except that Mr. Kolodny is not a neurosurgeon. He’s a psychiatrist with an addiction specialty:

          https://painkills2.wordpress.com/2014/11/26/addiction-medicine-is-not-a-recognized-specialty/

          And I’m not sure detoxing from Suboxone is either worse or better than detoxing from other pain medications. But since Suboxone and bupe are now being prescribed for pain, I think it’s important for pain patients to educate themselves about these drugs.

          Yes, Suboxone (bupe and methadone) are used to treat addiction, but they are also a type of opioid, which just proves the hypocrisy of the opioid war and Mr. Kolodny’s part in it.

    • I’m with you.. It should be illegal for him to call himself a doctor.. People like him didn’t go to medical school (if he even went) to do what most people want to do becoming doctors.. He went to medical school to have the MD after his name thinking that would be all he needed to have a big income.. He is no better than those big financial guys on wall street who have used their jobs to embezzel, steal, and commit fraud from the good people who trusted them with their money… He uses the title and his job to take advantage of, backstab, and evoke pain on those who trust him and depend on him as a doctor (patients and the ill)..Doctors take an oath when they get licensed… And I believe that oath they swear to help others… I think doctors like this guy should lose their medical license because they are breaking their oath… That’s considered fraud in any other profession…yes a lot of people choose to become doctors because it is a well paid profession but there are a lot of well paid professions, good doctors choose that because it’s a well paid profession where they help people and make a difference… This guy could have ever cared less about helping others and only difference he cares about is the different ways he can screw over and take advantage of his profession a a the different ways he can make people suffer to pad his own bank account.. There should be stricter pre requisites for someone to even go to medical school, I mean they graduate and become licensed to control the health and well being of others… Should be more than just good grades required to even enter medical school.. I already suffer from multiple chronic illnesses and diseases that are more physically painful than people like him will ever imagine, but anymore I suffer from so much mental and emotional pain from what doctors like this and the government is causing me, that I can no longer say “I may not have my health but at least I have my peace of mind”….i fear what the healthcare will be like for our children and grandchildren at my age..

      • As far as a lot of doctors are concerned, they are following their “oath” by NOT prescribing pain medications for anything but cancer or terminal pain. Even though only about 10% of patients will have an abuse or addiction problem, doctors are saving ALL of us from addiction, didn’t you know?

        I’m sorry you’ve lost your peace of mind. I haven’t found a lot of peace while suffering from constant pain for the past 30 years, but ever since I recovered from my addiction to the medical industry, I’ll admit to a feeling of freedom that I wish other pain patients could experience. However, I realize that many pain patients will never know this type of freedom, and that makes me very sad.

        For 25 years, I relied on doctors, and all they did was take my money and make things worse. I often think about where I would be right now if I was still on prescription drug therapy — if I still needed a doctor to manage my pain. I would be terrified.

        Now, I’m in charge, and while that does nothing for my pain levels, it does give me a little bit of peace. 🙂

  13. This guy is so full of shit with his speech here it makes me sick to my stomach. I’d like to see him deal with the pain the chronic pain community deals with and then preach that shit he’s throwing out here. He’s nothing but a paid asshole from the Obama administration and the other idiots out there that want mass Genocide . Who the hell is he kidding. Makes me sick, fool he is.

    • Amen… Like I said earlier.. I bet he has never lifted a finger that could even cause an injury and I bet he doesn’t know what it feels like to have any illness of any kind..considering he sounds like such an idiot, he has probably lived his life in a bubble.. And do these doctors realize none of them had these stupid ideas until the government, law enforcement, and the politicians all took over and started telling them what to do.. And now many like him now just bend over and take it and instead of standing up for patients, medicine, and all these doctors stand for and trained so many years for, they just tuck there heads down and let people and agencies, with little to no medical training, be their boss, take over their field of supposed expertise and basically be like “yeah you may have 10yrs of medical school but we are the government with no medical training and we now tell you how to do your job”….if I were a doctor and spent that much money on education, and this happened to me.. I would stand up for what I believed in when I went into medicine and that is helping people… Not to let them suffer… Guys like this give all doctors a bad name.

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