The dangers regarding overdose of prescription medications in the US is now becoming critical. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 27,000 people died from prescription drug overdose in 2007, a 5 fold increase since 1990 with the main culprit being pain medications.

Even the cosy relationship between medical schools and pharmaceutical companies is coming under closer scrutiny. The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health which has been criticized for its advocacy of controversial uses of narcotic painkillers said it will no longer take money from the drug industry. The university had taken $2.5 million over a decade from companies that make opioids with a clear conflict of interest for their “independent” advocacy for the use of narcotic painkillers for chronic pain.

Meanwhile, ground-breaking therapies with little or no risk for patients such as neuromagnetics are practically ignored by doctors. Despite good evidence for this unique type of magnetic therapy, it still struggles for recognition. Principle physiotherapist Dianne Hermans has treated thousands of patients using quadrapolar magnets since 1999 with an 80% success rate, you can read some of the chronic pain case studies here. This supports the neurologist, Dr Robert Holcomb who pioneered this work with over 2,000 chronic and complex pain patients treated at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the 1990’s also with an 80% success rate.

UPDATE:
When I showed this post to my wife Dianne, she did say that she was VERY thankful for morphine when she was lying in hospital with meningitis. Point taken…We do have a lot to be thankful for what modern medicine has provided.