Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It's So Hard to Stop

Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It's So Hard to Stop

by Anna Lembke
Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It's So Hard to Stop

Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It's So Hard to Stop

by Anna Lembke

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Overview

The disturbing connection between well-meaning physicians and the prescription drug epidemic.

Three out of four people addicted to heroin probably started on a prescription opioid, according to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the United States alone, 16,000 people die each year as a result of prescription opioid overdose. But perhaps the most frightening aspect of the prescription drug epidemic is that it’s built on well-meaning doctors treating patients with real problems.

In Drug Dealer, MD, Dr. Anna Lembke uncovers the unseen forces driving opioid addiction nationwide. Combining case studies from her own practice with vital statistics drawn from public policy, cultural anthropology, and neuroscience, she explores the complex relationship between doctors and patients, the science of addiction, and the barriers to successfully addressing drug dependence and addiction. Even when addiction is recognized by doctors and their patients, she argues, many doctors don’t know how to treat it, connections to treatment are lacking, and insurance companies won’t pay for rehab.

Full of extensive interviews—with health care providers, pharmacists, social workers, hospital administrators, insurance company executives, journalists, economists, advocates, and patients and their families—Drug Dealer, MD, is for anyone whose life has been touched in some way by addiction to prescription drugs. Dr. Lembke gives voice to the millions of Americans struggling with prescription drugs while singling out the real culprits behind the rise in opioid addiction: cultural narratives that promote pills as quick fixes, pharmaceutical corporations in cahoots with organized medicine, and a new medical bureaucracy focused on the bottom line that favors pills, procedures, and patient satisfaction over wellness. Dr. Lembke concludes that the prescription drug epidemic is a symptom of a faltering health care system, the solution for which lies in rethinking how health care is delivered.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781421421407
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date: 11/15/2016
Pages: 192
Sales rank: 576,090
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.47(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Anna Lembke, MD, is the chief of addiction medicine and an assistant professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction: The Prescription Drug Epidemic
Chapter 2. What is Addiction and Who's at Risk?
Chapter 3. Pain is Dangerous, Difference is Psychopathology: The Role of Illness Narratives
Chapter 4. Big Pharma Joins Big Medicine, Co-Opting Medical Science to Promote Pill-Taking
Chapter 5. The Drug-Seeking Patient: Malingering vs the Hijacked Brain
Chapter 6. The Professional Patient: Illness as Identity and a Right to Be Compensated
Chapter 7. The Compassionate Doctor, the Narcissistic Injury, and the Primitive Defense
Chapter 8. Pill Mills and the Toyota-ization of Medicine
Chapter 9. Addiction, the Disease Insurance Companies Still Won't Pay Doctors to Treat
Chapter 10. Stopping the Cycle of Compulsive Prescribing
Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

"Dr. Lembke is a fearless, authentic voice on the over-prescription of addictive painkillers and its terrible public health consequences.  Drug Dealer, MD brings together her experience as a physician and her wisdom as a public policy analyst to create a must-read book for anyone who is grappling with America's ongoing opioid addiction and overdose crisis."

Keith Humphreys

"Dr. Lembke is a fearless, authentic voice on the over-prescription of addictive painkillers and its terrible public health consequences.  Drug Dealer, MD brings together her experience as a physician and her wisdom as a public policy analyst to create a must-read book for anyone who is grappling with America's ongoing opioid addiction and overdose crisis."

Marcus A. Bachhuber

Lembke's novel viewpoint, brilliant synthesis of information, and use of patient stories bring the text to life.

G. Caleb Alexander

A unique and appealing look at the prescription opioid epidemic. Lembke's broad contextual discussion of the changing history of organized medicine's approach to pain is fascinating.

From the Publisher

A unique and appealing look at the prescription opioid epidemic. Lembke's broad contextual discussion of the changing history of organized medicine's approach to pain is fascinating.
—G. Caleb Alexander, MD, MS, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness

Lembke's novel viewpoint, brilliant synthesis of information, and use of patient stories bring the text to life.
—Marcus A. Bachhuber, MD, MSPH, Albert Einstein College of Medicine / Montefiore Medical Center

Dr. Lembke is a fearless, authentic voice on the over-prescription of addictive painkillers and its terrible public health consequences.  Drug Dealer, MD brings together her experience as a physician and her wisdom as a public policy analyst to create a must-read book for anyone who is grappling with America's ongoing opioid addiction and overdose crisis.
—Keith Humphreys, Stanford University

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