American Agony: A New Book Exposes the War Against Pain Patients
/By Pat Anson, PNN Editor
A provocative new book is shining a light on the opioid crisis in ways that may surprise you. In “American Agony: The Opioid War Against Patients in Pain,” author Helen Borel accuses government bureaucrats, law enforcement and the media of inciting opioid hysteria with a steady drumbeat of misinformation and propaganda about opioids – resulting in the needless suffering of millions of Americans and the deaths of thousands by suicide.
“American pain patients are at risk of being underdosed, tapered without consent, and most horrible of all, cold-turkeyed. All without legal or medical protections to rescue them from the horrors of sudden withdrawal symptoms and cardiovascular and other complications leading to death arising out of this sudden disruption in their physiologic equilibrium,” Borel wrote.
“Further muddying the opioid hysteria waters are outright confabulations by the feds (HHS, CDC, DEA) who gossip about nonexistent drug abuse by patients on medically, ethically and legally prescribed opioid analgesics. And these same autocrats should feel guilty about the multitude of suicides their thoughtless actions have caused and are still causing. For shame!”
As a registered nurse, psychotherapist and medical writer, Borel was already familiar with important role of opioid medication, which she calls the “best treatment for most chronic pain.”
But her interest was piqued by reading Pain News Network and other online outlets, where she learned about the suffering and suicides of patients, the harassment and prosecution of doctors, and the disastrous impact of the 2016 CDC opioid guideline on American pain care.
“When I saw on Twitter the people talking about what was going on, I went to your website and other sites, and I saw all the information,” Borel told PNN.
“And I began to get angry that people were not being medicated. And I said to myself I’d like to bring all this information together in one place where everyone could access it.”
American Agony does just that. It’s a comprehensive examination of the opioid crisis, including a detailed look at its heroes and villains. There is no shortage of the latter, from the “haughty federal horde” that drew up the CDC guideline to the “American Nazis in full DEA regalia” who harassed doctors and lied to the press and public about opioid therapy.
Borel says the DEA should be dissolved, reorganized and rebranded as the Illicit Drug Enforcement Administration (IDEA), an agency focused solely on controlling illegal drugs
“Until the government gets out of medical care, and out of proscribing severe limits on opioid therapy, grief will be a daily presence in pain patients lives. Others who can’t wait for common sense to infuse itself into mini-brained government officials will continue to end their lives in suicides. Now, there’s an epidemic the CDC should be working to eliminate!” she wrote.
‘Crazy Psychiatrists’
Borel holds particular disdain for the anti-opioid activist group Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP) and its founder, Dr. Andrew Kolodny, a psychiatrist and addiction treatment specialist who has testified as a highly paid expert witness in lawsuits against opioid manufacturers.
“I think the government is stupid and they have a lot of hubris. That includes PROP, the tiny little band of crazy psychiatrists, the craziness and the haughtiness and the nonsense of PROP,” says Borel. “I think Freud would be appalled at these psychiatrists. They don’t have any feelings for patients. I don’t understand it.”
Borel dedicates chapters in her book to the “Suboxone Hoax,” “DEA Gestapo Actions” and the “Ominous Overreach of the Department of Justice.”
She also has a lengthy section on steps that pain patients can take to protect themselves, such as demanding the enforcement of HIPAA and other privacy laws, suing for negligence and medical malpractice, and refusing to pay for unnecessary medical exams and tests.
“The more of these negligent practices that can be published, the sooner the public will stop putting up with the murdering of American pain care promulgated by the DOJ, the DEA and the VA,” she wrote. “You do not have to put up with the cold-turkeying of your opioid medication. This is flat out medical malpractice, will lead to rapidly declining health, unbearable pain, thoughts of suicide and too often suicide itself.”
American Agony is featured in PNN’s Suggested Reading section, along with other informative books on chronic pain and pain management.
