
Anna Lembke, MD
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…
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.
A thought-provoking study that all healthcare professionals and patients should read.
... a story with mythic resonance.
"... excellent... It’s a short book, concisely written, giving plenty of examples of patients’ stories while at the same time showing trends in policy and national practice."
Drug Dealer, MD offers a fresh, comprehensive perspective on addiction and prescription drugs. The patient narratives provide compassionate, albeit sometimes extreme, examples of how the medical field has failed patients, while the data provide the facts needed to prove that this truly is a system failure rather than any one person’s fault. This thought-provoking book should be a must-read for medical trainees, providers, and health policy leaders working at the forefront of addressing the prescription drug epidemic.
Anna Lembke sheds light on the rise of prescription drug addiction in the USA, fuelled in part by the actions of doctors and the structure of the US healthcare system.
... The book is written in a clear, easy-to-read style with lay readers in mind.
... once I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down.
... the most important medical book of the decade.
As far as I am concerned, "Drug Dealer, M.D.," in less than 200 unassuming, readable, and carefully referenced pages, may be the most important medical book of the decade for finally getting the story of this epidemic exactly right... every doctor and concerned citizen can take a first step in the right direction by reading Anna Lembke’s book.
A phenomenal read.
... substantial and satisfying... a lucid and fluid distillation of how large pharmaceutical companies capitalized on and shaped an era in which ‘doctors are expected not just to lessen pain, but to eliminate it altogether’ and ‘changing brain chemistry’ has become "the new way to normalize differences."
... excellent...
The best summary around of the perils of owning a prescription pad.
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.
Lembke's novel viewpoint, brilliant synthesis of information, and use of patient stories bring the text to life.
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.
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
Chapte
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
with Hopkins Press Books