The big push these days seems to be rivaling the tabloids for sensationalized articles. Consumer Reports recently ran a lengthy piece about the dangers of opiates and how studies show that exercise works better than pain killers for chronic pain. It is true in many cases and is easy enough to try. I walk every day, or did until I sprained my ankle. I would not be able to walk without my medication.

Articles like this tend to concentrate on back pain and fibromyalgia which do not correspond to test results and are elusive of diagnosis. They never mention progressive diseases like neuropathy, diagnosable through concrete tests such as skin biopsy and EMG, which are difficult to treat by any means and extremely painful. Nor do they mention the many patients who have been maintained on long term opiate therapy without significant escalation or side effects, "success stories" if you will. It was a notably contentless article, repeating much the same information as countless others.

The most disappointing example of this descent into tabloid journalism was a recent issue of The Economist, a magazine I would have thought too dignified to enter the newsstand sleaze competition. Their issue glorifying the "sex trade" as a viable economic arena, ignoring the drugs, kidnapping, disease, and intimidation involved was reprehensible, and obviously designed to sell what is normally a niche magazine with a highly educated readership to a wider public. The letters to the editor the following week were overwhelmingly condemning.