The Doctor Patient Forum is a national advocacy organization defending pain patients and the prescribers who treat them. We expose the truth about opioid policy, forced tapers, and patient abandonment. We expose the opioid elimination movement, and those at the center of it. Join Bev Schechtman and Claudia Merandi as we break down FDA moves, prescription surveillance systems like NarxCare, and the politics of addiction medicine. Because pain relief shouldn’t be a crime.
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June 2, 2026Episode 621 hr 23 min
Pain Patients Were Right: The “It’s All in Your Head” Narrative Is Falling Apart
This episode was originally released as an exclusive Patreon video, but in the current climate, we believe it is too important to keep behind a paywall.Pain patients are increasingly being told their pain is “centralized,” “neuroplastic,” “psychological,” or simply “in the brain.” But what does that actually mean? And if a clinician claims someone’s physical pain is psychological, what diagnostic criteria are they using?In this conversation, Bev and Brandy speak with Asaf Weisman, a physiotherapist, researcher, PhD candidate, and lab manager at the Tel Aviv University Spinal Research Lab, about nociception, chronic pain, imaging, immune-system involvement, pain reprocessing claims, phantom limb pain, and the growing problem of dismissing patients when standard testing does not show a clear structural cause.Asaf explains why the absence of visible tissue damage on standard imaging does not prove the absence of a biological process, why pain cannot simply be labeled “psychological” without clear criteria, and why patients deserve better than gaslighting, abandonment, and one-size-fits-all narratives.Originally shared with our Patreon community. Released publicly because pain patients need to hear this.The Doctor Patient Forum:https://www.thedoctorpatientforum.com/Support our work on Patreon:https://patreon.com/thedoctorpatientforumDisclaimer: This episode is for education, commentary, and advocacy purposes only and is not medical advice. Please consult your own medical professional for care decisions.
February 21, 2026Episode 611 hr 46 min
How Litigation Wins Become Pt Losses - When Grief Becomes a Weapon and Patients Become Collateral
After years of hearing the same opioid presentation from Andrew Kolodny, something changed — kratom suddenly became the “next crisis.”That wasn’t random.In this video, I break down:• How mass-tort litigation narratives are built• How experts, media, and parent groups align• How settlement money shapes policy messaging• Why kratom is being framed like opioids were• And who gets harmed when the machine movesWe’ve seen this before.First tobacco.Then prescription opioids.Then JUUL.Now cannabis and kratom.When lawsuits start shaping medicine, patients become collateral damage.Pain patients were erased the first time.Will it happen again?At The Doctor Patient Forum, we document the harm — because when history asks who knew, there will be a record.💜 We see you. We are fighting with you.—🌐 Website: https://www.thedoctorpatientforum.com/📌 Patreon: patreon.com/thedoctorpatientforum #PublicHealth #MassTort #medicalethics Fair Use DisclaimerThis video contains excerpts of copyrighted material used for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.All clips, images, and audio are used under the “fair use” provisions of Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act. The material is transformed through commentary, analysis, and fact-checking. The use is non-substitutive and does not replace the original works.
February 1, 2026Episode 6034 min
ACEs & the Opioid Risk Tool Explained | How Trauma History Is Used to Flag Patients and Deny Pain Care
This episode breaks down ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and the Opioid Risk Tool (ORT) — what these tools were actually designed for, and how they’re often misapplied in pain care to flag patients as “high risk” and deny treatment.We walk through:• what ACEs really measure• how the Opioid Risk Tool was created• where the sexual trauma question came from• why these tools were never meant to be used to deny care• and how trauma history screening is being used against pain patients in practiceThe misapplication of these tools is what pushed me to become an advocate in the first place, and we’ve spent years documenting and raising awareness about this issue.This recording was originally shared privately with our Patreon community in 2024. I’ve now made it public so anyone can hear the full explanation directly, with the research and context included.If I reference documents or screenshots during this episode, you can find the full video version on our YouTube channel.—🌐 Website: https://www.thedoctorpatientforum.com/📌 Support our work on Patreon: https://patreon.com/thedoctorpatientforumPatreon support helps fund:• patient advocacy• policy research• FOIAs and petitions• educational content• and direct support for patients navigating care—Fair Use Notice:This episode may include brief quotations, clips, or references to third-party materials for purposes of commentary, criticism, education, and public interest reporting. Such use is made under the Fair Use provisions of Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act.
January 10, 2026Episode 5930 min
The Dismantling of Pain Care by Addiction Medicine, And the Patients Sacrificed. A Decade of Harm.
This episode documents how pain care in the United States was dismantled, not accidentally, but through deliberate policy choices that elevated addiction medicine over pain treatment and left millions of patients behind.Bev Schechtman, Vice President of The Doctor Patient Forum (DPF), walks through the history of opioid policy, the rise of addiction medicine’s influence over pain care, and the real-world consequences for patients and doctors. This includes how clinical judgment has been replaced by fear, risk profiling, and enforcement-driven medicine.The discussion covers:How the opioid crisis narrative reshaped pain careHow CDC prescribing guidelines moved from recommendations to de facto lawHow litigation, settlements, and funding structures reinforced opioid eliminationHow algorithms, risk scores, and liability concerns now override patient careAnd why patient harm has never been measuredThe episode also includes a first-person account of being denied pain care in the emergency room despite documented kidney stones, not based on medical findings, but on trauma history and perceived risk.🎧 Source & ContextThis episode is drawn from a live X Space hosted by Dr. Liza Lockwood, featuring patients, physicians, and advocates discussing the realities of pain care under current policy.Watch full X-Space discussion: https://x.com/DrLizaMD/status/2009384856409506119?s=20💜 Support our work & access deeper discussions:https://patreon.com/thedoctorpatientforum📌 Share your story:https://thedoctorpatientforum.com/submit-your-story/At The Doctor Patient Forum, we preserve patient stories because harm was never measured, and history is being erased in real time.
September 18, 2025Episode 581 hr 33 min
Why Pain Patients Became the Villains of the Opioid Crisis - Episode 58
Why are pain patients treated like criminals, while people on Suboxone are celebrated as brave survivors?This isn’t just stigma, it’s a system. One that quietly rewrote the rules of who deserves compassion... and who gets discarded.In this video, we introduce a lens called Critical Drug Theory, based on Critical Theory, which helps explain how power, identity, and moral narratives shape public policy. It’s a way to understand why people with addiction are often seen as victims in need of care, while stable pain patients are labeled as privileged or problematic, even when both need medication.We break down how these narratives gained power, how they’ve influenced opioid policy, and why the system was rigged to treat pain relief as dangerous, but daily addiction treatment as virtuous.This video gives language to something many patients have felt but couldn’t name. It’s not political, and it’s not a conspiracy. It’s just the truth about how we got here and who got hurt along the way.🎥 Originally released as a Patreon exclusive, now public so more people can see what’s really going on.👇 Join our community & support the work:https://www.patreon.com/thedoctorpatientforum📌 Visit our website:https://www.thedoctorpatientforum.com/📢 Help spread the truth. Like, share, and subscribe.⚖️ Fair Use Disclaimer:This video may contain copyrighted material used for the purposes of education, commentary, and criticism under Section 107 of the Copyright Act. All rights belong to their respective owners.The information contained in this podcast should not be considered medical or legal advice.
August 26, 2025Episode 571 hr 22 min
20+ Yrs Fighting Opioid Myths, Dr. Chad Kollas on the FDA’s Latest Move
Dr. Chad Kollas has spent more than two decades challenging myths and misinformation about opioids in pain care. In this episode, he joins us to break down the FDA’s latest opioid label changes, explain why they matter for patients, and share his perspective as a palliative care physician who has been on the frontlines of this debate since the early 2000s.We talk about:The significance of the FDA's new opioid labelThe ethical failures of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in pain patientsHow propaganda has shaped the narrative around opioidsWhat patients and providers need to know moving forwardIf you’ve ever wondered how we got here and what hope there is for change you won’t want to miss this conversation.Dr. Chad Kollas' study: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10790545/🎧 Listen now and share to help us keep exposing the system and supporting the people in it.Find us on Patreon.com/thedoctorpatientforumThe information in this podcast is not to be considered medical or legal advice
April 22, 2025Episode 561 hr 32 min
Scored. Flagged. Medically Abandoned. Forgotten. Unveiling NarxCare: The Hidden Scoring System in Your Medical Records
🎙️ Episode 56Scored. Flagged. Medically Abandoned. Forgotten.Unveiling NarxCare: The Hidden Scoring System in Your Medical RecordsThis is a rerelease of a 2022 podcast episode featuring attorney Jennifer D. Oliva.In this powerful conversation, Bev Schechtman and Claudia Merandi of The Doctor Patient Forum sit down with Professor Oliva to expose the implications of NarxCare and Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) on patient care — particularly for those living with chronic pain.They explore the secretive nature of risk-scoring algorithms, the lack of transparency in PDMP data, and the systemic discrimination embedded in these tools — especially for marginalized and disabled populations. Together, they make the case for regulatory oversight, algorithmic accountability, and why advocacy is essential to protect patient rights and restore ethical care.NarxCare is a secret risk-scoring algorithm embedded in electronic health records.Most patients cannot access or correct their PDMP data.These scores disproportionately flag patients with complex conditions as “high risk.”Errors in PDMP data can result in abrupt care abandonment and harm.Providers face pressure to under-prescribe due to fear of red flags.The opioid crisis has redefined pain care around liability, not compassion.There is little to no regulatory oversight of NarxCare or PDMP systems.Legislative action and public advocacy are urgently needed to protect patient safety and autonomy.Professor Oliva’s research and teaching interests include health law and policy, privacy law, evidence, torts, and complex litigation. She has served as a peer reviewer for the American Journal of Public Health, Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics, American Journal of Law & Medicine, Journal of Law and the Biosciences, and Big Data & Society.Her scholarship has been published by or is forthcoming in the Virginia Law Review, California Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Northwestern University Law Review, UCLA Law Review, North Carolina Law Review, Ohio State Law Journal, and online companions to the University of Chicago Law Review and New York University Law Review.She lives in Bloomington, Indiana.The Doctor Patient Forum has joined advocates nationwide in filing a citizen petition demanding that the FDA regulate NarxCare and all clinical algorithm software that scores patients.🛑 This affects patients with pain, addiction, and complex conditions.🗣️ Your voice matters. Help us hold the system accountable.👉 Submit your public comment today:🔗 https://www.regulations.gov/document/FDA-2025-P-0701-0001📅 Deadline to comment: May 10, 2025Clips taken from:NPR 1A – “Against the Pain: The Opioid Crisis and Medication Access”https://the1a.org/segments/against-the-pain-the-opioid-crisis-and-medication-access/Cato Institute – “Patients, Privacy, and PDMPs” (Dr. Jeffrey Singer & Kate Nicholson)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXVXShMASJ4&t=4357sDuke Margolis – “Strategies for Promoting the Safe Use of Prescription Opioids”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFUkAi8CoywNPR – “To End Addiction Epidemic” (Kolodny quote)https://www.npr.org/2014/05/09/311119395/to-end-addiction-epidemic-states-focus-on-stopping-doctor-shoppersCover 2 Resources – Gary Mendell (Podcast)https://open.spotify.com/episode/33OosEC2hutlE9y6CogmneJennifer Oliva’s Paper – “Dosing Discrimination: Regulating PDMP Risk Scores”https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3768774
January 28, 2025Episode 551 hr 47 min
Prescription for Disaster: The Untold Truth of CDC’s Opioid Guidelines and their Fatal Impact: A CDC Physician's Person Account
In this conversation, Claudia, Bev, and Dr. Charles LeBaron discuss his experience with a severe painful illness. After he struggled accessing opioids, he started investigating CDC's opioid guidelines and their tragic result.
LeBaron Bio
For more than twenty-eight years, Charles LeBaron worked as a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While there, he was the author of more than fifty scientific studies published in peer-reviewed journals, including first- or senior-author papers in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association. He was co-recipient of CDC’s Charles C. Shepard Science Award for best scientific manuscript published by CDC authors. A Captain in the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service, he received the Meritorious Service Medal, as well as more than ten other individual and unit commendation awards. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Medical School, he is board certified in both internal medicine and pediatrics, as well as the author of a previous non-fiction account of the first year of medical school. He currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
1) Amazon page where the book can be purchased
(2) Kirkus Review
(3) BlueInk Review
Find DPF at thedoctorpatientforum.com
patreon.com/thedoctorpatientforum
info@dpfconsultants.net
October 29, 2024Episode 541 hr 19 min
"It Is a Privilege To Treat a Patient" with Dr. David Alfery - Episode 54
Dr. David Alfery's Bio
Dr. David Alfery was raised in the North but moved to Louisiana to attend Tulane University where he graduated with a BA degree in English. He then attended LSU Medical School in New Orleans. After graduating, he took the Louisiana State Medical Licensing Exam where he received the highest grade out of approximately 400 new doctors from the three medical schools in the state. He spent a year as a surgical intern at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky and then did his residency in anesthesia at the University of California in San Diego. He stayed on there for an additional year of fellowship training in cardiothoracic anesthesia.
In 1980 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee where he spent a thirty-six-year career in private practice. He has served as a Chief of Anesthesia, President of the Tennessee State Society of Anesthesiologists, and was a founding member of Anesthesia Medical Group, one of the largest anesthesia practices in the United States. For twenty years he served as an Oral Examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology, ending his tenure as a Senior Examiner. While in practice, he held an academic appointment at Vanderbilt University Medical Center as Adjunct Associate Professor of Anesthesiology. In addition, he participated in numerous medical missions with Operation Smile. Following his retirement from work in the Operating Room, he co-founded the AMG Ketamine and Wellness Center in Nashville.
Dr. Alfery has authored ten chapters in medical textbooks and 41 peer reviewed articles in anesthesia medical journals. He has invented several anesthesia devices that are sold worldwide and for which he has been awarded 17 US and International patents.
He has been married to his medical school sweetheart, Joyce, for over forty-five years, and together they have produced three daughters and five grandchildren.
Find Dr. Alfery at https://savinggracebook.com or on TikTok at @drdavidalfery
The information in this podcast is not to be considered medical of legal advice.
October 8, 2024Episode 531 hr 1 min
Rerelease of "I Failed My Drug Test, But It's Wrong, Now What"? Episode 53
The audio of this podcast was originally posted on 11/2/23. This is the video version. We are posting this again because one of the most common questions we get have to due with drug testing.
We often hear from pain patients who were dismissed from their doctor for failing their drug test. They say there is no way the test is right. Ed Brown gives some possible explanations.
Edward Brown's Bio:
Edward G. Brown is a chemistry expert with over twenty-five years of laboratory research experience, over 5 years of patent work experience and over twenty years of experience assisting attorneys in chemistry cases as chemistry expert and expert witness. His technical
and academic background includes the following:
B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of California,
Berkeley; Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Davis; In addition, Dr. Brown received post-doctoral research fellowships from the University of Auckland, NZ and Yale University; he pursued
chemical analysis and chemistry research related to methodology development in organic chemistry at those institutions.
Dr. Brown has also worked in a number of biochemical and pharmaceutical companies during his career as a research chemist, staff scientist and senior research scientist; he currently provides clients with in-lab
contract medicinal chemistry research expertise as well as patent drafting and expert witness services.
He is a coauthor on over twenty chemistry articles and is a
co-inventor on ten U.S. patents. He has
testified in both state and federal courts as a chemistry expert in both criminal and patent litigation cases.
His expertise as a medicinal chemistry expert in criminal
drug cases has expanded over the years and includes advising in cases involving:
methamphetamine and amphetamine analysis, manufacture, possession and sale; fentanyl, opioid and opiate analysis, possession and sale; cocaine analysis, possession and sale; LSD analysis, possession and sale; MDMA and MDA analysis, manufacture, possession and sale; benzodiazepine analysis, possession and sale;
analysis, possession and sale of synthetic cannabinoids;
and in hemp, THC and marijuana cases.
Dr. Brown currently advises attorneys and other clients in
criminal, patent and litigation cases as a medicinal chemistry expert and consultant in Durham, NC.
His webpage can be found at: www.ExpertChemistryServices.com
The Doctor Patient Forum is a national non profit
organization fighting for the rights of pain patients and their providers. We bring awareness to the untreated pain and patient abandonment crisis. We are also knows as Don’t Punish Pain Rally.
https://www.patreon.com/thedoctorpatientforum
https://www.thedoctorpatientforum.com/
#thedoctorpatientforum
#dontpunishpainrally #chronicpain #opioids #chronicpainpatient
#patientabandonment #harmreduction #chronicillness #medicalgaslighting
#dpfpatreon #pain #opioideliminationindustry #opioidelimination #patreon
#thedoctorpatientforumpatreon #harmreduction #medicalgaslighting #UDT #drugtest #toxscreen
The information contained in this podcast is not to be considered medical or legal advice
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