David Sherer, MD, is an American physician, inventor, and author. He currently practices anesthesiology in the suburbs of Washington D.C. and is a tireless advocate for hospitalized patients. For more great tips from Dr. Sherer, check out his other videos and Bottom Line blog “What Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You.”
In the past, opioids were the doctor’s go-to medication for patients dealing with postsurgical pain. Unfortunately, this has contributed to today’s opioid-addiction epidemic. In this video, Dr. David Sherer, anesthesiologist and author of Bottom Line’s What Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You blog, discusses some of the alternatives to opioid painkillers. The new thinking on postsurgical pain relief, Dr. Scherer explains, is a multimodal one, in which a combination of different types of medications—antidepressants, anti-inflammatory agents, local anesthetics and more—are used to lessen the dependence on opioids.
For more with Dr. Sherer, click here for his podcast and video interviews, or purchase his memoir, The House of Black and White: My Life with and Search for Louise Johnson Morris.