Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Imperium der Schmerzen: Wie eine Familiendynastie die weltweite Opioidkrise auslöste by Patrick Radden Keefe

19 reviews

neri's review against another edition

challenging informative sad slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Minor: Suicide

nassuada's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Terminal illness, Antisemitism, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, Terminal illness, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Forced institutionalization

butlerebecca's review against another edition

challenging dark informative tense medium-paced

4.25

sad that succession was only mentioned once, 13 hours in

I want to rate this a four but I’m giving it more because I think it has to do with the fact that I have already watched Dopesick and prefer the pace and arc of that, but recognize the point of this book is more Sackler and less first-hand addiction experience

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Medical trauma

hilaryreadsbooks's review against another edition

5.0

[Thank you Anchor Books for the gifted copy] 

Many of us know that powerful people are capable of terrible things, but many of us do not know what those terrible things often are. Patrick Radden Keefe’s EMPIRE OF PAIN: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE SACKLER DYNASTY is an incredible tome of research and investigation that exposes just a part of this terrible world. Focused less on the actual opioid epidemic, EMPIRE OF PAIN hones in on this powerful family and how greed, ambition, and power led to this crisis. Keefe writes with empathy and clarity, and his storytelling, as it was with SAY NOTHING, was phenomenal. Even at 500 pages, I finished this book in just two nights. 

What stood out to me the most was the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma’s manipulation of pain patients (and I appreciate Keefe’s note at the end explaining his intention to not contribute to stigmatization of those who use opioids, but rather to demonstrate that the Sacklers and Purdue “have for decades invoked the interests of pain patients as a fig leaf for their own avarice.” The facts that Keefe presents behind this are sobering—there were multiple instances where the Sacklers and other Purdue executives ignored addiction data that foresaw the crisis; instead, they would deny any links and continue to sell Oxy, even using pain patients as examples of Oxy’s effectiveness in their ads. There was, as well, Purdue Pharma’s intention to start selling addiction treatment drugs that target the very market of addiction they created (a business model used by many big pharma companies). 

EMPIRE OF PAIN will stay with me for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Self harm and Suicide

kdsmoove's review against another edition

dark informative sad slow-paced

5.0

“It is a peculiar hallmark of the American economy that you can produce a dangerous product and effectively off-load any legal liability for whatever destruction that product may cause by pointing to the individual responsibility of the consumer.”

*insert annie screaming gif”

the amount of times i screamed at the radio or texted someone “just when i thought these people couldn’t get any worse, they fucking do!” throughout reading this is not a low number. when i tell you i was HOOKED from the beginning and somehow not intimidated by the length. 

i knew some about the opioid crisis, even enough to associate the sackler name with it but i had *no idea* just how deep the rot went. i didn’t realize that arthur sackler was the mastermind behind the way the entire pharmaceutical marketing schemes work now. that he basically invented sales and created his own fucking sources and oh my GOD. it was a solid five or six hours in before we even got to Reagan and i did the whole *leo pointing at the tv gif* thing to the stereo. 

and of course today to tidy it up it HAD to be the fucking trump administration willing to let them off with a slap on the wrist. i am so mad, i will be staying mad. you should read this. but beware, there’s a lot of trigger warnings to check and it will make you very mad. One of the lines he used was “rip shit pissed” which sounds a lot funnier out loud than it does written down but i will be using it moving forward.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting

idun_aurora's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

5.0

The amount of work that has gone into this book is commendable. It's packed with information without ever getting trudgy, shedding light on not just the Sacklers and the opioid crisis, but many parts of the (ridiculous) American health care system and the marketing of prescription drugs.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma

carpfish's review against another edition

challenging informative fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, and Suicide

Moderate: Medical content and Medical trauma

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Antisemitism

nothingforpomegranted's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

This book has absolutely everything I like, and it was done so well. Well-developed characters with complex relationships in a comprehensively researched, utterly compelling narrative nonfiction story spanning decades. A Jewish immigrant family in New York with connections to Columbia University and, of course, a critical look at the opioid crisis and the many contributors to its horrors. 

I was fascinated by every element of this book (though the introduction of Arthur Sackler and the family history developed in Part 1 was my favorite section), and it was one of those audiobooks that had me seeking out more household chores in order to keep listening. Patrick Radden Keefe narrates his own writing fabulously, and he wrote an absolutely incredibly piece of investigative journalism that never bothered me with its length or detail. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt