4 steps to reversing the epidemic of opioid use disorders
Pain rarely kills, while pain pills are killing thousands of Americans. Identifying those at high risk of addiction and other steps can stop this epidemic.
Health care professionals share a common and lofty goal: to minimize their patients’ pain. But what if we’re hurting more people than we’re helping? That may be the sad reality of the opioid epidemic, one driven in part by doctors’ desire to do good.
The use and abuse of like hydrocodone and oxycodone is currently among the . While Americans account for only 5 percent of the world’s population,. Overall, prescription opioids are now killing more people each year — by last count in 2015 — than die from homicide.
