Can Opioid Pain Therapy Create Drug Addicts?
We frequently hear or read about people who have become addicted to painkillers after being prescribed them by their doctor for chronic pain. The problem is that once the pain is gone or manageable, the person can find themselves trapped by the drug and has to keep taking it. Next thing you know, theyre doctor shopping, stealing drugs from medicine cabinets, buying them off the Internet, or from drug dealers. Really, their only hope at that point is a drug detox program that will help them get off the drug. These stories are always sad and somewhat frightening. For me, they also raise a number of questions: How many people actually suffer from the severe chronic pain that requires these prescriptions? And how do they become addicted? Some of the answers I found were shocking. A study conducted by Stanford University Medical Center found that one in five adult Americans suffer from chronic pain pain lasting for several months or longer. And, according to a study published in The Journal
