The Real Problem of the Opioid Epidemic: Bad Pain Treatment

Around 2 million people in the United States are addicted to prescription painkillers, with 52,000 accidental opioid overdose deaths in 2015. According to Mark Ilgen, associate professor of psychiatry at University of Michigan, the problem isn’t the medication itself, but how doctors treat pain. Different approaches to chronic pain management may be the answer to helping reduce opioid addiction.