I'm having fun again. It shouldn't be misery every day, day after day, week after week, year after year. Addiction fears It is true that there are people that go to the hospital on a routine basis looking for pain medicine, said Carole Akerly, director of accreditation for UNC Hospitals. But addicts looking for drugs shouldn't keep people with legitimate pain from getting the help they need, she said. Studies have not shown any link between taking prescribed opioid painkillers and drug addiction, said Dr. Brian Ginsberg, an anesthesiologist at Duke.
Doctors now are much less hesitant to prescribe narcotics for pain.
And places like Duke treat pain in a variety of ways, offering acupuncture and relaxation therapy as well as drugs. Ten years ago no one ever talked about pain, Weiner said, but now the talk is constant. He said he keeps reminding himself that what to him is a simple, minor procedure, like a hernia operation, may be scary for patients. She knew he was in pain. But when she first took him to the hospital in Greensboro, N.C., she felt that doctors doubted anything was wrong.