Opioids are necessary for the treatment of many pain problems. These medications are safe when taken as directed by knowledgeable health-care providers. A person whose pain is well managed has improved physical functioning and better quality of living. This is true even when circumstances require the use of opioids several times a day, every day, for days, weeks, months or years. While drug abuse and drug trafficking are problems in society, the inadequate management of pain is a much bigger problem.
Persons have the right to a thorough pain assessment and appropriate treatment of pain.
It contained several inaccurate statements regarding the use and abuse of pain medications. Let's set the record straight and correct the misinformation this article promulgated. The article mentioned 120 deaths nationwide over the past three years attributed to OxyContin abuse. However, when experts examine the coroners' records in those cases, very few of those deaths can be definitively attributed to OxyContin abuse. Compare this to the over 6,000,000 prescriptions for OxyContin written last year.