Opioid addiction, abuse, and overdose are at the forefront of our national dialogue. But by casting opioids as the villain, this important conversation is missing an essential element: how best to treat the chronic pain that afflicts 100 million Americans, including many of our wounded warriors. Chronic pain is a multifaceted problem with a range of causes and solutions, not a two-dimensional condition that can only be treated with opioids.
Last fall, while on an extended trip to Washington, D.C., I realized that the opioid addiction crisis has spawned a fundamental misunderstanding about pain management. A conversation with a senator from a Midwestern state crystallized the problem for me. When I mentioned that I ran a pain management center at Stanford University, the senator shook his head sympathetically. It’s a shame, he said, that all we can offer people in pain are addictive opioids that destroy lives.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
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