This story just ticked me off:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...0f5_story.html

A quarter of the adults who went to hospital emergency departments with sprained ankles were prescribed opioid painkillers, a new study shows, in another sign of how commonly physicians turn to narcotics even for minor injuries.
News flash -- if they're in the ER because of a sprained ankle, odds are, it's bad enough where they're not sure if it's broken or not. And, sprained ankles are occasionally not the only thing an ER person has. Some people with such ankles took a hit or a fall. So, duh, opioids get prescribed.

Patients who received the largest amounts were five times as likely to continue with prolonged opioid use than those given 10 tablets or fewer, though their overall numbers were relatively small.
Hmm... maybe the ones given more opioids HAD MORE PAIN?!? DUH!

Yes, there' a real opioid crisis -- a real pain management problem. But, there's all sorts of bullshit surrounding it, which seems to gloss over the fact that some people have a real pain problem. If opioids aren't the right answer, what is? Live with pain, which is often code for "don't move around, watch TV, play video games, get fat"? Or is it "mindfulness", which is realizing and actualizing that your life sucks in the moment AFAICT? Insurance prefers to not cover poorly-understood "chronic pain"-type conditions. Live with it, you fuckers!

If people can predict what your pain, healing, and tolerance levels ought to be for a given injury, why aren't opioids prescribed in descending order of pain strength? You start out with the strong Norco or Vicodin for the first day or two, then get ratchet'ed down as you should be getting better? No, you tend to see "take as needed" directives. If you're so fucking sure, prescribe that way.

No, I don't have a pain problem (apart from my ankle when I run too long --- getting old sucks but aspirin helps). I have strong opioids in my medicine cabinet dating back many years due to misdiagnosed pain, so no addiction. But, I see people with real pain being mishandled way too often. The solution to opioid tolerance and opioid addiction (two separate things) leading to escalated opioid stupidity is less opioids, not better pain relief. Fuck you unless insurance buys you better drugs!