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Opioid Treatment for Chronic Back Pain and Its Association with Addiction
- Robert L. DuPont, MD;
- Noni A. Graham, MPH; and
- Mark S. Gold, MD
- From the Institute for Behavior and Health, Rockville, MD 20852; University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL 32610; and University of Florida and McKnight Brain Institute, Gainesville, FL 32610.
TO THE EDITOR:
We applaud the recent meta-analysis and review by Martell and colleagues (1). Opioid prescriptions are so commonly diverted that only marijuana is more widely abused by U.S. teens. This is exemplified by results from the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2), revealing that more Americans used prescription-type pain relievers nonmedically for the first time than used marijuana for the first time. Legitimate opioid prescription use has dramatically increased, apparently with little regard for the associated nonmedical use. Reasons for this …
