Opioids and the physician-patient relationship: What are we getting wrong?

On Becoming a Healer

The opioid crisis was precipitated by physicians overprescribing opioid pain medication, egged on by the pharmaceutical industry, contributing to suffering and death from addiction and overdose. Now, many physicians are forcibly cutting patients off of opioids and refusing to prescribe in the setting of a backlash, contributing to suffering from pain, and death from suicide. Saul and Stefan consider some of the striking similarities in how we -- the medical profession -- are getting it wrong on both sides of the crisis, why, and what we can do about it.