It’s spooky what people say about painkillers
This article is being written in the run-up to Halloween when everyone with a playful disposition applies make-up, sticks on SFX bullet wounds and acts the part of one of the living dead or some creature escaping from a horror movie. Once a year, it’s good therapy to pretend to be seriously injured. Except the rest of the year, there are millions of people who have to get up in the morning and struggle to school or work. For them, the reality is anything but fun. They are the foot soldiers in the war against pain and, for the majority, this means relying on medication to get through the day. Interestingly, the latest piece of research out of Boston University shows a significantly higher number of people using an opiate painkiller than found in earlier studies. This increase may be due to better research methods, the fact that people are more prepared to be honest about their drug use, or that more people have come to rely on drugs to control their pain. [Read more →]