New York Times –

FEB. 1, 2018 – The cavalier overprescription of addictive drugs was bewildering: After a tooth extraction, I emerged from an oral surgeon’s office with a two-week supply of Percocet. When S. came to see me, she was pleasant and self-possessed, a former office worker who had lost her job and was living with her daughter. She offered a packet of mints. I asked her about the headaches, and she told me a story riddled with contradictory clues. At times, the headaches arose with no triggers or warnings. At other times, they resembled migraines: There was a premonition — an “aura,” in medical terms — during which the world smelled different and every sound was magnified. The headaches appeared in the front of her head and in the back. Sometimes she felt nauseated; at other times, she was hungry. The only medicines that had ever helped were opioids.
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