NOT PREJUDICE –

July 1, 2023 – You’ve had a stressful few months: major surgery led to lingering pain worsened by vague anxiety, the unsettled sense you aren’t quite back to normal. Your pain has subsided, but you’ve decided to ask your doctor for another refill of the opioid painkillers she prescribed after your operation. Just a little longer … just until the nerves shake out, you think.

Seems harmless enough, right? But staying on opioids to allay anxiety, rather than pain, is a slippery slope, Harvard experts say. It’s also one of the most common ways well-meaning people slide into opioid addiction (formally called opioid use disorder), a problem responsible for about three-quarters of the nation’s overdose deaths.

READ@HarvardHealth