The damage from the opioid crisis extends beyond the harms of addiction and overdose. Some doctors say it also hurts people with chronic pain by derailing research intended to help them.
The need to help people suffering chronic pain seduced some researchers into believing misleading claims of pharmaceutical companies promoting opioids. Researchers today say opioids are not only dangerous; they are not a good long-term solution for chronic pain sufferers. The relief tends to wane with time.
And as public outrage grew over the addiction deaths, money that opioid producer Purdue Pharma LP pumped into pain research eventually tainted the reputation of scientists — and led to the collapse of the American Pain Society, which had served an important role for pain researchers with a journal and meetings they depended on to exchange ideas.
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