More treatment. Stronger oversight. And above all, bolder leadership.
Oxycodone is a narcotic pain reliever, an ingredient of painkillers that have contributed to the current opioid crisis. Photograph: Education Images/UIG via Getty Images
~ Foreword ~
This following article lacks understanding of cause and effect. The government caused the opioid crisis. They made pain the 4th vital sign. Every clinic and hospital was evaluated, surveyed, and rated on whether a pain score was done on each patient and if the pain was helped by the doctor. Ratings and financial rewards were tied to the outcome. ( sounds like the VA scandal doesn’t it? ) Every doctor with a working brain thought this was foolish and would lead to addiction. The Electronic Medical Record has continued this as a performance standard. Babies have their pain score recorded in ER notes. Here is my solution: 1. Dump the pain score. 2. Dump the EMR that depersonalizes medicine. 3. Teach your children that pain during life if normal. 4. Stop pretending that we can prescribe narcotics and they will not be addicting. ~ Rosemary Stein, MD
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Gwyneth, watch out.
According to Peter C. Gøtzsche, a Danish physician and medical researcher, prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer.
ADD and ADHD are both constantly touted by parents and teachers as the reasoning behind why children are unable to focus. And often times, the “cure” seems to be a slew of pharmaceutical medications that numb the children to their surroundings.
The National Health Service (United Kingdom) is eyeing the cessation of the incessant prescription of Liothyronine, a drug that is used to treat thyroid disorders, after its manufacturer, Oakville, Canada-based pharmaceutical company Concordia International, increased its retail price by 5,662 percent to $12.45 per tablet ($373.35 per month). 
Long careers in the military have always been difficult due to the very physical nature of the vocation, but service has been particularly tough in recent years due to overseas contingency operations.
Our nation is experiencing an opioid crisis. Currently more than 2.5 million Americans are addicted to either opioid pain relievers or heroin. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioid-related deaths have more than quadrupled since 1999. All drug overdose deaths, many caused by opioids, increased by 17 percent from 2015 to 2016 (about 64,000 people died). 
Just one century ago in America, all of the most popular chronic diseases and disorders that we know so well today barely existed, including cancer, diabetes type 2, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, osteoporosis, Parkinson’s and heart disease. Still, nearly every medical doctor in the United States blames hereditary genes for these preventable health problems, as if somehow a few generations of humans changed hundreds of thousands of years of evolution basically “overnight.”
Jerome Kagan is a psychologist and professor at Harvard University. He was named as the 22nd most eminent psychologist of the 20th century. He has conducted extensive research on the cognitive and emotional development of children and has made claims that ADHD is an “invention” that doesn’t exist. He strongly believes that the disorder was constructed by pharmaceutical companies and healthcare professionals. Essentially, ADHD is a “hoax”. 
It is impossible to talk about the causes of the opioid epidemic without pointing to the manufacturers and distributors that marketed and proliferated these dangerous pills. Yet over the past several years, these multibillion-dollar companies have avoided much in the way of serious accountability.