There’s little evidence abuse-deterrent opioids work. Why should we use them?
Two reasons why it's too soon to mandate the use of abuse-deterrent opioids: There's no evidence that they work, and they are 10-20 times more expensive.
In the late 1990s, the pharmaceutical industry reassured physicians that, with the advent of new formulations, opioids could be safely prescribed with little risk of addiction or abuse to patients who had legitimate pain. The American Pain Society, with funding from the pharmaceutical industry, introduced its “pain as the 5th vital sign” campaign, urging physicians to assess patients’ pain and develop plans to address it. In the years that followed, prescriptions for opioids dramatically increased, at great cost to the U.S. health system and to communities across the country.
The pharmaceutical industry has proposed using so-called as an important way to address the opioid epidemic that emerged
