50% of American adults suffer from chronic pain. If those levels don't qualify as an epidemic, what levels would?
I tried to avoid this pointless debate with a second paragraph to immunize my argument from the trope that arguments against opiates are arguments in favor of pain.
My point --- I think obviously --- is that no underlying medical pathology occurred to spur the uptake in consumer opiate products.
The uptake of opiates wasn't driven by any change in pathology, but it was partially driven by a change in how we think about pathology. The IOM report I linked to helped to popularize the idea of treating pain itself as a disease that should be treated, rather than as a symptom which shouldn't be treated until the underlying cause is known:
"Because pain often produces psychological and cognitive effects—anxiety, depression, and anger among them—interdisciplinary, biopsychosocial approaches are the most promising for treating patients with persistent pain. But for most patients (and clinicians), such care is a difficult-to-attain ideal, impeded by numerous structural barriers—institutional, educational, organizational, and reimbursement-related. [...] In addition, adequate pain treatment and follow-up may be thwarted by a mix of uncertain diagnosis and societal stigma consciously or unconsciously applied to people reporting pain, particularly when they do not respond readily to treatment. [...] Understanding chronic pain as a disease means that it requires direct treatment, rather than being sidelined while clinicians attempt to identify some underlying condition that may have caused it."
I'm definitely not arguing that opioids should be first line treatments for chronic pain, but I also agree with the IOM that they should be more accessible when needed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/0...
C.f. the IOM report on pain in America: https://www.nap.edu/catalog/13172/relieving-pain-in-america-...
Anecdotal evidence over six decades of life on Planet Earth suggests otherwise.
