‘High use’ pain killer addicts get fix from doctors, dealers: study

By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Most Americans who abuse prescription pain killers get them free from friends or family, but a new study released on Monday shows that addicts who use these opiates most frequently gravitate toward doctors or dealers to get their fixes. U.S. government researchers found that nearly one in three “high use” abusers – people who take opioids between 200 and 365 days a year – obtained a doctor’s prescription for the drugs, compared with about one in five of those who used the drugs less than 30 days over the course of a year. Prevention programs should concentrate much more on ensuring that doctors prescribe pain killers judiciously, screen patients carefully and conduct follow-up monitoring of frequent users. “This is the group where we really need to be targeting our efforts because they’re most at risk for overdose or dependence,” lead author Christopher Jones, former head of the CDC’s prescription drug overdose team, told Reuters.