Injured Workers Are Using Less Opioids, Study Finds

Opioid-derived medications have long been used to treat workers suffering from chronic pain conditions as a result of their injuries. The story might go something like this:

A construction worker falls off a scaffold at work and suffers a severe back injury. The back injury leads to a chronic pain condition, so a doctor describes a strong pain medication like Oxycontin to help the injured worker cop with the pain. Due to the highly addictive nature of Oxycontin, as an opioid drug, the worker develops an addiction to the medicine and the addiction literally destroys his life, his ability to work and he is ruined because of it.