Hooked On Painkillers

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This BBC program investigates the increasing number of opioid painkillers being prescribed at family doctor level, with one leading pain specialist now seeing patients at pain clinics on doses well above the amount believed to be effective. The rise in the use of these painkillers, which come from the same chemical family as heroin, could be putting these patients at higher risk of side effects - including addiction - with potentially little effect on their chronic pain. The team travels to Kentucky in the US to look at the effect opioids have had on areas there, finding that many people are abusing prescription medications, and in the UK meets a person who became seriously addicted after being prescribed opioids following surgery.