TORONTO, November 21, 2016 - Dr. Peter Selby, CAMH’s Director of Medical Education, wrote an article that appears on the November 21 edition of the Toronto Star.
Canadians have one of the highest rates of prescription opioid use in the world – five times higher than in the U.K., for example. This is a tragedy because we don’t do any better at reducing chronic pain – just at creating addiction and an epidemic of overdose death.
Many reasons have caused this, including the influence and marketing tactics of the pharmaceutical industry, the willingness of Canadian insurers to pay for drugs like OxyContin, as well as mistaken assumptions about opioids by prescribers and dispensers
To continue reading the article, please visit The Toronto Star's website.