Killing Pain: Fewer Opioid Scripts

Doctors and other health providers wrote about 11 million fewer prescriptions for narcotic painkillers in 2013 than in 2012, but some experts expected a bigger drop-off given the brighter spotlight on the nation's opioid epidemic.

In 2013, there were 230 million prescriptions for opioids such as Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet, according to data from IMS Health, a drug market research firm. That represents about a 5% drop from a year earlier when 241 million were written.

Opioid prescriptions had grown substantially since the 1990s.

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Source: Med Page Today