Opioid Rehabilitation: When Pain Relief Becomes Dependence

The first time I sat with a alcohol rehabilitation for veterans patient who had slid from prescribed pain relief into dependence, he brought a shoebox of pill bottles to his intake drug addiction counseling appointment. The labels told the story in neat pharmacy fonts: post-surgery oxycodone, then hydrocodone personal stories of drug recovery long-term drug rehabilitation as a “step down,” then refills after a second injury, then a jump to fentanyl patches when his tolerance community drug rehabilitation cre