Who Is Responsible For The Pain Pill Epidemic Analysis

In the article, “Who Is Responsible for the Pain-Pill Epidemic?” by Celine Gounder and “How Did the Opioid Epidemic Get So Bad?”, by Dr. Sushrut Jangi, the topic of opioid addiction is discussed. This is an important topic to discuss because opioid abuse is a huge problem, and it can serve as a warning to those that don’t know that opioids are dangerous. Both authors agree that opioid addiction has gotten out of hand but they disagree on the idea of who is to blame. In Celine Gounder’s article, “Who Is Responsible for the Pain-Pill Epidemic?” it focuses on some of the reasons behind the pain-pill epidemic. First, the author discusses how physicians are in a difficult position because they want to help patients in pain but worry about opioid misuse. The author says that doctors are frustrated because they cannot cure the pain and the patients become upset with them (Gounder). This means that no matter …show more content…
Gounder and Jangi both agree that patients should try alternative methods to relieve pain and not solely rely on opioids. Gounder and Jangi both recommend alternative methods like message, physical therapy, and acupuncture to help patients relieve their pain. The two authors also agree that because pharmaceutical companies aggressively marketed their pain pills, it helped fuel the epidemic. Both authors blame the companies for accusing doctors of not treating patient pain properly, which in turn helped the companies who make opioids gain money (Gounder) (Jangi). However, Gounder defends physicians, while Jangi, a doctor himself, takes responsibility for his role in the opioid problem. Jangi states that overprescribing opioids is something that doctors have gotten so used to doing. All things considered, both authors agree that alternative methods would be much better than just prescribing opioids but they don’t agree on whose fault it