Prescription Drugs Abuse

If you or someone in your family needs a prescription painkiller to manage pain -- as many people do -- you and your doctor can take steps to avoid accidental overdoses.

Plans for the manufacture and sale of hydrocodone pills five to 10 times more potent than is now available is a warning sign of an escalation of what we might call the "prescription opiate arms race" among pharmaceutical companies.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that we physicians' prescribing practices have finally caught up with all of us in a big way.