A new study from Dartmouth-Hitchcock shows surgeons are over-prescribing painkillers.
On average, patients recovering from routine surgeries only use about 40 percent of the opioid painkillers their doctors prescribed.
In the recent study, surgeons looked at the opiate prescriptions they had written. When they called patients to follow up, doctors found most patients had only used a couple of those pills to manage pain.
Dr. Rick Barth, the chief of general surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, says doctors have the best intentions when they prescribe the pills 鈥� but the abundance of opioids has larger consequences.
鈥淭he problem is there really is a cost to society for that type of prescribing, and that's because there are too many pain pills around, which can then lead to the overdose problem,鈥� he told VPR over the phone.
A bill passed by the Vermont Legislature in May created a group that will draft new opioid prescribing regulations at the state level.
