Public television stations across the country have begun airing a documentary about pain treatment produced by a doctor with significant financial ties to the manufacturers of opioid medications — a fact not disclosed in the program.

“The Painful Truth” chronicles the plight of several patients struggling to find effective treatment for chronic pain. Throughout the 57-minute-long program, politicians, federal agencies, and others are depicted as having overreacted to the epidemic of opioid-related overdoses; the documentary suggests pain specialists have been discouraged from prescribing opioids to patients who genuinely need them.