Despite a lack of evidence to support the use of opioids for chronic pain, they’re still widely prescribed.

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In fact, people in the U.S., less than 5 percent of the population on Earth, consume 80 percent of the world’s opioids.

The director of Michigan Medicine’s Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center, Daniel Clauw, M.D., says routine clinical practice underuses safer and potentially effective options for chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia, interstitial cystitis and irritable bowel syndrome.

“I haven’t prescribed an opioid for chronic pain in at least a decade,” Clauw says. “Narcotics don’t work for most types of chronic pain, and overprescribing of narcotics in the United States has led to a serious public health problem with many deaths and overdoses. We need to modify how we approach individuals with chronic pain.”