A responsible way to treat patients and pain.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that deaths due to prescription medications have increased for the eleventh year in a row. In 2010, more than 16,000 deaths were associated with prescription medications [1]. As tragic as this is for families of a lost one, it would be a cruel consequence if an overreaction to these legitimate concerns makes it more difficult for blameless patients to obtain relief from excruciating pain—or stymies efforts to develop more comprehensive treatments for pain.