It seems like most the new studies on the effectiveness of pain killers indicate that these drugs are not much help at all. We have seen recently that over-the-counter drugs are more useful. New pain killers are scarcely better than placebos. Now comes word that giving narcotic pain pills to teenagers is a poor idea.
A new study found that those teenagers who used narcotic pain killers had a 33% higher rate of becoming addicted. This was notably true for those teens with little or no experience with illegal drugs. In other words, just the kids who have the best chance of staying sober. The study recommends that doctors prescribe narcotic pain killers very sparingly for their teen aged patients. Once more, we are left to wonder what actual benefit these powerful, addictive and very expensive drugs provide.
