{"title":"Redefining Pain and Addiction: How Opioid Manufacturers Changed Medical Language to Foster Opioid Use.","authors":"Aidan Kaspari, Judy Butler, Adriane Fugh-Berman","doi":"10.1017/jme.2026.10258","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The role of pharmaceutical companies in promoting overuse of opioids by influencing medical discourse is underexamined. Marketing messages have been seeded in journal articles, continuing medical education (CME), prescribing guidelines, educational activities, and professional society recommendations. Terms generated or redefined by industry created a framework for promoting opioids. This paper focuses on the terms \"opiophobia,\" \"pseudoaddiction,\" \"breakthrough pain\" and \"pain is the 5th vital sign.\" The reframing of incipient opioid use disorder as \"tolerance\" and \"dependence\" is also discussed. The proliferation of these industry-supported terms within medical discourse created a false evidence base that opioids were safe and effective for chronic pain and that withholding opioids deprived patients of the best care.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"1-7"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2026-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/jme.2026.10258","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ETHICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The role of pharmaceutical companies in promoting overuse of opioids by influencing medical discourse is underexamined. Marketing messages have been seeded in journal articles, continuing medical education (CME), prescribing guidelines, educational activities, and professional society recommendations. Terms generated or redefined by industry created a framework for promoting opioids. This paper focuses on the terms "opiophobia," "pseudoaddiction," "breakthrough pain" and "pain is the 5th vital sign." The reframing of incipient opioid use disorder as "tolerance" and "dependence" is also discussed. The proliferation of these industry-supported terms within medical discourse created a false evidence base that opioids were safe and effective for chronic pain and that withholding opioids deprived patients of the best care.
期刊介绍：
Material published in The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (JLME) contributes to the educational mission of The American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, covering public health, health disparities, patient safety and quality of care, and biomedical science and research. It provides articles on such timely topics as health care quality and access, managed care, pain relief, genetics, child/maternal health, reproductive health, informed consent, assisted dying, ethics committees, HIV/AIDS, and public health. Symposium issues review significant policy developments, health law court decisions, and books.
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