Why opioids are such an American problem - BBC News

For every one million Americans, almost 50,000 doses of opioids are taken every day. That's four times the rate in the UK.

There are often good reasons for taking opioids. Cancer patients use them for pain relief, as do patients recovering from surgery (codeine and morphine are opioids, for example).

But take too many and you have a problem. And America certainly has a problem.

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41701718

Federal Pain Research Strategy Overview | Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee

The NIH Office of Pain Policy is pleased to announce the release of the Federal Pain Research Strategy.

The Federal Pain Research Strategy (FPRS) is an effort of the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC) and the National Institutes of Health, Office of Pain Policy to oversee development of a long-term strategic plan to advance the federal pain research agenda. The strategy is relevant to the missions all federal agencies and departments that support pain research.  The research priorities of the FPRS are intended to guide strategic research planning and to support funding decisions that will fill crucial gaps in the federal pain research portfolio. 

The strategy fulfills the IPRCC mandates to Identify critical gaps in basic and clinical research on the symptoms and causes of pain and to make recommendations to ensure that the activities of the National Institutes of Health and other Federal agencies are free of unnecessary duplication of effort.  The FPRS completes the National Pain Strategy NPS section on pain research in that it Includes an agenda for developing physiological, clinical, behavioral, psychological, outcomes, and health services research and appropriate links across these domains that align with the NPS.

https://iprcc.nih.gov/Federal-Pain-Research-Strategy/Overview

Interagency Pain Research Portfolio -The Federal Government's Pain Research Database

The Interagency Pain Research Portfolio database provides information on pain research and training activities supported by the Federal Government. The participating agencies – AHRQ, CDC, DoD, FDA, NIH, and VA – are represented on the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC), a Federal advisory committee to enhance pain research efforts and promote collaboration across the government.

https://paindatabase.nih.gov/