Medical Students Want Better Training On How To Treat Opioid Addiction

04:20

May 18, 2016

Oxycodone pain pills prescribed for a patient with chronic pain lie on display on March 23, 2016 in Norwich, CT. Communities nationwide are struggling with the unprecidented opioid pain pill and heroin addiction epidemic. On March 15, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), announced guidelines for doctors to reduce the amount of opioid painkillers prescribed, in an effort to curb the epidemic. The CDC estimates that most new heroin addicts first became hooked on prescription pain medication before graduating to heroin, which is stronger and cheaper. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Medical students are complaining that they’re not getting adequate training on how to safely prescribe opioid painkillers or how to treat patients with opioid addiction. About 28,000 people in the United States died from an opioid overdose in 2014, and half of those deaths involved medication prescribed by a doctor.

STAT reporter Melissa Bailey talks to Here & Now’s Robin Young about the call for medical schools to do a better job preparing doctors to deal with this problem.

STAT: Medical students demand better training to tackle opioid crisis

Guest

Melissa Bailey, reporter covering Boston's Longwood Medical Area for STAT. She tweets @mmbaily.

This segment aired on May 18, 2016.