Into the Looking Glass

Since April of this year, I’ve been conducting fieldwork for my Master’s in anthropology. My research is focused on how chronic pain patients are able—or not—to access opioids to manage their pain in light of the Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain published by the Center for Disease Control in 2016 (Dowell, et al). My central questions revolve around uncovering how these guidelines may have altered pain patients access to opioids, and how any changes are affecting their everyday lives. As a chronic pain patient myself, I am very aware of just how life-altering changes to your prescribing routine can be. In talking with other chronic pain patients, I’ve tried to understand how these guidelines have altered their lives. Broadly, I’m trying to understand how the opioid epidemic, CDC guidelines, and chronic pain patients are knotted together—and what that knotting reflects about America’s history, perceptions, and policies around drugs…

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