A Memoir of the Opioid Crisis in Review

A Memoir of the Opioid Crisis in ReviewTitle: In Pain: A Bioethicist’s Personal Struggle with Opioids
Author: Travis Rieder
Source: Library
Links: Bookshop (affiliate link) |Goodreads
Rating:five-stars

Summary: Both the personal story and the thoughtful analysis in this book made it a clear favorite of the books I’ve read on the opioid epidemic.

This memoir by a bioethics research is by far the best book I’ve read about the opioid epidemic. Author Travis Rieder was in a motorcycle accident, after which he was prescribed opioids that he struggled to stop taking. One obvious strong point of this book is that personal perspective. The author does an incredible job of getting you to image you’re going through what he experienced. His descriptions of his thoughts and physical sensations were explained very clearly. His description of his accident and of withdrawal were equally terrifying. Together, the two experiences viscerally demonstrated the power of opioids to help and to harm.In addition to the personal perspective the author brought to this story, I was surprised by how much  I appreciated the parts that drew on his training as a bioethicist. He talks about the concept of pain, showing how the lack of subjective measures of pain complicate the way doctors prescribe opioids. He also discusses how this subjective assessment allows room for bias in doctors’ reactions. The book wraps up with a great discussion of the moral obligations doctors have to their patients; the different incentives currently influencing doctors; and ways doctors and patients can work to fix this broken system.

This was by far the most thoughtful and nuanced discussion of the problems contributing to the opioid epidemic that I’ve read. The author does an incredible job humanizing these ethical questions through his own experience. The combination of personal experience and analysis made this an engaging, informative nonfiction read. If you want to understand the events related to the latest opioid epidemic, I think Dopesick gives a more thorough accounting of the big picture story. However, if you’re just going to read one book on the opioid epidemic, I’d encourage you to pick this one.

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