[rubbingalcohol]

As withdrawal becomes more severe and patients develop tolerance to these medications, they need to take increasing doses to get the same effects, leading to more severe withdrawal - aka. a vicious cycle.

The crux of this article was that Purdue knew their dosing schedule was problematic but pursued it despite growing evidence it was reducing efficacy and increasing addiction. Then they hid behind their FDA certification as if that exempts them from acting on evidence that their shitty drug doesn't work right.

In general, no drug for acute _anything_ will last as long as the manufacturer advertises. They are incentivized to push an idealized dosing schedule, even when that makes the drug less effective for a significant number of patients. This is kind of a big deal when a drug causes severe physical withdrawal symptoms.