[serf]

>If you’re underprescribed opioid painkillers, you just feel temporary pain (or not, since non-opioid painkillers exist).

Without taking a political stance on regulated pain killers, I'd like to point out that the concept of 'temporary pain' is largely a myth. There has been much work done (mostly with chronic pain sufferers) to show that pain (and more generally over-excitation of nerves) can cause permanent nervous system damage, brain chemistry changes, and CNS rewiring/plasticity-like changes.

Much of this research originated from the correlation between chronic pain sufferers and un-treatable (or difficult to treat) depression.

[pantalaimon]

> Much of this research originated from the correlation between chronic pain sufferers and un-treatable (or difficult to treat) depression.

How do you conclude from results involving chronic pain to the effects of temporary pain?

I think there is a pretty obvious difference.

[mantas]

Is temporary pain, while stronger painkillers are given, on the level of chronic pain?