A new study led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that during a decade when prescription opioid use has skyrocketed, the identification and treatment of pain has failed to improve, and the use of non-opioid analgesics has plateaued, or even declined. The study was published online, September 13, in Medical Care. “There is an epidemic of prescription opioid addiction and abuse in the United States,” notes Dr. G. Caleb Alexander, associate professor of epidemiology and medicine and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness. “We felt it was important to examine whether or not this epidemic has coincided with improved identification and treatment of pain.”