Rural teenagers are more likely to receive medical care in emergency rooms than their urban peers, a possible explanation for why they also are 35-percent more likely to have abused prescription painkillers in the past year, says the Daily Yonder, citing a study published in the Journal of Rural Health. ER doctors are more likely to prescribe opioid painkillers than a family practitioner, says the study. Shannon Monnat, an associate professor at Penn State and one of the authors of the study, told the Yonder, “Prescription painkillers have been an issue in rural areas for quite some time. In fact, the OxyContin epidemic started in Appalachia, where pill mills first popped up”
Monnat said the study suggests “an intervention at the physician level to ensure that the prescribing of painkillers is clinically warranted. And to explore other methods of pain reduction, and to monitor adolescents who are prescribed prescription painkillers, because they are highly addictive.”