14. Disregarding Alternative Pain Treatments
To protect their market share, pharmaceutical companies actively minimized the role of non-opioid therapies for pain management. Alternative treatments—such as physical therapy, acupuncture, and behavioral interventions—were often dismissed or ignored in promotional materials. This approach, as explained by the NIH, left both doctors and patients with limited awareness of safer options, further entrenching opioids as the default solution for chronic pain.
