Mitigating pain is one of the most central obligations of a healthcare provider. Opioids have occupied a unique pinnacle in alleviating severe pain from the dawn of history to the present day. But their misuse and consequences have also checkered the history of medicine. Evidence of opium use dates back to the Assyrian Poppy in the 4th millennium BC. Currently, 80% of the world’s opioids are consumed by North Americans. In the hospital setting today, opioids are prescribed for about fifty percent of medical in-patients and about eighty-five percent of surgical in-patients.

Opioid misuse is a significant driver of the current prolonged and consequential epidemics in the United States. Mortality related to the drug overdose epidemic in the USA is currently at a crisis level. Overdose deaths are not the only risks associated with prescribing this group of medications. Economic costs of opioid use disorder and overdose deaths amount to tens of billions of dollars annually. By examining their distributions and determinants, scientific predictions can be made on the future use, misuse, and alternatives to these agents.

This Research Topic aims to bring together a collection of papers that individually and collectively examine the current and future role of opioids in pain therapy from the epidemiological perspective. This Research Topic will advance the balance needed to ensure the availability of treatment for pain and curb the prolonged epidemic of the drug overdose crisis.

We welcome the submission of manuscripts including, but not limited to, the following topics:
- The historical basis for current opioid therapy: What does the past portend for the future?
- Clinical epidemiology of opioids: Anticipating the future trend.
- Opioid use and abuse: Are alternative analgesics the answer?
- Reducing opioid abuse and addiction: The role for Community Partnership.
- New opioids on the horizon: Bold advances or me-tooism?
- The resurgence of old opioid analgesics. Bane or Boon?
- Opioid-like substances; What does the pharmacological armamentarium portend?
- Artificial intelligence, opioids, and pain.
- Clinical frontiers in the genetics of opioids for pain therapy.
- Reducing Disparities in using Opioids for Pain Management.

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Frontiers in Pain Research

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