John Oliver does a great piece on the overuse of opioid pain killers- an epidemic that is causing incredible morbidity and mortality in the United States. Patients with chronic headaches are often prescribed these pain killers when nothing else works, and opioid addiction can become a major problem for headache patients. The potential for surgery to alleviate pain and preclude the need for opioids in headache patients is a major advantage of headache surgery and a significant reason for my interest in bringing surgery for migraine headaches and occipital neuralgia to the Los Angeles area and all of Southern California.
