Despite the obvious benefits of pharmacotherapy drugs for pain management, undesired side effects for patients as well as problems with chemical addiction have created serious concerns for many physicians today.

When physicians give their patients narcotic painkillers, 99 percent of them hand out prescriptions that exceed the federally recommended three-day dosage limit, new research suggests. And some doctors exceeded that limit by a lot: Nearly one-quarter gave out month-long dosages, despite the fact that research has shown that a month’s use of prescription narcotic painkillers can cause brain changes, the National Safety Council survey found.

The problem has reached the point where these highly addictive painkillers, which include commonly prescribed drugs such as Oxycontin, Percocet and Vicodin, now account for more drug overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.