When Painkillers Become Dangerous: What Everyone Needs to Know About Oxycontin and Other Prescription Drugs

Americans, it seems, have a history of self-medicating for pain. The high profile and increasingly widespread cases of prescription pain medication abuse that we're seeing today serve as the latest chapter in America's long-standing love/hate relationship with painkilling drugs. In this fascinating, informative, and timely book, Dr. Drew Pinsky and other leading experts in the fields of addiction and recovery discuss why Americans are using drugs such as OxyContin and Vicodin, how American's used and abused other painkillers in the past, what makes some people vulnerable to addiction, and how to get help for yourself or a family member in trouble with drugs.

Drew Pinsky, M.D., author of the best-selling book Cracked: Putting Lives Together Again, is program medical director of chemical dependency services at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, California. Dr. Pinsky is co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show "Loveline," and the long-running MTV program of the same name. He is also well known for his work as a correspondent for ABC news, Good Morning America, and as a regular contributor for CNN.