Opioid painkillers are all over the news these days, and rightly so. Since opioids started being prescribed for chronic pain in the late 1990s, over a hundred thousand people have died from opioid abuse.

When an employee is injured, they may be prescribed opioids like OxyContin and Percocet. But here's the problem: taking opioids creates a huge risk of abuse and addiction, which prolongs recovery (as employees are more interested in keeping the drugs coming than getting better and getting back to work), endangers lives, drains resources, and drives up the costs of workers' compensation.

This fall, the American Academy of Neurology came out against opioid use for chronic pain. The risk of addiction and overdose are simply too great, the academy says, and there's no evidence that opioids are even effective at managing pain over long periods. Meanwhile, long term use and abuse is rampant: the academy found 50% of patients who used opioids for at least three months five years ago are still using them now.

There are no hard and fast numbers on how quickly someone can become addicted to opioids--mitigating factors such as genetic predisposition to addiction, having grown up in a home where drugs or alcohol were abused, and having a co-occurring mental illness such as schizophrenia or clinical depression all have a major impact on whether a person becomes dependent, and how rapidly. The DEA and FDA have classified oxycodone as a Schedule II narcotic, meaning that while the drug has proven therapeutic uses, it also has both a high potential for abuse, and if abused can easily lead to severe psychological or physical dependence.

Opioid abuse also creates massive costs for employers and insurers. Out of the roughly $1.5 billion spent annually on narcotics for workers' compensation claimants, most goes to opioids. One injured worker's opioid prescriptions can cost up to $12,000 per month - not to mention associated costs for side effects.

And then there's the amount of time long-term opioid use keeps an employee out of work: almost five times longer than workers treated with only a single, no-refills opioid prescription, or entirely without opioids, according to the California Workers' Compensation Institute.

But there are solutions. The Academy of Neurology supports Washington State's "yellow flag" dosage recommendation, where a provider has to get consultation if a patient reaches a certain dosage limit without seeing "substantial improvement." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also support that "yellow flag," and many other states are creating similar policies.

Texas, one of the states with the most opioid abuse, is becoming a success story. Over a five-year period, as a result of tighter restrictions on prescribing opioids, claims went from $40 million to $35 million, and the cost of medical claims for the pills themselves has dropped from $6 million to about $3 million.

Companies are also addressing these problems internally. Some use physicians who are conservative in their approach to opioids. Educate injured workers about the dangers of opioids, and (if allowed by your employment contracts) use periodic drug testing to monitor the amount and duration of opioid use. Offer additional program support for helping employees wean off of opioids--the US Department of Labor has a return-to-work toolkit full of resources for employers with injured employees. And, above all, recognize that opioids aren't the solution we once thought they were: be cautious, and look out for your employees. You'll be saving money on workers' compensation, but you'll also be protecting your employees from the pain that these painkillers can cause.