Pain and the Opioid Crisis

The proliferation of opioid use in the United States, and the associated health consequences, is a major public health challenge. Yet opioid drugs are valuable tools for managing high-impact pain. In this course, we will explore the neural, biological, and historical underpinnings of pain and opioid use in the United States. Engaging with primary neuroscience literature and public health journalism, we will discuss the biological basis of pain and opioid actions, investigate how opioids do (and do not) treat pain, and address strategies for mitigating the parallel impact of opioid use and high-impact pain, focusing on issues relevant to Vermont. (BIOL0145; recommended: NSCI 0251 and NSCI 0252)



Lisa Wooldridge '16 is a graduate student in neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research investigates how opioid dependence interacts with the neural systems that produce the experience of pain./