Freakonomics: The Opioid Tragedy, Part 1: “We’ve Addicted an Entire Generation” (Ep. 402)

Perrone recently walked us through the E.R. at one of the UPenn hospitals. She introduced us to the team working that day. Here’s Dr. Kit Delgado:

Kit DELGADO: Just right now, I have a patient who came in who had stopped taking methadone, because it was interfering with his job. And he’s now having opioid-withdrawal symptoms. He actually came in for a different complaint, but — DUBNER: Unrelated? DELGADO: Somewhat — you know, had some nausea, chest pain, and got his normal emergency-department evaluation. I was just about to discharge him, and sort of realized that this is the root cause. DUBNER: So the patient you mentioned is here now? DELGADO: He’s here now. And our recovery specialist is actually meeting with him to try to seek out a better option.