ResearchProjects

Understanding the role of the pharmaceutical industry in propelling the current opioid crisis in the U.S. is an essential strategy for preventing future epidemics. Using various forms of textual data and analytic methods, this project examines the specific impacts of industry efforts to target military veterans as opioid consumers and the ways that the industry attempts to popularize new narratives, or scripts, about opioid analgesics within veteran-specific periodicals. The identification of dominant narratives and their circulation through veterans’ media outlets represents a critical case study in pharmaceutical industry efforts to change prescribing policy and popular culture. Findings will be translated into deliverables which positively impact pain management policy, practice, and the attitudes and expectations of our nation’s veterans and others struggling with chronic pain.