January 19, 2019

An Unusual Path to Addiction

Imagine having your wisdom teeth extracted by a dentist. Not exactly a pleasant thought. But what if that procedure led you to an opiate addiction? Living a life and running a household takes time and labor. But one expert says we can do much better by doing less.

Episode Segments:

Wisdom Teeth and Opioid Addiciton Each year, thousands of teenagers and young adults are prescribed opioids for pain relief after having their wisdom teeth removed Alan Schroeder, MD, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine led a study that found almost 6 percent of these patients were diagnosed with opioid abuse during the 12 months after the initial prescription. He discussed alternate options for pain relief. He said wisdom tooth extraction is by far the most common surgical procedure for adolescents and young adults but there is very little research that supports the widespread use of the procedure.
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Do Less and Live More Every day an unseen form of labor creeps into our lives—the kind of secretarial and managerial work necessary to run a life and a household. Elizabeth Emens, PhD, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, author of Life Admin: How I Learned to Do Less, Do Better, and Live More discussed how this labor is created, how it affects our lives, and how we might avoid, reduce, and redistribute admin whenever possible—as individuals and as a society.
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Immigrants and STEM Marcos A. Rangel, PhD, Applied Microeconomist, Assistant Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy Medicine at Duke University led a study that found that immigrant children are nearly twice as likely to study and pursue careers in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) as children born in the US. He believes that because immigrant students are less comfortable communicating in English than their native-born peers, they gravitate toward subjects where the language barrier is less of an impediment.
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Guest(s) Appearing on this Episode

Alan Schroeder Dr. Schroeder is the associate chief for research in the division of pediatric hospital medicine at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, and an associate clinical professor in the division of hospital medicine and the division of critical care. His research interests focus on identifying areas where we can “safely do less” in healthcare, and frequently lectures on this theme locally and nationally. Dr. Schroeder is currently involved in multiple projects involving common conditions in pediatrics such as head trauma, bronchiolitis, UTI, meningitis, and febrile infant management. He is a co-chair of the Lown RightCare Alliance Pediatric Council, co-chair of the Academic Pediatric Association’s Healthcare Value Special Interest Group, an editor of the Yearbook of Pediatrics and an assistant editor for the journal Hospital Pediatrics. Dr. Schroeder provides clinical care for children in the PICU and the pediatric ward and has won multiple teaching awards.

Elizabeth Emens Elizabeth F. Emens is Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. She earned her law degree at Yale and her Ph.D. at Cambridge. She lives in New York City. Life Admin: How I Learned to Do Less, Do Better, and Live More