Explore the invisible forces inside and outside of medicine driving opioid overprescribing. Professor Anna Lembke dives into the role of Big Pharma, the medicalization of poverty, cultural changes in the meaning of pain, and the neuroscience of addiction, to shed light on one of the worst drug epidemics in U.S. history.

Anna Lembke, MD ‘95, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and medical director of addiction medicine
One of the first in the medical community to sound the alarm about the nation’s opioid crisis, Professor Lembke educates policy makers, legislators, and the public about the causes of and solutions for the epidemic. Her best-selling book, Drug Dealer, MD, combines case studies from her own practice with public policy, cultural anthropology, and neuroscience to explore the complex relationship between doctors and patients around prescription drugs.