A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine said that theU.S. will only being to address its rampant abuse of opioids byfundamentally reassessing how doctors prescribe drugs.

Contrary to previous studies, which suggested that opioid abusewas largely facilitated by a small percentage of over-prescribers,the new research, which examined opioid prescriptions amongMedicare providers, argues that the problem is the result of commonprescription practices.

“High-volume prescribers are not alone responsible for the highnational volume of opioid prescriptions,” says the report, authoredby Dr. Jonathan Chen of the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health CareSystem along with three researchers from Stanford. “Efforts tocurtail national opioid overprescribing must address a broad swathof prescribers to be effective.”

While more than half of opioid prescriptions come from the top10 percent of prescribers, that distribution is not different thanfor other drugs that are not typically abused.

“What this told us is opioids aren’t special in any way,” Chentold Kaiser Health News.

“Going after deviants, ‘pill mills’ or bogus pain clinics — itfeels good to do that, because you have a villain,” he added. “Youfeel that if you get rid of them, the problem is solved, and whatwe’re trying to say is, ‘I don’t think that’s going to be enough.’Maybe all of us are contributing to this problem, even if we don’t realizeit.”

The study did find, however, that 78 percent of the total costsof opioid prescriptions come from just 10 percent of prescribers.The report suggests that phenomenon may be due to those prescribersauthorizing more expensive drugs or higher doses.

In addition, while certain specialists who work in painmanagement, such as anesthesia and physical rehabilitation, aremore likely than other doctors to prescribe opioids, the greatmajority of overall prescriptions for powerful pain killers are written by generalpractitioners, including doctors in family medicine, nursepractitioners and physician assistants.