Shortly after her discharge in 2004, Peacock said, she developed an addiction to pain pills.

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There have been two big reviews of the available data on these pain pills.

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Now his family is suing the league, claiming it should have done more to prevent both Boogaard's brain injuries and his addiction to pain pills.

WSJ: Column: Boogaard a sad example for hockey goons

The suit by Boogaard's survivors says the NHL had a responsibility to keep him "reasonably safe" in his career and to help him avoid being hooked on pain pills.

WSJ: Column: Boogaard a sad example for hockey goons

But critics would say Vioxx's problems started in 2001, two years before Kim fully took over as head of Merck research. (He had just left a job as a biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.) A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel was reviewing a large study that proved Vioxx's big selling point: it causes fewer ulcers than cheaper, generic pain pills.

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He estimates that only 5% of his chronic pain patients take these pills daily.

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The original OxyContin was, initially, seen as a breakthrough in pain relief because it would slowly release its active ingredient, oxycodone, over 12 hours, allowing people with chronic pain to be able to take fewer pills, sleep through the night, and generally be less tortured by their condition.

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Vioxx, Celebrex and Arcoxia--known as Cox-2 inhibitors--were all designed to ease the pain of inflamed joints without causing ulcers, as older pills like aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen do.

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In time, he says the pills fail to truly mask the patient's pain.

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There are other troubling aspects to the Boogaard story, particularly how he was handed pills like they were Halloween candy to help deal with pain and injuries.

WSJ: Column: Boogaard a sad example for hockey goons