E-Mail IMAGE: John Harvin, MD, led a team of physician-researchers to identify an opioid-minimizing pain management strategy for patients with acute trauma. view more Credit: Cody Duty/UTHealth A pain management regimen comprised mostly of over-the-counter medication reduced opioid exposure in trauma patients while achieving equal levels of pain control, according to a new study by physician-researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth.) Results of the study, which was conducted at the Red Duke Trauma Institute at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, were published today in the Journal of American College of Surgeons. "The research shows us that seriously injured people with acute pain can effectively be treated with an opioid-minimizing strategy," said John Harvin, MD, MS, associate professor in the Department of Surgery at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth and first and corresponding author of the study. "Narcotics are not the mainstay of therapy for acute pain." Harvin is also an attending trauma surgeon at the Red Duke Trauma Institute.