During the Civil War, military hospitals considered opioids to be essential medicine. Doctors and nurses used opium and morphine to treat soldiers' pain, stop internal bleeding and mitigate vomiting and diarrhea caused by infectious diseases. However, this led some soldiers to develop opioid addictions, either during the war or afterward when they sought medical treatment for wartime injuries or illnesses.

Additional Tags

opioid addiction, "opium slavery: the civil war veterans and america's first opioid crisis" by jonathan s. jones, civil war doctors took opioids themselves to treat infectious diseases, medicine in the civil war, veterans struggle to quit opioids after the war, nurses and physicians

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Classroom Considerations

• Knovation Readability Score: 5 (1 low difficulty, 5 high difficulty)