This piece at Pajamas Media looks at the pressure on doctors to overprescribe painkillers, which in turn makes drug addiction more likely. One reason pressure on doctors has increased:
The automatic credence placed in what a patient says — or credulity, if you prefer — is deemed inherently more sympathetic than a certain critical or questioning attitude towards it. And since it is now possible, indeed normal, for patients to report on doctors adversely and very publicly via the internet and other electronic media, doctors find themselves in a situation in which they must do what patients want or have their reputations publicly ruined. When in doubt, then, prescribe.
Closing line from the article: Many doctors just give in prophylactically, as it were.
Absolutely hilarious!