Get Free Shipping on orders over $89
Prescription for Pain : How a Once-Promising Doctor Became the Pill Mill Killer - Philip Eil
eTextbook alternate format product

Instant online reading.
Don't wait for delivery!

Go digital and save!

Prescription for Pain

How a Once-Promising Doctor Became the Pill Mill Killer

By: Philip Eil

Paperback | 1 April 2025

At a Glance

Paperback


$42.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $10.69 with

 or 

Ships in 5 to 10 business days

An obsessive true crime investigation of a bizarre and unlikely perpetrator, who's serving the opioid epidemic's longest term for illegal prescriptions - four life sentences

Written in the tradition of I'll Be Gone in the Dark and True Crime Addict, combining Dopesick's heart rending portrayal of the epidemic's victims with Empire of Pain's examination of its perpetrators


An obsessive true crime investigation of a bizarre and unlikely perpetrator, who's serving the opioid epidemic's longest term for illegal prescriptions - four life sentences

Written in the tradition of I'll Be Gone in the Dark and True Crime Addict, combining Dopesick's heart rending portrayal of the epidemic's victims with Empire of Pain's examination of its perpetrators


This haunting and propulsive debut follows a journalist's years-long investigation into his father's old classmate- former high school valedictorian Paul Volkman, who once seemed destined for greatness after earning his MD and his PhD from the prestigious University of Chicago, but is now serving four consecutive life sentences at a federal prison in Arizona.

Volkman was the central figure in a massive "pill mill" scheme in southern Ohio. His pain clinics accepted only cash, employed armed guards, and dispensed a torrent of opioid painkillers and other controlled substances. For nearly three years, Volkman remained in business despite raids by law enforcement and complaints from patients' family members. Prosecutors would ultimately link him to the overdose deaths of 13 patients, though investigators explored his ties to at least 20 other deaths.

This groundbreaking book is based on 12 years of correspondence and interviews with Volkman. Eil also traveled to 19 states, interviewed more than 150 people, and filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Administration that led to the release of nearly 20,000 pages of trial evidence.

The American opioid epidemic is, like this book, a true crime story. Through this one doctor's story, an era of unfathomable tragedy is brought down to a tangible, and devastating, human scale.

More in Doctor Patient Relationship

Duty to Warn - Charlotte Grieve

Paperback

RRP $34.99

$28.99

17%
OFF
Being Patient : Close Encounters in Cancer World - Na'ama Carlin

RRP $34.99

$29.99

14%
OFF
Diseases and Disorders : 4th Edition : The World's Best Anatomical Charts - Anatomical Chart Company
Do No Harm : Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery - Henry Marsh
Skills for Communicating with Patients : 3rd edition - Jonathan Silverman
Anatomy & Pathology : The World's Best Anatomical Charts 6th Edition - Anatomical Chart Company
You Don't Have to Be Mad to Work Here : A Psychiatrist's Life - Benji Waterhouse
Health Behavior Change : A Guide for Practitioners - Mason
Humane Medicine - No Information Available

RRP $73.95

$65.99

11%
OFF
100 Questions & Answers about : 100 Questions and Answers About... - Pamela K. Ginex
Medical Cases for the MRCP Paces : Volume II - Gautam Mehta

RRP $82.95

$61.75

26%
OFF
100 Questions & Answers about : 100 Questions & Answers - Elizabeth S. Platt