Background <p>In light of the ‘opioid epidemic’ described in numerous occasions in the U.S.A., the question of why opioid consumption is rising in cases of non-cancer pain has become increasingly important.</p> Questions <p>Do patients experiencing pain always require opioids? Does the specific pain diagnosis to be treated influence opioid prescription? Is oxycodone really necessary?</p> Patients and Methods <p>Using three different research approaches, patients with back pain admitted between 2010 and 2015 were followed up over seven years to assess the quantities of opioids prescribed in the intervening years.</p> Results <p>During the observation period from 2010–2015, 769 patients were treated. Of these, 267 individuals (34.7%) had back pain (radicular and non-radicular). Patients with back pain, in particular, require stronger opioids than those with other forms of pain (such as neuropathies, head/facial pain).</p> <p>The timing of opioid administration, the number of operations, or mental health diagnoses do not influence the amount of opioid administered.</p> Discussion <p>Patients with back pain represent a&#xa0;more difficult group of subjects to treat than the overall cohort of patients investigated here.</p> <p>In cases of long-term use (T3), the proportion of opioids exceeding 1200 mg for back pain (20.6%) is substantially higher than that reported in the literature (9.9%, which was—interestingly—derived from data representing only an unclear distribution of pain diagnoses across the total patient cohort).</p> Conclusion <p>In future studies and reviews of the literature, attention must be paid to the pain conditions under investigation.</p>