Narcotic pain-relief prescriptions for injured U.S. troops have jumped from 30,000 a month to 50,000 since the Iraq war began, raising concerns about the drugs’ potential abuse and addiction, USA Today reported Tuesday.

The sharp rise in outpatient prescriptions paid for by the government suggests doctors rely too heavily on narcotics, a leading Army pain expert, Col. Chester "Trip" Buckenmaier III, of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, told the paper.

In response to six suicides and seven drug-related deaths among soldiers in Warrior Transition Units — created for the Army’s most severely injured — aggressive efforts are under way to manage prescription drugs, says Col. Paul Cordts, chief of health policy for the Army surgeon general. These include limiting prescriptions to a seven-day supply and more closely monitoring use, he told USA Today.

The Army and Marine Corps are testing new dispenser machines, the paper reported. Located in a barracks, the automated pillboxes emit drugs as needed and help track consumption, according to Army Col. Ike Harper, pharmacy consultant to the surgeon general.

Pain is the most common complaint of nearly 350,000 Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Robert Kerns, national program director for pain management, told USA Today. A study of VA health records estimates that nearly half of those patients suffer chronic pain, severe enough in about 30 percent of those cases to limit daily living.

Most suffer orthopedic injuries from the strain of long deployments, the paper noted, citing a VA study.