The Pros And Cons Of Opioids

1523 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of opioid addiction essay

According to CDC in the year 2015 opioids played a part in 33,091 deaths. Now you may ask what an opioid is. An Opioid is a compound that binds to opioid receptors in the body to reduce the amount of pain. There are four main categories of opioids, one being natural opioid analgesics including morphine and codeine, and semi synthetic opioid analgesics, including oxycodone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, and oxymorphone. The second category being methadone, a synthetic opioid, the third category being synthetic opioid analgesics other than methadone includes tramadol and fentanyl. The last category is an illicit opioid that is synthesized from morphine called heroin.
Opioids work by attaching to specific proteins called opioid receptors which are located on nerve cells in the body. When the drug attaches to the receptors it reduces the perception of pain, but it can also cause drowsiness, altered mental status, and nausea. Misuse and addiction to opioids are very common. According to the CDC 1,000 people annually are seen in the Emergency Department for treatment regarding misuse of prescribed opioids. Addiction occurs in older adults aged forty years and older more frequently than adults aged twenty to …show more content…

Nurses and agencies such as Brideway affect opioid related mortalities by providing information and helping the patients in need. Nurses can help patients understand the medication if they are prescribed it by physicians and the proper way to use the medication so they can decrease their risk of becoming addicted and agencies like Bridgeway can help patients if they become addicted learn how to safety detox from the medication and ways to prevent relapsing on the medication. Nurses need to be able to understand the opioid epidemic and how to be able to help patients so the number of deaths does not keep

Show More
Related

  • Argumentative Essay On The Opioid Crisis

    1170 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the reasons the epidemic has become so widespread is due to the addictiveness of opioids. Opioids are prescription medications used to treat pain, with oxycodone and hydrocodone being the more popular drugs (Mayo). Opioids are addictive because of the way

    Read More

  • Chasing Heroin Analysis

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    The documentary states that over 27,000 deaths a year are due to overdose from heroin and other opioids. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015 prescription pain relievers account for 20,101 overdose deaths, and 12,990 overdose deaths are related to heroin (Rudd et al., 2010-2015). The documentary’s investigation gives the history of how the heroin epidemic started, with a great focus on the hospice movement. We are presented with the idea that once someone is addicted to painkillers, the difficulty in obtaining the drug over a long period of time becomes too expensive and too difficult. This often leads people to use heroin. This idea is true as a 2014 survey found that 94% of respondents who were being treated for opioid addiction said they chose to use heroin because prescription opioids were “more expensive and harder to obtain (Cicero et al., 2014).” Four in five heroin users actually started out using prescription painkillers (Johns, 2013). This correlation between heroin and prescription painkiller use supports the idea presented in the documentary that “prescription opiates are heroin prep school.”

    Read More

  • Suboxone Therapy

    1579 Words  | 4 Pages

    Almost one hundred years ago, prescription drugs like morphine were available at almost any general store. Women carried bottles of very addictive potent opiate based pain killers in their purse. Many individuals like Edgar Allen Poe died from such addictions. Since that time through various federal, state and local laws, drugs like morphine are now prescription drugs; however, this has not stopped the addiction to opiate based pain killers. Today’s society combats an ever increasing number of very deadly addictive drugs from designer drugs to narcotics to the less potent but equally destructive alcohol and marijuana. With all of these new and old drugs going in and out of vogue with addicts, it appears that the increase of misuse and abuse is founded greater in the prescription opiate based painkillers.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Opioids

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    Opioids are used as pain relievers and although it does the job, there are adverse side effects. Opioids are frequently used in the medical field, allowing doctors to overprescribe their patients. The substance can be very addicting to the dosage being prescribed to the patient. Doctors are commonly prescribing opioids for patients who have mild, moderate, and severe pain. As the pain becomes more severe for the patient, the doctor is more likely to increase the dosage. The increasing dosages of the narcotics become highly addicting. Opioids should not be prescribed as pain killers, due to their highly addictive chemical composition, the detrimental effects on opioid dependent patients, the body, and on future adolescents. Frequently doctors have become carless which causes an upsurge of opioids being overprescribed.

    Read More

  • Opioids In Canada

    1721 Words  | 4 Pages

    The opioid crisis is Canada’s worst public health crisis since the emergence of HIV in the 1980s. The epidemic is dangerously pervasive, affecting Canadians of all ages and income brackets. The Government of Canada has taken several steps to address the crisis, but many doctors and public health

    Read More

  • The Negative Effects Of Prescription Opioids By Adam Zyglis

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    Opioids are prescribed to help people; prescription opioids can be used to treat moderate-to-severe pain and are often prescribed following surgery or injury, or for health conditions such as cancer (Prescription Opioids). When taken as directed, opioids are safe and effective treatment options for relieving debilitating chronic pain (Highsmith). Doctors have a screening protocol they follow before prescribing an opioid. Doctors ask patients about their past to see if any substance abuse was present, to rule out patients with a higher risk of becoming addicted to prescription opioids. Nonetheless, if the medication is used as directed, not only is your risk of addiction minimal, the odds of enjoying a better quality of life will be in your favor (Highsmith).

    Read More

  • Alcoholism In Matthew Perry's Sitcom Friends

    452 Words  | 1 Pages

    Opioids are medications that relieve pain. They reduce the intensity of pain signals reaching the brain and affect those brain areas controlling emotion, which diminishes the effects of a painful stimulus. All stimulants work by increasing

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Opioid Abuse

    767 Words  | 2 Pages

    Every year, 2.6 million people in the United States suffer from opioid abuse and of that 2.6 million, 276,000 are adolescents, and this problem is only escalating. An individual’s physical and emotional health suffers as well as their personal lives as they lose employment, friends, family, and hope. Opioid addiction begins with the addictive aspects of the drug. People easily become hooked on the relieving effects of the opioids and suffer withdrawal symptoms if they stop using the drug completely because their nerve cells become accustomed to the drug and have difficulty functioning without it; yet the addiction to the drug is only one aspect of the complex problem. The stigma about opioid addiction has wide-reaching negative effects as it discourages people with opioid abuse problems from reaching out.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Speech Outline On Opioids

    922 Words  | 2 Pages

    By the year 2000 opioid medicine containing oxycodone etc., are being abused and misused and more than doubled in 10 years’ time.

    Read More

  • The Prescription Drug Abuse Crisis

    1696 Words  | 4 Pages

    The rate of death due to prescription drug abuse in the U.S. has escalated 313 percent over the past decade. According to the Congressional Quarterly Transcription’s article "Rep. Joe Pitt Holds a Hearing on Prescription Drug Abuse," opioid prescription drugs were involved in 16,650 overdose-caused deaths in 2010, accounting for more deaths than from overdoses of heroin and cocaine. Prescribed drugs or painkillers sometimes "condemn a patient to lifelong addiction," according to Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This problem not only affects the lives of those who overdose but it affects the communities as well due to the convenience of being able to find these items in drug stores and such. Not to mention the fact that the doctors who prescribe these opioids often tend to misuse them as well. Abusing these prescribed drugs can “destroy dreams and abort great destinies," and end the possibility of the abuser to have a positive impact in the community.

    Read More

  • Arguments Against Opioids

    895 Words  | 2 Pages

    Current and proposed policies to combat the current opioid epidemic are few and far between. Past policies have focused on over prescription of legal opioids and reducing the frequency (Criminal Justice Policy Foundation n.d.). It can be agreed upon that the over-prescription of pain reliving opioids and abuse of prescribed opioids have led to the epidemic that we face today. Once a patient is addicted, they must find a new way to acquire their drugs to get their fix. Thus, the increase of use and abuse of illicit opioids such as heroin and fentanyl. In 2015, Kentucky enacted Senate Bill 192, The Heroin Bill, into action. The Heroin Bill is a “multi-prong approach” (The Heroin Epidemic 2016) that includes stronger penalties for dealers and

    Read More

  • Legalizing Marijuana Informative Speech

    1512 Words  | 4 Pages

    Picture yourself as an NFL football player. A football player that goes to practice everyday and then plays on Sundays. Everyday grown men hurl themselves at you and each other for hours a day. So, you go home and take some opiate medicine the team doctor perscribed to you. You don’t know what’s in it, but the the doc gave it to you so you just take it. Unfortunately, that drug gives you a side effect, so you go back to the tea doctor and get a new opiate drug for that side effect. The side effect goes away, but now that drug gives you a new side effect. So, you can see how this vicious cycle works. All of these drugs are called opioid painkillers. Opioid painkillers include vicodin, oxycontin, fentanyl, percocet, morphine, and codeine just

    Read More

  • Sociological Perspective On Drugs And Women

    1102 Words  | 3 Pages

    Recently there has been an increase of overdoses deaths due to opioid drug in the Nation, especially in rural America and suburbia. Even with fund anti-addiction programs, and state governments working with federal authorities to address what they are calling a public health crisis of addiction to opioid painkillers and heroin, it seems not enough. New challenges thrive, some places in the country are seeing a rise in overdoses of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid painkiller drastically more powerful and deadly than morphine, and an even more dangerous new drug cocktail called “gray death.” The government is trying to do something however it is hard to stop it and it is causing many deaths around the country. Drugs, specifically opioid in this case, are taking the toll on Americans of all

    Read More

  • Psychoeducation Case Study

    1280 Words  | 3 Pages

    Two themes were consistent in the literature and ethical codes: the potential harm done to the population if unaware of drug effects/the treatment available and increased deaths in WC. To advocate for WC’s drug crisis, it needed to be a public approach and brought to a local level. To do this, I am putting on a series of presentations that addresses and advocates for harm reduction. In my presentation, I will include the importance of harm-reduction, provide psychoeducation on opiates and prescription drugs, and a demonstration on how to dispense NARCAN. I will be presenting to each town in WC. The presentations will be held in each town’s hall. In order to inform the public about the event, I will contact the town's local newspaper or media source and have them print the flyer in the newspaper, post it on the town hall board, hospital bulletins, and public library (I have attached an example of the flyer for Jonesport Maine). The presentation is open to the public, including community members, physicians, pharmacists, nurses, law enforcement, etc. The presentations format is written for the average education level (8th-grade level) and does not go into scientific explanations. I chose to include all community members, that way it didn’t seem like I was only focusing on those who had an addiction problem. It is going to take more than addicts and counselors to overcome

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Opiate Addiction

    1233 Words  | 3 Pages

    I cannot stand the idea of someone getting so caught up in medications that they risk losing relationships, opportunities, and even their health. After watching someone’s entire life fall apart from opiate addiction, I think it’s important to let the facts speak for themselves. Opiates are highly addictive substances that come from the chemicals found in sap of the flowering plant known as opium poppy. Although some doctors and opiate users feel that they are beneficial in managing pain and treating disorders such as depression, I disagree because long-term opiate use has been proven to cause harmful effects to the brain and body.

    Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of Opioids

Open Document