Addiction and Medicine
Everyone is addicted to something, somewhere. The type of addiction usually missed by people is the one related to prescription drugs. The main question here is Why and How to people get addicted to these medicines. Is there any way to cure it? Stress and personal problems are the main reasons for addiction. Doctors and pharmacist plays a major role in responsibilities towards this issue. By being aware and by giving knowledge to both the prescribers and the patients this problem could be solved. According to the National Institutes of Health, these addictions contribute to more than 100,000 deaths per year in the United States ("Addiction."). According to Milan Stojanovic, an anesthesiologist “There is a huge amount of abuse of these medications, all over the country and it starts with someone, somewhere writing a prescription” (qtd. in Devi 474).
Addiction is usually related to the brain system. Dopamine, a neurotransmitter that sends and receives messages to the brain is
…show more content…
It can be due to stress, poverty, lower education, anxiety disorders and due to lack of monitoring from the doctors prescribing such medicines. The most common drugs used are barbiturate and non-barbiturate used for sleeping disorders, benzodiazepines which are used to treat stress and anxiety. Usually these are the most common between people. Whenever a person in unable to sleep, he will simply take a pill and sleep, then it becomes a habit and later it will become addiction. Unfortunately, there is no way to know that a person is addicted at an early stage. Sometimes certain behaviors and odd actions would reveal a suspicion. As stated by Levounis, director of the Addiction Center of New York and an associate professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, “All these drugs are opioids...there really isn't much difference between heroin addiction and addiction to any other opioid,” (Hoffman
Prescription and pharmaceutical drug abuse is beginning to expand as a social issue within the United States because of the variety of drugs, their growing availability, and the social acceptance and peer pressure to uses them. Many in the workforce are suffering and failing at getting better due to the desperation driving their addiction.
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.
Koob, G. F. (2011, Winter -). Neurobiology of Addiction. Retrieved from Focus: The Journal of Lifelong Learning in Psychiatry: http://focus.psychiatryonline.org/data/Journals/FOCUS/4266/foc00111000055.pdf
A substance abuse counselor is a person who helps people that are struggling with alcoholism and/or drug addiction. Substance abuse counselors provide patients with treatment and support while they are working to overcome their addiction and piece their lives back together. In addition, substance abuse counselors help patients’ families cope with their loved one’s disease and subsequent recovery. Finally, substance abuse counselors may work to spread awareness of addiction throughout the community by starting up/working for outreach programs.
Chasing heroin is a documentary giving us insight information on the rapidly growing pandemic of addictions to drugs, notably heroin. The heroin epidemic is rising at an alarming
There are many biological factors that are involved with the addicted brain. "The addicted brain is distinctly different from the nonaddicted brain, as manifested by changes in brain metabolic activity, receptor availability, gene expression, and responsiveness to environmental cues." (2) In the brain, there are many changes that take place when drugs enter a person's blood stream. The pathway in the brain that the drugs take is first to the ventral tegmentum to the nucleus accumbens, and the drugs also go to the limbic system and the orbitofrontal cortex, which is called the mesolimbic reward system. The activation of this reward system seems to be the common element in what hooks drug users on drugs (2).
“There are nearly 200,000 inmates in federal prisons, and almost half are drug offenders.” Drug addicts get arrested and thrown in jail, yet weeks later they come out and continue their same habits. This type of cycle is not good for police officers, taxpayers, or the addicts. In “Chasing Heroin,” the PBS program Frontline discusses the heroin epidemic and possible solutions, like the L.E.A.D. program. This program is very flexible and provides statistics on its effectiveness, but is very controversial with how lenient they are towards allowing their patients to continue using. The L.E.A.D. program needs to be provided more funding in order to help spread its comforting and supportive program to more addicts, in order to help them improve their lives.
Drug abuse is part of everyday life, most of us know someone who is or was abusing drug at some point. A way to simplify a difficult time in our life, we find an exit in a product that numbs our brain to the surrounding. People find addiction through drugs, activities and action that creates chemical reaction within our bodies. Whether you love jumping off the empire state building or inject yourself with a drug, you are looking for a high that your body enjoys. The body creates chemicals which stop our self-control. According to the CDC website, “Deaths from drug overdose have been rising steadily over the past two decades and have become the leading cause of injury death in the United States.” (Birnbaum HG, web).
Drug use as well as drug abuse is on a constant rise. There is a wide spread misunderstanding about drugs. Many believe a drug is something that the government has said is illegal to use or consume. However this is not entirely true. A drug is any chemical you take that affects the way your body works. Alcohol, caffeine, aspirin and nicotine are all drugs. A drug must be able to pass from your body into your brain. Once inside your brain, drugs can change the messages your brain cells are sending to each other, and to the rest of your body. They do this by interfering with your brain's own chemical signals, I will discuss this further later on in the paper.
According to The Science of Drug Abuse & Addiction, there are different types of commonly abused drugs. They are
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.
Inappropriate drug use causes loss of responsibility, illnesses, marriage difficulties, shorter life spans, financial struggles, theft, accidents, lack of parenting, bad role models and more laws. Now I’m not saying all the problems are only do to drugs and if there was appropriate drug use our society would be perfect, no I’m saying drug use in our society has made an impact and in this case not for the better. The cost of inappropriate drug use to society is something that many overlook and others simply don’t care to recognize
Doctors can prescribe drugs that can be as addicting as street drugs. When a patient is at the hospital, doctors will prescribe many drugs to help the patient get better, like ...
Increases in prescription drug misuse over the last 15 years are reflected in increased emergency room visits, overdose deaths associated with prescription drugs, and treatment admissions for prescription drug use disorders, the most severe form of which is addiction. Pharmaceutical services include all medication and related services that support the provision of patient care and treatment for both acute and chronic
Drug addiction is a very big problem in today’s society. Many people have had their lives ruined due to drug addiction. The people that use the drugs don’t even realize that they have an addiction. They continue to use the drug not even realizing that their whole world is crashing down around them. Drug addicts normally lose their family and friends due to drug addiction.