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opioid abuse effects on society
community effects of opioid abuse
community effects of opioid abuse
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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. …show more content…
Many opioid users become addictive to the substance because the doctors have been over prescribing. “In the United States, there were 14,800 annual prescribed opioid (PO) deaths in 2008” with the US having less restrictions (Fischer, Benedikt, et al 178). The United States have implemented more regulations so that “high levels of PO-related harms been associated with highly potent oxycodone formulas” will decrease (Fischer, Benedikt, et al 178). With the regulations, it does not change the fact that opioids are is destructive. The regulations assistance by lessening the probability of patients becoming addictive to opioid. There are numerous generations that are effected and harmed by the detrimental effects of opioids on opioid-dependent
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.
Painkillers have been used for many years, and they have been beneficial to many. But one that recently took the market has been the topic of many controversial discussions. Oxycodone has always been used in modern medicine but in small amounts. OxyContin contained a higher amount of oxycodone than most opiate based pain killers, the weakest dose of OxyContin had double the amount found in said painkillers (Meier 12). This lead to the spread of abuse and addiction towards the drug. And a medicine made to do nothing but help became the subject of overdose and death. The creation of OxyContin was a triumph for modern medicine and a halo of light to people with chronic pains, but this drug now seems to carry a trail of addiction and abuse along with it.
In the United States, opioid addiction rates have majorly increased . Between 2000-2015 more than half a million individuals have died from Opioid overdose, and nearly 5 million people have an opioid dependence which has become a serious problem. The Center for Disease control reports that there are 91 deaths daily due to opioid abuse. Taking opioids for long periods of time and in
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 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). In other words, doctors are doing their part to prevent prescription opioid drug abuse. Actually, dishonest people are the ones at
Most adolescents who misuse prescription pain relievers are given the medication by an unknowing friend or relative. This is a situation that can easily avoided with an education on risks of opioids. Patricia Schram, MD, an adolescent substance abuse specialist at Children’s Hospital Boston, stresses the importance of parent involvement in preventing young adults from abusing opioids and in the recovery process, citing a study that claimed, “teens were less likely to abuse opioids if their parents often checked their homework, if they had been frequently praised by their parents and if they perceived strong disapproval of marijuana from their parents” (Viamont 1). Besides parent and family involvement, physicians have a role to play in preventing the spread of the opioid
In medical school/pharmacology school, medical professionals are taught to treat severe pain with opioids. However, opioids should be prescribed with the possibility of future dependency in mind. Physicians often struggle with whether they should prescribe opioids or seek alternative methodologies. This ethical impasse has led may medical professionals to prescribe opioids out of sympathy, without regard for the possibility of addiction (Clarke). As previously stated, a way to address this is use alternative methods so that physicians will become more acquainted to not not treating pain by means of opioid
It doesn’t matter if these patients will become addicted, because these doctors are so sure of it that they overprescribe just so the patients won’t come back asking for more in the near future. Due to the inconsideration and selfishness of these doctors “Prescription drug abuse is the fastest growing form of substance abuse”(Hanson). To make matters worse, a majority of these doctors aren't even warning their patients about the type of drug they are dealing with. According to the National Institute on drug abuse, opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, causing them to be highly addictive(Thomas et al). Not only is it clear to see that these doctors are at fault here for even prescribing a drug they know can be as addicting as heroin, but also because they aren't doing anything to fix their mistakes, much less admit that they are at fault here. Doctors are to blame for these addiction, not the patients. Doctors are also to blame for not giving these unhealthy addictions the attention they deserve. After all, they are required by the FDA to give risk evaluations when the risks of the drug outweigh the benefits(Blake). Yet on the contrary to popular belief these doctors aren’t giving those evaluations out, if they were more deaths could
Understanding this problem begins with education about the type of drugs being abused. Opiates, or opioids, are a type of drug that relieves pain. Painkillers interact with nerve endings in the brain, stopping them from sending the message to your brain that you are in pain. Taking this medication results in lose of pain and a temporary high. If a patient takes pain pills for too long, they can begin to form a tolerance to lower doses, causing the physician to have to continually raise the amount being put into their bodies. After extended use, opiates can cause iatrogenic addiction, “most likely to occur with long-term use and/or high does of a prescription drug” (Kendal1 l75). Even though opiates have been used to treat pain in the medical field for years, research is indicating negative side effects. Some of these, interesting enou...
In the United States, opioid addiction is a major problem. In 2010, there were an estimated 210 million prescriptions for legal opiates. Individuals who use opiates longer are more likely to develop an addiction. The opioid addiction signs include mental, emotional and physical symptoms.
The issue of opioid abuse and dependence is an issue that we must deal with. Too many people are misusing and abusing these serious drugs. Currently, here in the United States 142 people die every day as a result of drug overdose and opioids make up about two-thirds of them ("Opioid Abuse," n.d.). That is an absurd number. The main demographic that is at risk for narcotics addiction and abuse is teenagers in high school, who are have their wisdom teeth removed. These adolescents or teenagers are 33% more likely to abuse and misuse narcotics later in life due to the prescription of opioid and narcotic painkillers (Miech, Johnston, O'Malley, Keyes, & Heard, n.d.). Narcotics are a huge issue and we must deal with this problem, promptly. This narcotics crisis is monumental and staggering, and thus needs to come to an end.
Opioids are one of the most common recreational drugs. Some of the most common opioids are heroin, codeine, oxycodone, fentanyl, methadone, and morphine. Their legal uses are for cancer related pain and their recreational use is to produce feelings of euphoria. Opioids produce feelings similar to heroin, which makes opioids a gateway drug to heroin because they are much cheaper. In 2016, 42,000 people lost their lives to opioids and an average of 210 million prescriptions for opioids are written yearly. Women are more likely to have chronic pain, which in turn, makes them more likely to become dependent on opioids. Although forty-nine states have a drug monitoring program, drugs still get into the wrong hands. Opioids have had a huge impact
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.
Although there was an increase in the use of painkillers, the amount of pain reported in the United States has not changed. The current use of opioids is the worst drug crisis in the history of America.
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
The first characteristic isage, which is divided into three categories 18-24, 25-50 and more than 50. According to the data, In the age group18-24 the patients taking opioids have twice the chance of treatment failure than the patient who aren’t taking opioids. Whereas the relation between opioid prescription and treatment failure in other age group is not significant.