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Opioid Pain Medications Essay
Opioid Pain Medications Essay
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There is a problem with our health care system in the way doctors manage a patient’s pain today, particularly endemic to the United States, and this issue is prescription of opioid painkillers. For those who are unaware, opioids are a class of drug derived from the poppy plant, the same plant used to make heroin, and for pharmaceutical company’s morphine, Codeine, Vicodin, and Oxycodone. All opioids bind to neurons in the brain that receive pain called opioid receptors which stops pain directly at the neural level. This is necessary in hospitals when being used for painful procedures that cannot be done without anesthesia, but the over the counter prescription of what is essentially heroin in the form of Oxycodone, Vicodin, and Codeine for everyday use to treat the pain of mass amounts of people has started an epidemic of use and addiction here in the United States. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) “Health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for opioid painkillers in 2012” this number is staggering when we see this in terms of yearly constant use by millions of Americans, and this is no isolated trend of increase in prescription, as illustrated by this statistic from the book Popping pills, a drug abuse epidemic, which found that two years prior in 2010 they made “enough painkillers to sedate every adult American with doses every four hours for a month.” This means that people who go to doctors for relief from pain in America are in most cases not given other lighter pain medications or given treatment of the damaged area, but are instead sent home with heroin. This does two things in that it masks pain instead of addressing problems in the body and at the cost in most instances of dependence on the dr...
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... they do not understand the pain content of the lesson, afterwards all children can place true emotion to those lessons you gave and then heal the wounds properly, much as we should with our own instead of drown them and all others in the same sea so many addicts we look upon with either pity or disgust have fallen into. This pain is negative at first but a life numb to it is a life not lived; it is part of us inexorably, it teaches us and gives us awareness of our needs and surroundings. We need not run and mask ourselves from our feelings of pain anymore, we can choose to make ourselves truly whole again. We need to shift from these medications and towards other methods of treatment, because the alternative is taking everything from them, and taking pain from someone is the death of a fundamental piece of them, anyone who have seen its victims know this to be true.
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
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.”
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.
... age could cause adolescents to seek to an alternative way to get opioids from the black market. Doctors will try to lower the rates of opioid dependents by prescribing an alternative medications. With many opioid-dependent patients becoming addictive to opioids it causes huge effects on the human body. With having opioid exposure at such a young age increase the possibility of becoming opioid-dependent patients. “About three quarters of all adolescents receiving treatment for opioid use disorders reported first used before the age of 25” (Pugatch, Marianne, et al 435). Also adolescents visit the emergency department involving “opioid pain relievers and benzodiazepines” (Jones, Christopher M, Leonard J Paulozzi, and Karin A Mack 881). There are many ways to make sure that adolescents will become educated about opioid addiction, for example treatment facilities.
Opioid overdose is currently the most common cause of accidental death in Canada and the U.S. The opioid crisis is having a devastating effect on communities across Canada, taking its toll on opioid users as well as their friends and families.
Almost everybody on Long Island, and probably all around the world, has been prescribed a drug by a doctor before— whether it was to knock out a nasty virus, or relieve pain post injury or surgery. However, what many people don’t realize is that these drugs can have highly addictive qualities, and more and more people are becoming hooked, specifically teenagers. But when does harmlessly taking a prescription drug to alleviate pain take the turn into the downward spiral of abuse? The answer to that question would be when the user begins taking the drug for the “high” or good feelings brought along with it—certainly not what it was prescribed for (1). The amount of teens that abuse prescription medications has been rapidly increasing in recent
The main tension is created between the differing views the frameworks have on justice, honesty and fairness. There are instances where using Utilitarianism ethics can produce great benefits for the majority, but the actions to achieve these benefits may not be fair, honest, and just or uphold societal/personal duties (Markkula Centre For Applied Ethics, 2014). Within deontology however it is unacceptable to disregard moral rules such as honesty and fairness (Alexander & Moore, 2012). Although deontology is about upholding moral duties and producing a more just and fair society, sometimes tension between different moral duties can hinder this (Alexander & Moore, 2012). For example in this campaign it is the moral duty to keep others from harm, but it is also a moral duty to be honest. As the campaign didn’t meet both moral duties, the practitioner didn’t meet uphold its duty to society. These differing views created tension between the practitioner 's duty to the employer and
Most adolescents who misuse prescription pain relievers are given the medication by an unknown friend or relative. This is a situation that can easily be avoided with an education on the 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 epidemic.
I would uninvent the use of opioids as a pain relief. Though they are extremely effective, they are too effective and it is a really big problem. From a logical, objective, standpoint, opioids cost billions of dollars a year. Between the cost of making, distributing, over doses, methadone clinics, narcan production, ambulance rides, and the many other costs involved with this terrible addiction it is bad for the economy. Not to mention the draw it has on society as a whole. Many addicts are unemployed, having children and then abandoning them, cause car accidents, creating public disturbances and destroying property. Addicts are a complete nuisance in society and rarely contribute. But it is not their fault, addiction is a disease they cannot
Many therapists can increase the functional abilities of their patient’s lives, I aim to do more than just that. In the last two decades, the United States has experienced an explosion of opioid drug use and abuse. Along with assessing heart rate and blood pressure, pain has become the fifth vital sign used to evaluate a patient’s status in most every healthcare setting. There is now more of an emphasis to manage pain and in turn more and more opioids prescriptions have been written. The United States is currently immersed in an opioid crisis with no discrimination of its victims. Drug overdoses have since become the leading cause of death of Americans under 50 years of age, with two-thirds of those deaths from opioids. The stereotypical street drug user is no longer the norm but rather all socioeconomic levels are affected. There has been a surge of prevalence in middle aged women addicted to pain killers who often suffer in silence and are well equipped to hide their problem. Most everyone knows someone and has had their lives or family affected by drug
In the present day there is a harsh stigma towards the use of opioid narcotic medication. Stories of addiction and overdose are passed around. The media is brimming with panic over the use of these medications. By and large, this can be seen as more of an overdose crisis than an opioid crisis. Federal and medical guidelines for prescribing opioid medications have changed drastically over the last several years because of this epidemic. Unfortunately, due to the increasing level of abuse that these medications are associated with, people with chronic pain are untreated, undermedicated, and suffering. Opiate narcotics, when used properly by responsible patients, are invaluable in alleviating acute or chronic cases of moderate to severe pain.
Opioids are highly addictive and can keep people from using them properly. People might say it's the users fault and they should be able to control themselves, but it's not something you can just
In 2014, more than 5,700 teens in the US used prescription painkillers for the first time without a doctor’s guidance, and a quarter of teens think of prescription drugs as a study aid (Volk). In fact, 56.4% of teen opioid users use them to relax or relieve tension, according to a 2002-2006 study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, in which 12,441 high school seniors filled out questionnaires about their opioid usage (Wilbert). This stress relief can seem appealing to teens struggling with pressure related to school.
There are many other options and treatment plans for people to consider before handing their life over to drugs. Drugs are not meant to be legalized without proper information and education about the drug for the public. Educational programs in the school system are a way of teaching the youth of how harmful these substances are. Even though some may be effective in treating pain, there are long-term side effects associated with these drugs that people need to consider. Pain is inevitable and suffering is