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Opioid crisis in united states essay
Thesis for opioid crisis
Thesis statement on the opioid crisis
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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 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.
Opioid addiction is a tragedy that affects countless of Americans on a daily basis. Almost everyone is acquainted to someone, who suffers from opioid addiction. Everyone, but specifically family and friends of the victims to opioid addiction need to understand why their loved ones are so susceptible to becoming addicted to opioids. The word opioid in itself is complex to define, but it entails a variety of prescription medications. Most opioids are used as pain management medications and qualify as CII medications also known as narcotics. They are supposed to be used on an “as needed” basis, but that is not the case for many users of opioids. Opioids cause great fear in the health community because they are easily addictive and
By the year 2000 opioid medicine containing oxycodone etc., are being abused and misused and more than doubled in 10 years’ time.
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.
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.
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).
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
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
As I’m sure you would agree, doctors have to stop over prescribing their patients with opioids. Although opioids are used as pain medication and are prescribed more to patients who are fresh out of surgery or have chronic pain, it can become highly addictive. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 11.5 million people have misused the opioids they were prescribed(Thompson). Their misuse can be due to the fact that their doctors are prescribing them a ridiculous amount of opioids, instead of just giving them regular ibuprofen. It doesn’t matter how well these drugs are working, what matters is how it’s affecting the patients who are given this deadly drug. Clearly doctors aren’t taking into consideration at all the
(2005) assessed 288 chronic pain patients that had a history of opiate use of a period over eight months at an outpatient VA pain clinic. On average, participants aged 54.8 years old ranging from 25-88 with 93% resulting in males and 7% in females. Common pain diagnoses were indicated as back pain, neck pain, extremity pain, headaches, neuropathic pain, and other. For assessments, each client completed a Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD), Oswestry Disability Index 2.0, Prescription Drug Use Questionnaire, Pain Intensity and Relief Assessment, Medication Beliefs Self-Report, and Substance Abuse and Psychiatric History report at the initial visit with examination of their medical records. The assessments indicated the participants’ anxiety and depression levels, pain levels, beliefs of medication use, and history of reported substance abuse with opiate
Canada is facing an opioid epidemic. The year 2016 brought a flood of daily headlines, articles, reports, statistics, and news coverage all across the country on the drug crisis. Unfortunately, 2017 proved to be just as devastating. Overdoses, rising hospital intakes, and lost lives filled every news station and newspaper across Canada. Avoiding the news surrounding Canada’s opioid epidemic seems nearly impossible today as the issue continues to grow.
Thesis Statement: Opioid abuse is an ongoing issue among physical therapy patients, in regards to the over prescribing of patients who seek relief in pain management. Possible solutions gear towards the help that physical therapy can provide in finding balance when prescribing narcotic medications. 1. What research question(s) led me to this thesis statement? There were many research questions that led me to this particular statement.
Both Celine Gounder and Sushrut Jangi share many ideas concerning the opioid epidemic, but also disagree on some as well. For starters, Gounder and Jangi blame doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and patients for the problem. Both talk extensively about these groups of people and organizations in their articles and explain how they are contributing to the problem. Also, these two authors acknowledge that most doctors did not consciously contribute to the epidemic. Within, their articles they explain that most doctors are well-intentioned, but pharmaceutical companies have clouded their judgment on how to practice medicine. Another point that both Gounder and Jangi share is that as doctors themselves, they too are to blame for their part in creating and fueling the
An opioid is a recommended medicine from the medication opium, an engineered tranquilize, which influences the focal sensory system and essentially it is misused. At the point when an opioid is mishandled there are higher dangers to a man's wellbeing, so the opioid is portrayed to be opiate (McCoy, 2015). The power of opioid mishandle is unsafe and exorbitant to society, and it will