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Drugs in America abstract
Opioid crisis case study
Opioid crisis case study
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The Opioid are medications used primarily for pain relief. The Opioid-associated life-threatening emergencies in an unresponsive adult victim. The common examples are hydrocodone and morphine. Heroin is another example of an Opioid that is illegal in the United States. The addiction to opioids is a growing; the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has reported that as many as 36 million people that may be addicted to Opioids.
The Opioid medication are a type of narcotic pain medication that you will receive mostly from over the counter, if you have a mild headache or a muscle ache. It is usually enough to make you feel better. But they can have serious side effects if you don't use them correctly. The Opioids in high doses can causes a central nervous system and respiratory depression that can cause respiratory and cardiac arrest. In the United States the Opioid overdose is now responsible for killing more adults annually than motor vehicle collisions. It is important to let your doctor knows when you’re taking any other medications.
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Opioids can make a dramatic difference in people with moderate to severe pain. These drugs can be an effective therapy as long as you use them safely and follow your doctor's instructions carefully. The people who are addicted to opioids compulsively seek out the pain medications. You should never change or stop taking any opioid medicine without first checking with your doctor. Because if a pain medication isn't working as well as it should, your doctor may switch you to a different dose or you may try another
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.
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).
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.
Opiates are a class of drugs that are used for chronic pain. Opioids are substances that are used to relieve pain by binding opiate receptors throughout the body, and in the brain. These areas in the brain control pain and also emotions, producing a feeling of excitement or happiness. As the brain gets used to these feelings, and the body builds a tolerance to the opioids, there is a need for more opioids and then the possibility of addiction. There are different forms of opioids manufactured such as Morphine, Oxycodone, Buprenorphine, Hydrocodone, and Methadone.
On the typical day, over 90 people will die at the hand of opioid abuse in America alone (National). In fact, as of 2014, nearly 2 million Americans were dependent and abusing opioids. The Opioid Crisis has affected America and its citizens in various ways, including health policy, health care, and the life in populous areas. Due to the mass dependence and mortality, the crisis has become an issue that must be resolved in all aspects.
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 suffer 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 to the complex problem. The stigma about opioid addiction has wide-reaching negative effects as it
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
One of the largest concerns within our nation is opioid dependence and the rise in abuse rates of medicinal and illicit opioids. Many illicit and medicinal drugs such as Morphine and Heroin, come from the internal secretions of the opium poppy plant (Papaver somniferum) and are highly available and acclaimed for their analgesic and euphoric effects within the general population (Veilleux et al., 2010). Veilleux et al. (2010) concluded that given these properties of opioids there is a dangerously high potential for abuse. Dependence on these drugs can be linked to a variety of aspects within an individual’s life such as health and social problems, which may include increased chances for legal issues, mortality, unemployment, psychotic episodes, and HIV. For these reasons and many others, Opioid addiction is considered a chronic disease with high potential for relapse and needs to be considered as a public health concern.
I am writing to you today to consult you on the increasing percentage of opioid based pain killers prescribed to patients. The prescription of opioid based drugs is effective and work very quickly. The drug was first used in the medical field, “In the sixteenth century when, laudanum, opium prepared in an alcoholic solution, was used as a painkiller” (Lembke, 2018). In the medical field, they have become the status quo for many chronic pain cases and patients going through the numerous months of chemotherapy. Anna Lembke, Md explains in her article that, “chronic opioid therapy benefits some patients with chronic pain” to show that there is a necessity for the prescribing of opioids (2018).
Prescription Drug Overdose All drugs have side effects, some life threatening than others. Prescription drugs require medical prescriptions to be dispensed because they contain substances that if misused or abused are very life threatening. On the 18th of July 2012, Richard Gil Kerlikowske, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, in a speech addressing the prescription drug abuse epidemic before the United States Senate’s Caucus on International Narcotics Control said “Medical science has successfully developed medications that can alleviate suffering, such as opioids for cancer pain and benzodiazepines for anxiety disorders, and allowed more individuals to have access to the medicines they need. However, we all now recognize
Doctors these days prescribe drugs for people that have pain, and then patients get addicted to it. Then it becomes extremely hard to get of of them. Drugs affect the way the brain works and how the body works. It basically weakens the body’s health, and the body itself. Also these days patients trick doctors into thinking that they have a problem so then the doctors gives the drug to them that’s another reason why people abuse prescription drugs.
The usage of pain medications has gone up severely over the years. It is guaranteed that some types of pain medications exist in your medicine cabinet. With a readily available supply of pain medications, it have brought up problems associated with abusing such medications that have led negligent American families into abandoning their health for comfort. Pain medications are administered in a variety of setting, from nurses at hospital beds to paramedics at vehicle collision scenes. Pain medication is a broad term as it varies from over-the-counter strength to prescription strength. Each type of medication will have different ingredients, which are paired with different side effects. Many painkillers can allow the patients to develop an addiction
The war on drugs is a very dangerous problem. Very many people are affected by the war on drugs which is one big problem. In this research paper I will be talking about everything you need to know about the war on drugs. I will be talking about who started it, what people are doing to stop and how it is affecting people all over the world etc. Just everything that you could know about the war on drugs.