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Essay on overdose medication
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In my own opinion, I think that painkiller abuse is both the patient and the doctor’s faults. Granted without the doctor to keep prescribing the patient the painkillers, the patient would become less likely to become a painkiller addict. In contrast, coming from the side of being a doctor’s daughter and watching multiple reality medical shows, I know that if the doctor cut the patient off of that painkiller, if the patient wanted it bad enough they would find a way to get it. With this in mind, I am not too sure on to who is at fault right now. Studies have shown that doctors are at fault simply due to the fact that they are the ones in charge of the prescribed narcotics (painkillers). Doctors have heavily given out pain killers due to
The range of medications from anti-inflammatory to opioids is extreme, and have different effects on the human body. Medical professionals have to make the decision whether to give a patient a lower grade pain management drug or a higher grade drug, and they are the ones who have to determine how much pain the patient truly is in when most of a patient 's pain in unseen to the physical eye. “Pain as a presenting complaint accounts for up to 70% of emergency department visits, making it the most common reason to seek health care. Often, it is the only reason patients seek care,” and with this knowledge health care professional need to treat each patient equally in the sense that they are the emergency room or a physician 's office for a reason, and that reason is to relieve the pain they are in (American College of Emergency Physicians Online). The article from the American College of Emergency Physicians continues on to say that, “it is the duty of health care providers to relieve pain and suffering. Therefore, all physicians must overcome their personal barriers to proper analgesic administration,” this is in regards to medical professional who are bias toward specific patients, such as “frequent flyers” or even patients of certain class standing; no matter what their patient may look like or be like they must be treated equally and
Doctors work under intense pressure, and if a pill could fix a patient’s problems than many saw nothing wrong with that. What exacerbated the problem was that many hospitals also changed their modus operandi with regards to treatment. In some hospitals, “doctors were told they could be sued if they did not treat pain aggressively, which meant with opiates (95). However once the patient became addicted and could no longer get their prescription legally refilled, the drug dealers saw their chance. What is surprising is the fact that pharmaceutical companies acted in the same manner as drug dealers. Both sides did not care about the end user, and the problems they would have to deal with after using what was given to them. Their motive was purely to profit as much as possible, and they did not care about who would get hurt as a result of their
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.
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
“Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the F.D.A. 's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research said people are being harmed and some of the harm is preventable ' ' (Le Fanu, 2014). With millions of drugs on the market, and with multiple drugs just for one ailment, it wouldn’t take much to cause a wrong combination that could cause injury or death. Hospitals across the U.S. reported in 2011 adverse reactions from prescription drugs caused 2.2 million injuries and 106,000 deaths that two-thirds could have been prevented with proper monitoring of prescription drugs. (Bremner,
One must evaluate all parties involved. It can be argued that do to the lack of documentation or communication of the physician this was an act of negligence. A jury can decide that lack of documentation is sufficient evidence in finding a physician guilty of negligence (Pozgar, 2009). When we look at the role of the defendant which was the pharmacist not the physician his duty goes above just filling prescriptions, the duty of a pharmacist is to monitor the patient’s medication. In order for him to have achieved this properly he should have made sure he contacted the physician for further information even if the physician failed to communicate with him. Because of his actions the plaintiff is holding the pharmacist accountable for his treatment and that is not where all of the blame should be consumed. The argument that can be made for the pharmacist is that the pharmacist acted within his scope of practice and left everything to the physician. This situation can easily be construed as, if the physician needed further medications or if there were any adverse reaction then he would have contacted the pharmacist. Once again the prosecutor may argue that the pharmacist had a duty to follow up on any treatment that he provided to a patient. These arguments would be the most persuasive. These are the key elements in determining the case being argued. For example the pharmacist not following up with the patient’s physician may be
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.
When the physicians are in a pain-free state, they aren’t going to fully understand what kind of pain medication their patients need for those who are experiencing pain themselves. Physicians are taught it is better to undermedicate than to overmedicate. Another situation described in the article is end-of-life care. Physicians who do not understand how a person feels when they are near death might try to prolong life longer than the patient can
Many people are directly and indirectly affected by these unethical actions by our trusted medical professionals. Foremost are the individuals who become addicted to these drugs, and their loved who are cannot help them. Lives are shattered, families are ruined, careers ended, and many lives lost. Indirectly
On October 25th I attended the Janet A. Sipple lecture on South Campus. The lecture was based on the opioid epidemic. There were most of the nursing majors, other health majors, and many professionals from the community and beyond that attended the lecture. The lecture was given by a professor from the University of Pennsylvania. She did a study on opioid and all of its affects and why people develop an addiction.
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.
West Virginia has one of the highest rates for prescription drug abuse, and overdose in the nation. In order to change this it is important to understand what pharmacists do, their role in prevention, and the severity of prescription drug abuse. Pharmacists are known to dispense prescription drugs to patients and inform them about their use; However, one aspect of their career most people overlook is that Pharmacists must keep a sharp eye out for criminals looking to abuse these prescribed drugs.
However, healthcare professionals are legally and ethically responsible to treat pain and reduce all patients’ suffering (Dineen & DuBois, 2016). First, physicians face ethical and legal ramifications when dealing with pain management in their patients mainly impart to the physician-patient relationship. Upon meeting with a patient, physicians enter into an implied contract that legally obligates them to continuously treat the patient until there is nothing more they can do for them (Furrow, Greaney, Johnson, Jost, & Schwartz, 2015). Now, pain is a subjective experience reported by the patient, instead of an observable objective assessment completed by the physician. Therefore, physicians are required to treat pain as it is
It is also true that there are some patients who demands for more prescriptions, tests and treatments from doctors. Half of the physicians complain that their patients want unnecessary tests. However, one of the fact remains true for doctors overtreating patients is the desire to make money. Some tests, over-prescribed medication or treatments may appear helpful but they are actually nothing but money.