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
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Most people using heroin usually have a history of misusing prescription opioids first. How then can we stop misuse of prescription drugs before (un)intentional drug overdose deaths occur. The million-dollar question is how to reduce this epidemic while still having safe drugs available to alleviate pain and other medical problems. Misunderstandings about prescription drugs has contributed in spreading the epidemic over the years. Some people assume prescription drugs are safer and less addictive than illicit drugs when abused. Dramatic increase in doctors’ prescribing habits over the years has indirectly led to the increase in prescription drug abuse. With fear of medical lawsuits and not managing patients’ pain properly, prescribing health professionals tend to overprescribe than under-prescribe. In past decades, many types of pain were undertreated due to different reasons and the most notable reason was the fear of the side effects of opioids. In 1991, a North Carolina jury awarded $15 million in compensatory and punitive damages to the family of Henry James, a nursing home patient who died a painful death from terminal metastatic prostate cancer. The jury found that a nurse's refusal to administer the opioid analgesics necessary to relieve Mr. James's pain, on the rationale that he would become addicted, constituted a gross departure from acceptable care
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.”
Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is an analgesic medication. Its overdose occurs when someone accidently or intentionally takes more than the normal or recommended amount of this medication. Acetaminophen overdose is one of the common poisonings worldwide. If this poisoning occurs, need to call local emergency number (911) or poison control center.
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.
Opioid’s chemical composition consist of many highly addictive substances which cause the human body to become quickly tolerant. 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 patients.
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. Landau's testimony also underscores the need for collaborative efforts to address the crisis effectively. He emphasizes that “one prescription opioid manufacturer alone cannot end this public health crisis”. Any meaningful solution must involve input from the full array of stakeholders, including public health officials, other manufacturers, health insurers, distributors, academics, regulators, legislators, law enforcement, the addiction and recovery community, physicians, pain patients, and advocates for people with the disease of addiction” (Landau 6). This call for collective action underscores the complexity of the crisis and the imperative for comprehensive, multifaceted interventions. Physician Dr. William T. Fannin's testimony provides further insight into the origins and perpetuation of the crisis, illuminating the role of deceptive marketing practices employed by pharmaceutical manufacturers.
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
Inappropriate drug use causes loss of responsibility, illnesses, marriage difficulties, shorter life spans, financial struggles, theft, accidents, lack of parenting, bad role models and more laws. Now I’m not saying all the problems are only do to drugs and if there was appropriate drug use our society would be perfect, no I’m saying drug use in our society has made an impact and in this case not for the better. The cost of inappropriate drug use to society is something that many overlook and others simply don’t care to recognize
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.
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.
It is also easy to see the American people’s infatuation with drugs by simply looking at our current number of prescriptions filled at pharmacies annually. An active data table hosted by The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation states that about four billion prescriptions are filled annually (Kaiser). This is enough prescriptions for every person in the country, children and adults, to have twelve each. Once a person is on a drug, it is often hailed as an immediate fix to the problem, but many don’t think or just don’t care about the long-term side effects it could hold.
Addiction is a mental illness and in my lifetime many people have crossed my path in this community who have struggled with some form of substance issue. Even though I have lived away for many years, I have witnessed a very familiar trend with lower socioeconomic status families where this lower state leads to desperation, and in turn leads to substance abuse. Of course I know this doesn’t apply to every cohort of low income families, I haven’t completed any studies regarding this issue and I am just basing my knowledge on what I have personally witnessed in the area; but I do believe children of these individuals become stuck in the same cycle of their parents because it is what they are accustomed to. How do we break the cycle? How do
Attending college is typically a stressful time for an American student. Going to college places a lot of stress and emotional burden on students due to massive amounts of coursework, looming tuition bills, extracurricular activities, jobs, moving away from home for the first time, and maintaining a sufficient sleep schedule. Major stress and anxiety can lead to more serious consequences, such as the choice to heavily consume alcohol, which yields detrimental physiological and psychological effects. Alcohol is an addictive substance, which makes treatment for addiction a high priority. There need to be more adequate resources for prevention and intervention available to students who struggle with managing stress, anxiety, and addiction to alcohol;