The author of the editorial, “Doctors Will Play a Critical Role in the Opioid Epidemic,” posted in the New York Times, claim that doctors will need to make safe and effective decisions for treatment of pain due to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealing the rise of opioid overdose deaths since 1999. The author states that there are many other alternatives that can be given to treat pain and doctors should be considering them before writing out prescriptions for opioids. This article focuses mainly on the statistics of opioid use and overdose deaths, alternative treatments, and the different steps that health care providers can use to minimize the risk of addiction. Its information is to ensure the safety of…
Today's pharmaceutical companies provide a powerful impact on the situation of a heroin epidemic in the United States because modern pharmaceutical companies have allowed production of legal, regulated prescription opiates that led to the increase of drug abuse and overdose deaths. Pharmaceutical reps receive big bonuses for pushing their products on doctors, which resulted in they get the large profit and thus forgot for a certain responsibility to their patients. How many lives have been limited by the use of painkillers? Who is responsible for the pain-pill epidemic? How many dreams are not fulfilled? What are the true reasons behind it? Those are questions that befuddle many individuals and experts. Sadly, drug overdoses now kill more…
Opiate overdose has many cumulating factors that intertwine causing an actual overdose. Many believe that the rise of opiate overdoses is due to an increase in opiate addicts primarily heroin addicts. However, research shows that the reason for overdose rate increases is due to the following factors; fear of reporting an overdose, tolerance, and polysubstance use. Usually when a person overdoses the majority of the time it is due to injecting heroin. Most of the time it is a fellow heroin addict with them that fails to seek medical attention for that person while they still can, due to the fear that they will get in trouble and face legal consequences. Therefore, they just leave the person where ever they are and take off in fear. The second risk factor increasing the chances of an opiate overdose is tolerance. This is when a person builds, over time the need to use more of the substance at one time to gain the same effect. Or the addict increases use of other drugs to compensate for the decreased effectiveness of the opiate they have such a high tolerance for. Another risk factor is polysubstance abuse; this is when a person uses more than one drug in combination with other drugs, usually at the same time. Many addicts will mix alcohol and benzodiazepines together along with the opiate which in combined acts…
What was once an effective solution for managing chronic pain has become one of the most commonly abused substances in our society, causing the need for a monitored and effective plan for treating chemically dependent individuals and their addiction to opiate’s. Ghodse (2012) stated that addiction to opiates is a disease causing malfunctions of the brain; it has effects on the mind and body requiring a specific medication in the treatment plan, and is recognized as being the most effective. Deaths should only occur from old age; that’s not the case now days and it’s because of this horrible addiction. It’s one of the risks taken from abusing opioids. It’s gotten so bad teenagers are dying from it. Are opiates worth giving your life to? No drug is worth my life! For those that feel it’s impossible to stop, ask a doctor about buprenorphine. It’s what doctor’s use for treating this addiction and acts as an opioid receptor in the brain (Ghodse, 2012). Yeah it’s great there’s a solution to help stop substance abuse, but never using is a lot more effective for your life. Shoenfeld (2012) made it clear that once you start abusing opiates, most require treatment in order to stop…
Overdoses are the most common cause of unintentional death in America today. Dr. Sanjay Gupta says most of the blame belongs to doctors which leads us to the question who’s at fault for our prescription overdose. Doctors, doctors are at fault. Addiction blog.org says “ What happens when our drug pushers become those that we trust most with our health?” Doctors don’t put in the effort needed for the patients anymore, they just write up a prescription and send you out. Doctors do not take the time to sit down with you and fully listen to your health problems. Today prescription opioids are the most powerful class of painkillers. They kill more people every year than heroin and cocaine combined. A majority of those deaths result from prescription…
Approved in 1995 by the FDA, OxyContin is “One of the fastest growing concerns for public health and non-medicinal use of prescription opioids.” (Roget 662) During the late 1990s and early 2000s, doctors could prescribe OxyContin to pretty much anyone with even mild pain. The pharmaceutical industry touted the infamous drug as a safer alternative to other common painkillers of the time. Only years later did the US public learn that “the very mechanisms that make those pills good at dulling pain are the ones that too often lead to crippling addiction and drug abuse.” (Piore 45) When prescription opiate addiction became a widespread problem in large swaths of the United States, the FDA was forced to drastically increase regulations that now make it extremely difficult for drug-addled opium junkies to obtain their drug of…
Opioid use disorder has a long history and started many years ago. When individuals use opioids, it can have serve consequences on the individual, community and the family. In this paper this counselor will provide a history of opioids and how opioids came United States. This paper will discuss how the theory addresses this disorder and proven treatments for the disorder. In this paper the counselor will explain the DSM -5 opioid use disorder criteria and the difference between the severity scales and how the individual may travel through those stages. The paper will discuss the legal and social consequences. Then the paper will discuss the cultural and social issues that affect the individual and how the…
Canada is the second-largest per capita consumer of prescription opioids in the world, trailing only the United States. In addition, the rates of prescription medication consumption, and the harms associated, have increased more steeply than those in the U.S. from 2000-2010, which can be seen by a 203% increase of opioid prescribed Standardized Defined Daily Doses (S-DDD) (International Narcotics Control Board, 2013). Though many Canadians rely on these prescriptions for normal daily functioning and behave responsibly with medications, the harms associated with prescription drug abuse can be profound and permanent, such as addiction, overdose, and suicide. Therefore, the aim of this exploration is to illustrate which Canadians are most frequently abusing…
As Americans, we have an increasingly large drug epidemic within our states. An average of sixteen thousand individuals die each year of an opioid-related death (Hamburg, 2014). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2014) has evidence to prove that yearly deaths by drug overdose have now surpassed…
Heroin is a highly addictive and illegal drug. It was first made in 1898 by the German drug company and sold as a treatment for tuberculosis as well as a remedy for morphine addiction, but it proved to be even more addictive than morphine. By the late 1990s, the mortality rate of heroin addicts was estimated to be as high as 20 times greater than the rest of the population. The first time it’s used, the drug creates a sensation of being high. A person can feel extroverted, able to communicate easily with others and may experience a sensation of highest sexual performance, but it’s not for so long. It’s highly addictive and withdrawal very painful. The drug quickly breaks down the immune system, eventually it leaves the person sickly, extremely…
Opioid abuse and addiction remains major public health concern and is often referred to as the opioid crisis. The National Institute of Health (NIH) reports there are approximately 2.1 million people in the United States suffering with the abuse and addiction to drugs such as heroin, morphine, and other prescribed opioids, and that number is increasing (NIH). While heroin addiction has been at the forefront of this problem, prescription opioid abuse is on the rise. Overdoses are also increasing, according to the NIH in 2012 the number of accidental overdoses quadrupled in comparison to 1999 (NIH). The National Health Institute reported a strong correlation between the abuse of prescribed opioids and heroin use. Substance abuse and addiction has very serious implications effecting the individual’s health, as well as social, legal, and family ramifications. Addiction can also affect people of all ages and socioeconomic class. Public Health officials,…
The United States represents 5 percent of the world’s population yet it consumes 75 percent of the world’s prescription drugs. A prescription drug is a medicine crafted by pharmaceutical companies that legally requires a medical prescription to be dispensed. In contrast, Illegal drugs are obtained unlawfully through undocumented transaction. Due to substance abuse these prescription and illicit drugs combined, kill tens of thousands of people each year. The three mainly abused types of prescription drugs are opioids, depressants, and stimulants. These 3 types all have something in common and that is, that they are all widely used and incredibly addictive. Opioids are usually given after surgery is performed due to serious pain. Stimulants are meant to speed up the activities in the body by enhancing alertness, concentration, and energy.…
In 2013, there were approximately 44,000 deaths related to drug related overdoses. Approximately 16,000 of those deaths were caused by drug overdoses attributed to prescription pain-medications, such as Vicodin, hydrocodone, and OxyContin (Volkow, 2016). Because of this, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stepped in, and implemented new regulations that would limit the availability of prescription pain medication (Cherny, 2010; Satel, 2004). The new regulations restrict the amount of pain-medications that can be prescribed by a doctor, the amount that can be prescribed during a set period, and the duration in which a single patient can have access to pain-medication (Dewell, 2016; Fazeli, 2011). The new regulations adopted by the…
The opiate does not succumb to a certain age group or gender, therefore people of all ages, both men and women of all classes has admitted to using heroin (Brooks, 2015). Both heroin use and heroin-related deaths have increased dramatically since 2002 (Brooks, 2015). The use of heroin skyrocketed between 2002 and 2013 with an incline of 63% and the number of deaths increased 286% (Brooks, 2015; “Today’s heroin epidemic,” 2015). In 2013, there were a reported 8,200 deaths caused from heroin (Brooks, 2015). “Next to automobile accidents, opiate overdoses are the leading cause of accidental deaths in the United States” (Abadinsky, 2014). Heroin is an addictive drug that can increase the chances of a user overdosing and death (“Today’s heroin epidemic,” 2015). The heroin issue in the United States is also related to the overall substance abuse problem in the country (“Today’s heroin epidemic,” 2015). For example, a person who is addicted to cocaine is fifteen times more likely to be addicted to heroin and a person who is addicted to opioid painkillers is forty times more likely to be addicted to heroin (“Today’s heroin epidemic,” 2015). Most people who have used heroin have also used one other type of drug (“Today’s heroin epidemic,” 2015). Individuals that are most at risk include, cocaine addicts, individuals who do not have insurance, Caucasians, males, marijuana and alcohol addicts, people in a metropolitan…
The study found that of the 919 deaths in a three-year period blamed on prescription narcotic overdose, only twelve proved to have confirmed evidence of the presence of painkillers alone in the system of the deceased (8). In fact, nearly 70% of the deceased had poisonous amounts of multiple illegal nonprescription drugs in their systems. These statistics point to a pathology of mental illness and drug addiction. The study states that “In the absence of opioids habitual users will, in all likelihood, merely switch to more available drugs” (Libby 6). According to Libby…