Painkillers: a Growing Epidemic
Painkillers: A Growing Epidemic
I visit my grandmother every month at her house. We relive all of the happy moments we shared when I was growing up. On my latest visit, she did not want to talk about the good times we shared, and seemed almost annoyed I was there at all. After searching around her house, I noticed an empty bottle of prescription painkillers. I remembered her telling me the last time I talked to her that she was starting to take a new prescription pain medication, but that was only two weeks ago. My grandmother would never abuse drugs, so why was the bottle empty already? I asked her about the medication and she told me that she was taking up to eight pills a day. She had misinterpreted the instructions and was taking twice the maximum allowed per day and had become dependent on the drugs unknowingly.
The abuse of painkillers is becoming an all too familiar problem throughout the country, and the results are tearing people apart. The abuse does not discriminate. People from all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds have suffered the effects of pain killer abuse, directly and indirectly. The two age groups that are the most likely to abuse painkillers are teenagers and the elderly, and the reasons for the abuse, in general, are very different.
Teenagers tend to believe that the use of painkillers is safe because there are legitimate uses for them. A large amount of teenagers do not realize how dangerous and addictive these medications can be when they are not taking them for their intended purpose and under a doctor’s supervision. Since 1990 the amount of teenagers that abuse painkillers has gone up five fold. A recent study has shown that about one in every five teenagers has abused prescription painkillers (The Partnership for a Drug Free America, 2010). With such a high rate of abuse among teenagers, they should be taught the dangers of prescription drugs as well as illegal substances.
The elderly are the most at risk at
I visit my grandmother every month at her house. We relive all of the happy moments we shared when I was growing up. On my latest visit, she did not want to talk about the good times we shared, and seemed almost annoyed I was there at all. After searching around her house, I noticed an empty bottle of prescription painkillers. I remembered her telling me the last time I talked to her that she was starting to take a new prescription pain medication, but that was only two weeks ago. My grandmother would never abuse drugs, so why was the bottle empty already? I asked her about the medication and she told me that she was taking up to eight pills a day. She had misinterpreted the instructions and was taking twice the maximum allowed per day and had become dependent on the drugs unknowingly.
The abuse of painkillers is becoming an all too familiar problem throughout the country, and the results are tearing people apart. The abuse does not discriminate. People from all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds have suffered the effects of pain killer abuse, directly and indirectly. The two age groups that are the most likely to abuse painkillers are teenagers and the elderly, and the reasons for the abuse, in general, are very different.
Teenagers tend to believe that the use of painkillers is safe because there are legitimate uses for them. A large amount of teenagers do not realize how dangerous and addictive these medications can be when they are not taking them for their intended purpose and under a doctor’s supervision. Since 1990 the amount of teenagers that abuse painkillers has gone up five fold. A recent study has shown that about one in every five teenagers has abused prescription painkillers (The Partnership for a Drug Free America, 2010). With such a high rate of abuse among teenagers, they should be taught the dangers of prescription drugs as well as illegal substances.
The elderly are the most at risk at
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