In the past, media campaigns have focused on youth and marijuana misuse as well as underage drinking. It has not been until recently that there has been a need for educational programs focusing on the misuse of prescription opioids. The focus on this study will be to see if an intense media campaign that focus on the misuse of opioids and drug addiction has an effect on the prescription practices of physicians, specifically hydrocodone. I will run a webinar session with physicians who volunteer as participants. Physicians who volunteer for the study will watch one Webinar after which they will fill out an opinion questionnaire that asks their opinion on whether the video would be an effective teaching tool for patients needing pain medication. At the end of the media campaign I will focus on that state’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program to see if the media campaign has any measurable effect on the physician’s opioid prescription rate. To determine this, data must be looked at over an extended period to determine the prescription rate before and after the media campaign. I will conclude the study by analysing the data to see if there was a significant change in the prescription rates of hydrocodone. I will also try to see if the media campaigns are memorable and an effective method of preventing opioid abuse. This will be done using the questionnaire.
Literature Review
The Opioid Epidemic Both Jones, Christensen and Gladden’s (2017) as well as Smolina,
In America, the use of opioids is at an all time high, it has became such an issue nationwide, that it has became an epidemic. Because of the opioid epidemic, America is tearing apart, children all across the country are dying everyday, these children are dying from overdoses due to poisoning. The opioid problem is not just because of a person's decision to pick up a needle or a pill bottle, but it is because in the 1990’s doctors gave up on trying to treat patients for their overwhelming pain and discomfort, causing opioids to become over prescribed. Due to the carelessness of America, opioids are being distributed more and more everyday, causing the skyrocketing number of deaths.
In Nolan and Amico’s article, “How Bad is the Opioid Epidemic?” they argue the opioid epidemic has become the worst drug crisis in American history. Heroin and other opioids overdose kill more than 47,055 people a year. Deaths caused from drug overdose has outnumber as much as 40 percent compared to the death caused from car crashes in 2014 (Nolan and Amico 3). Furthermore, in 1999 there were only 15000 people died from drug overdose. This number has tripled in 15 years. Also, in his article, “America’s Addiction to Opioids: Heroin and Prescription Drug Abuse” Volkow also presents the fact that “with an estimated 2.1 million people in the United States suffering from substance use disorders related to prescription opioid pain relievers in 2012 and an estimated 467,000 addicted to heroin. The consequences of this abuse have been devastating and are on the rise. For example, the number of unintentional overdose deaths from prescription pain relievers has
The United States of America has had a war against drugs since the 37th president, Richard Nixon, declared more crimination on drug abuse in June 1971. From mid-1990s to today, a crisis challenges the health department and government on opioid regulation, as millions of Americans die due overdoses of painkillers. Opioids are substances used as painkillers, and they range from prescription medications to the illegal drug, heroin. Abusing these substances can cause a dependency or addiction, which can lead to overdoses, physical damages, emotional trauma, and death. To ease the crisis, physicians are asked to depend on alternatives to pain management. Law enforcement cracks down on profiting drug-dealers and heroin abusers. People are warned against misusing opioids. The controversy begins for those who suffer from chronic pain, because they depend on opioids. There’s so a correlation to the 1980s cocaine epidemic, and people are upset over racial discrimination. Nonetheless, the best way to avoid this crisis is to recover the people at risk, reduce inappropriate opioid description, and have a proper response.
Opioids are being over prescribed in the United States resulting in increased deaths by drug overdose. Pain medication strategies are being looked into as substitutes for pain management. Over decades, the amount of medicine being prescribed has more than tripled. State policies regarding the medication were implemented and who'd a small decrease in the likelihood of opioid prescriptions. Nationally, death rates are on the rise. Studies monitoring prescription drugs do not account for illegal opioids and manufactured fentanyl. While not mentioned in this article, there is a possible correlation between young people prescribed opioids and illegal drug use seeing that overdoses are common in patients already abusing their prescription medication, yet overdose death being most common after
Substances are placed in their respective schedules based on whether they have a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, their relative abuse potential, and likelihood of causing dependence when abused.? All of this information has been confirmed by the FDA.
In the United States, there has been upward swing of opioid abuse over the past decade. Overdose deaths involving opioids – both prescription pain relievers and heroin – almost quadrupled between 1999 and 2014. Well-intentioned efforts to curb prescription opioid abuse have yielded new policies with unfortunate, unforeseen consequences for the 15% of the US population that suffer from chronic pain – nearly 45 million people.
Nonmedical Prescription-Opioid abuse in the United States and Michigan has continued to rise, and with it, the devastating results that accompany it. Research has shown that increased opioid abuse leads to an increase in overdose and death, increases in crime and increased incidences of costly blood borne diseases like HIV, AIDS and Hepatitis. It also leads to increased societal costs, such as an increasing number of children in foster care and increased healthcare, workplace and criminal justice costs that can decimate communities and local budgets. Many communities were caught with their heads in the sand, as they were overwhelmed by the influx of prescription opioids into their communities. When policies were finally implemented to curb the amount of prescription opioids in their communities, rates of heroin use (also an opioid) began to skyrocket and people began realizing they had an opioid epidemic on their hands. How to combat this heroin epidemic has been the topic of many debates. This article will attempt to examine the relationship of nonmedical prescription-opioid abuse and its effects on heroin use.
The source describes the opioid overdose epidemic across the U.S. as a significant issue possibly deriving from economic stress, social isolation, and over-prescribing pain relievers. Action must be taken to help and prevent dependency on opioids in order to stop this rapid rate of overdose throughout America. Proper education is vital for younger and elder generations to know how to prevent opioid dependency.
According to the Department of Health and Human services, over 650,000 opioid prescriptions are dispensed in one day. This translates to around 230 million prescriptions each year. This amount just barely falls short of being high enough to give every adult in the United States their own bottle of opioid pills. The loose prescribing habits of medical professionals are to blame for these absurdly high numbers. Current doctors will prescribe an opiate-based painkiller for anything from a backache, toothache, to even headaches. To give patients “highly addictive” drugs for low scale chronic pain over the three-days recommended max incurs high risk for tolerance, dependence, and potential addiction to opioids. Some would argue that doctors are simply doing their job by solving their patient’s pain problem and that people should not intrude upon a medical professional’s expertise. However, while doctors should be unbiased pillars of medical advice and treatment, they should also take into account the risks involved with their treatment for their patient’s sake. Particularly for opioid prescriptions, doctors should have to abide by dosing criteria, receive guidance on when to seek consultation, and know how to use their state’s prescription drug monitoring program (Alexander et al., 2015). According to Alexander et al., (2015) Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) are underutilized by 81% of all prescribers.
Nonmedical Prescription-Opioid abuse in the United States and Michigan has continued to rise, and with it, the devastating results that accompany it. Research has shown that increased opioid abuse leads to an increase in overdose and death, increases in crime and increased incidences of costly blood borne diseases like HIV, AIDS and Hepatitis. It also leads to increased societal costs, such as an increasing number of children in foster care and increased healthcare, workplace and criminal justice costs that can decimate communities and local budgets. Many communities were caught with their heads in the sand, as they were overwhelmed by the influx of prescription opioids into their communities. When policies were finally implemented to curb the amount of prescription opioids in their communities, rates of heroin use (also an opioid) began to skyrocket and people began realizing they had an opioid epidemic on their hands. How to combat this heroin epidemic has been the topic of many debates. This article will attempt to examine the relationship of nonmedical prescription-opioid abuse and its effects on heroin use.
A majority believed that providing naloxone to first responders would save lives (60%); however, only 35.9% believed that providing naloxone to friends and family members would save lives. A similar percentage held negative beliefs about naloxone: 31.4% thought that distributing it will encourage people to use more opioid analgesics and 39.0% believed that preventing overdoses is ineffective because people will just continue to use and overdose again. Almost half of participants believed that naloxone administration should be restricted to medical professionals only. Our finding that factual information alone can significantly increase support for naloxone distribution policies suggests that educating the public about naloxone’s safety and efficacy will play an important role in garnering public
The misuse of opioids has been around for over 20 years in the United States. In a 2017 article “Opioid Crisis”, it states that in the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies misled healthcare providers by informing them that patients would not become addicted to opioid painkillers. As a result, healthcare providers too liberally prescribed opioid pain relievers. Opioid abuse rates started to climb and it was clear that these medications were highly addictive. According to Volkow, Frieden, Hyde, and Cha (2014), between 1990 and 2010 death rates from prescription opioid overdose quadrupled in the United States. This surpassed the death rates from cocaine and heroin overdoses combined. Furthermore, they state that the epidemic is a result
My concerned is the current opioid epidemic in our society. There has been a significant increase in the use of opioid analgesics for pain control. There is a corresponding growth in the rate of abuse, misuse, and overdose of these drugs. As a nurse, I had witnessed and continue to witness patients coming in the emergency room from opioids overdose between the ages of 12 and 25 and this situation continue to increase in number. There is a significant increase in number of teenagers using opioid they buy from the street and others the opioid from family member who were given prescription and other situations
Dr. Blake Fagan gave a presentation on “The Opioid Epidemic” discussing the national, statewide, and local impact and magnitude of the dilemma. Overall, he addressed health concerns associated with the opioid crisis. Opioid painkillers are massively overprescribed by healthcare providers due to the lack of concern of prescribing 15 years ago. I remember hearing about this Opioid Epidemic a couple of years ago. In fact, I did a research paper in a previous class about it and while I was listening I found the presentation even more surprising. He mentioned that as of 2015, Buncombe County has distributed individual legitimate 17 million prescriptions in one year. I find this issue very relevant to me because I would like to speak and get the training to start a conversation about Opioid Awareness and share this presentation with others. As a former athlete who enjoys
Opioid abuse is an epidemic that affects almost every family in the United States. According to Introduction to Public Health book, interventions should be developed to prevent the illnesses and injuries caused by drug abuse. “One approach is to think of prevention on three levels: primary prevention, secondary prevention, and tertiary prevention” (Schneider