Opioid Addiction Research Paper

Opioid addiction is so prevalent in the healthcare system because of the countless number of hospital patients being treated for chronic pain. While opioid analgesics have beneficial painkilling properties, they also yield detrimental dependence and addiction. There is a legitimate need for the health care system to provide powerful medications because prolonged pain limits activities of daily living, work productivity, quality of life, etc. (Taylor, 2015). Patients need to receive appropriate pain treatment, however, opioids need to be prescribed after careful consideration of the benefits and risks.

Opioid use in the US has increased over the years, and this has led to an increase in substance abuse. Substance abuse is not only associated with use of illicit drugs but also prescription drugs. In 2015, of the 20.5 million reported cases of substance abuse, 2 million had an abuse disorder related to prescription pain relievers and 591,000 associated with heroin.1 The increase in substance abuse disorder has led to an increase in opioid related death. In 2015 drug overdose was the leading cause of accidental death in the US with 52, 404 lethal drug overdoses.2

There is no question that the alarming rate of deaths related to opioid overdose needs to be addressed in this county, but the way to solve the problem seems to remain a trial and error approach at this point. A patient is injured, undergoes surgery, experiences normal wear and tear on a hip, knee or back and has to live with that pain for the rest of their life or take a narcotic pain medication in order to improve their quality of life and at least be able to move. The above patients are what narcotic pain medications were created for, a population of people that use narcotic pain medications for fun is what is creating a problem. Narcotics are addictive to both populations, however taking the narcotic for euphoric reasons is not the intention of the prescription that the physician is writing. The healthcare system needs to find a way to continue to provide patients that experience chronic pain with the narcotics that work for them while attempting to ensure the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) doesn’t have to worry about a flood of pain pills hitting the streets by granting access to the population with a substance abuse problem.

Opioids are classified as opium like compounds; some (ex. codeine and morphine) exist naturally in opium, which is a gummy substance derived from the seedpod of the opium poppy, indigenous to Southern Asia. Other opioids are of the synthetic category, such as methadone or fentanyl (opioidaddictionsource.com). Though the use of prescription opioids may be well intended, due to their effect on the brain chemistry, it is fairly common for one to become addicted to them; America is amidst a raging prescription opioid epidemic, in fact.

Mike Alstott knows first-hand how opioids, when used correctly, can play an important role in managing pain and helping people to function, but he is also keenly aware of the growing crisis of opioid misuse and overdose. More American adults are dying from misusing prescription narcotics than ever before. An estimated 35 people die every day in the U.S. from accidental prescription painkiller overdoses resulting from things like not taking a medication as directed or not understanding how multiple

It is important for our culture in western society to educate doctors on how to modify and limit their prescribing behavior so that less people become dependent on opioid medication. Doctors must start limiting and monitoring the number of opioid prescriptions they administer to patients. Limiting the number of prescriptions will lower the chances for potential abuse within patients, as well as lower the ease of access and circulation of opioid medication on the streets.

According to NIH, millions of people suffer from opioid use disorder throughout the United States. This epidemic has continued to spread and the numbers of people who are becoming addicted is on the rise so much that the total burden of cost is at 78.5 billion dollars per year for prescription opioid misuse, this includes the cost of addiction treatment, criminal justice services, and health care (NIH, 2017. https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-crisis) Unfortunately there does not seem to be an end to this epidemic anytime soon. The numbers are unremarkable; natural and semi-synthetic opioids peeked at 14,427, heroin at 15,446 and synthetic opioids other than methadone at 20,145. That is a total of 50,018 deaths for some type

Opioids are prescription drugs such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone just to name a few. Opioids are

Opioid abuse, misuse and overdose is a problem in The United States. You can’t turn on the TV or read a newspaper without some mention of the epidemic. This issue has caused the practice of prescribing or taking narcotic pain medication to be looked at under a microscope. Patients are fearful to use some necessary pain medication, because they may become addicted. Other patients who genuinely do have pain and need medication are having a tougher time obtaining the help they need. The problem of abuse and addiction is tough to solve since for some people the medications are the only way they can function and live a semi-normal life. A patient with pain may be hesitant to visit the doctor and

The present regulations are not as effective in reducing opioid use. New programs and uniformity among them will lead to a reduction in opioids. In the years 1999 to 2015, 180,000 people died from opioid related overdoses (CDC, 2017). Drug overdoses still present an ongoing threat in the United States. The medication that is healing the patient does not have proper monitoring and restrictions, thus allowing for an overdose problem to occur. A temporary fix tries to lower the number of overdoses, but with proper guidelines and stricter regulation on dosage, usage, and physician prescribing, the chances of overdosing and death due to overdose will be reduced over time. The programs in place now are not correctly

Opiates are a commonly prescribed medication today in America. These powerful medications come from the poppy plant and are known to relieve pain. They fall into a class known as “narcotics,” which also includes other pain relievers. The term is often used interchangeably with the term “opioids,” drugs similar to opium. Regardless of what you call them, opiate addiction happens quite frequently.

Classified as an antidote, naloxone gives individuals who overdose on opioids a second chance at life, but without access to proper treatment, these users will continue living in the cycle of addiction until either finding enough strength to pull through the recovery process or falling victim to life’s only certainty prematurely.

Chronic non-cancer pain is a condition that need different alternatives in order to be treated while some patients could respond efficiently to some medications some others not. Nevertheless, in the market there are available enough options that offer a variety of strategies to treat pain, including opioids. Conversely, in the last years an increase in the abuse of pain reliever drugs containing opioids has increased alarmingly some specialist have termed it as “opioid abuse epidemic”.

Naloxone exhibits no functional pharmacological effects when administered to patients who did not use opioids. On the other hand, it could precipitate acute withdrawal symptoms in chronic opioid users, provoking, in many cases, a violent reaction.

pharmaceutical market in 2015 had 87 Billion dollars worth of imports, and exports worth 47 Billion. Overall the drug industry spent over 100 million dollars lobbying congress on various bills during 2014-2016. In the United States the medical field is an industry. These companies are built off of monetary incentive. In order for their product to gain popularity and make more money they pressured doctors to prescribe their products. People in our country are suffering at varying levels because of these opioids, and these big companies can afford to provide relief from those who have been prescribed with them. There are some instances of opioids being effective. For example surgeries, cancer patients, and other life threatening issues. It becomes an issue when doctors trust their patients to take large portions of these drugs home. Many people have spoken of how month long prescriptions are often gone within the first week. Until a better replacement for opioids can be discovered, these opioids need to be more tightly