Opioid Withdrawal 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.

Second Main Point: As mentioned before, opioids are highly addictive, but why? Why don’t people just stop taking the drugs when they realize they have a problem? The

When opioids are used chronically, tolerance and dependence can occur and the side effects differ depending on the substance, as does the abuse potential (Addiction.com, 2011) (Steven A. Adelman, William J. Meehan, 2010). Combining or improper use of opioid medication with other prescription or over the counter medication could be fatal (CAMH, 2010) (Canada, 2009).

Have you ever witnessed an addict experiencing the effects of withdrawals from opiate abuse? Having witnessed my 24 year old son go through these, while I was experiencing them right by his side, was an eye opener. Even though Methadone and Suboxone both treat opiate addiction, their use is controversial; however the benefits of their use outweigh the controversy.

After prolonged use, the body becomes physically reliant; the long-term effects of this addiction are synonymous with withdrawal symptoms. Opioid withdrawal is especially difficult since they moderate dopamine; once use is reduced or put to an end, the induced euphoria is as well, and the pleasure centers are often left impaired (Tigerin Peare and drugfreeworld.com). Additionally, one can suffer from restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, and cold flashes, often coinciding with

These drugs are easy to become addicted to and continued use could lead to dependency. Citizen have to be sure to take drugs only prescribe to the patient on the bottle because what is safe to one person might not be to someone else. This is because our body chemistry is different for everyone.Some people are tricked into thinking it's safe because they are prescribed by doctors.This is untrue and opioid are very dangerous when taken recreational. Most opioids are given to help get through serious injuries. When you start these drugs, you can expect to experience drowsiness, slowed breathing, and constipation. The drug also will relieve the pain it was prescribed for. If long term usage occurs the user can easily become addicted. The body get used to the presence of these drugs and becomes attached. They might even need to use higher dosages to achieve the same high because the body builds up tolerance. This is how people overdose. The opioids slows the breathing so much that that stop breathing at

I agree that the withdrawal process makes opioid addiction debilitating. It takes time for the bodies of addicts to adjust when the opiods are not in their system. During withdrawal addicts experience many negative symptoms varing in severity. A form of treatment to reduce withdrawal symptoms and helping with detox is methadone which is also an opiod. When addicts are first put on methadone they take the instructed dosage, then over time the dosage slowly decreases. Methadone decreases the cravings of opioids and helps in maintaining to be free from other substances. Although I do not completly agree with taking medication to stop drug addiction, methadone has shown to be effective in treating drug addiction.

One of the most interesting facts that Scott Farnum mentioned was about the withdrawal period of Opioids. As a substance abuse counselor in training I have heard a lot about the withdrawal from opioids. More commonly than not, individuals believe that withdrawing from heroin is the worst withdrawal of any drug. When in reality, alcohol and benzodiazepines have the most severe and deadly withdrawal. However, opioids have are worse post acute withdrawal syndrome.

The use of opioid-based prescription medications to treat non-terminal chronic pain can cause side effects from short term use, and is overly common and ineffective. Firstly, opioid usage can induce negative short-term effects. According to William A. Darity, Jr., short-term opioid usage causes negative effects such as “euphoria, drowsiness, and impaired motor and cognitive functioning” (“Drugs”). The short term effects of the opioids may cause the patient to isolate him or herself socially due to being self-conscious about his or her friends and peers seeing the individual in their current condition. Due to his or her fragile emotional state, however, if the patient isolates him or herself during a time in which he or she should have increased

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse provides guidelines and recommendations to healthcare providers in terms of how to screen for an addiction. Opioid addiction is screened primarily through patient interviews involving both specific and open ended questions about their lifestyle, mood, and drug use. A psychiatric exam may also be administered to look for psychological factors indicating an addiction such as depression, anxiety, and other psychological symptoms related to addiction and withdrawal. Withdrawal is evaluated by gradually taking a patient off opioids and if symptoms of withdrawal are found the severity of the withdrawal itself is then evaluated.2 If a patient is diagnosed with an addiction to opioids then the transition to tertiary prevention, or treatment will occur. However, treatment will only occur if early detection and screening techniques are utilized fully by healthcare provider otherwise it is likely an overdose will kill the opioid

Opioids are drugs that act on the nervous system to relieve pain. Using them continuously and abusing can lead to physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms. They come in different forms such as tablets, capsules and even liquid.

At one time, drug addicts were viewed as a creepy individual that hung around alleys looking to score drugs. Today, we realize that drug addiction affects people from every walk of life. Drug addiction or more precisely, opiate addiction might affect a housewife next door, a graduate student, a grandparent, a teacher, doctor, lawyer, celebrity, beauty queen, model, baby sitter, or the teen delivering the newspaper. Opiate addiction is a new phenomena that is slowly taking over the country. Just about everyone knows someone that has experienced a drug problem now or in the past. However, opiate addiction treatment has saved numerous lives.

According to a research study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, “researchers found that people who took opioids were more than twice as likely to have heart attacks when compared to people who took no opioids at all”. The heart attacks are most likely due to the fact that the pills of opioids and opiates aren’t designed to dissolve in the bloodstream. Therefore, even when crushed, the fillers in the pills clump and clog the blood vessels, damming blood flow and destroying vital tissues. This also happens with liquid form opiates including heroin. The most times, the liquids are filled with contaminates that do not interact well with the bloodstream, including talc and coffee, causing blockage to and from the heart, leading to heart attack and death

Withdrawal can set in as soon as 8 hours after previous heroin use, and can include any of the following symptoms: drug craving, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting, kicking movements, goose bumps, and depression (3).

Morphine can be highly addictive. You will realize that the drug can generally be used safely when taken in small doses as prescribed by the physician. However, when the drug is used in large doses or abused, the user can actually develop a physical and psychological addiction to the drug. When the drug is abused, it normally stimulates the brain’s reward system. This basically motivates the user to abuse the drug more and more. This can lead to tolerance and dependence. Once you have developed dependence to morphine, you will have to keep using the drug from time to time. If you quite taking morphine, you are likely to go through withdrawal as your brains relearns how to function without the drug.