Opioids 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.

The opioid problem is big. The fact that multiple parties (FDA, Pharmacies, Doctors) are involved make the problem even more complex and difficult to fix. One of the best ways to begin helping the opioid crisis is within the FDA. The different types of opioids need to be re-tested to evaluate their necessity within our healthcare system. Too many readily available opioids are not beneficial. Next are doctors need to be taught to stand up again big pharmaceutical companies. These companies have their priority in profit, not patient care. Hopefully by implementing these factors, the opioid crisis can become a problem of the past.

The United States currently faces an unprecedented epidemic of opioid addiction. This includes painkillers, heroin, and other drugs made from the same base chemical. In the couple of years, approximately one out of twenty Americans reported misuse or abuse of prescriptions painkillers. Heroin abuse and overdoses are on the rise and are the leading cause of injury deaths, surpassing car accidents and gun shots. The current problem differs from the opioid addiction outbreaks of the past in that it is also predominant in the middle and affluent classes. Ultimately, anyone can be fighting a battle with addiction and it is important for family members and loved ones to know the signs. The cause for this epidemic is that the current spike of opioid abuse can be traced to two decades of increased prescription rates for painkillers by well-meaning physicians.

America has a major problem with opioid addicts, and many facilities are helping the addicts by providing safer options to taking the drugs their bodies crave. Methadone clinics are places where people addicted to opioids can receive medicine-based therapy. Opioid use, drugs such as heroin, morphine, and prescribed painkillers, has increased in the US with all age groups and incomes. People become addicted to these drugs when they are prescribed, recreationally used with other addicts, or they are born addicted. Many health institutions are addressing this issue 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

Addressing the people exposed to opioids may reduce the number of people starting and continuing to abuse drugs in the long term. In addition to this suggestion, data found from 2006-2015, the duration of opioids increased by a third suggesting fewer patients choose to start using opioids for pain management, however, patients already on medication continue to do so. This is because once long term opioid users, even when taking their medication as directed by their doctor, eventually develop a tolerance to the drug. A tolerance to pain medication can cause patients to up their dose or take too many medications in a small time frame in order to alleviate the same amount of pain that a smaller dose would have fixed in the past. The risk of developing tolerance is an important conversation to have with a health care professional because in addiction to pain, patients go on to develop a physical dependence to the drug. Physically patients feel pain, illness, and other symptoms; in some cases they are unable to give up the drug. This is when their dependence is classified as an

If you have been working in EMS for longer than a week you will probably already know the epidemic that America is facing. The epidemic that I am referring to has no discrimination and anyone can fall victim to it. If it hasn't already destroyed your family in some way then you are one of the lucky few.

As better and more comprehensive education is provided both to the general public and practicing clinicians the hope is to reduce the negativity surrounding the users of opioids, and to eliminate demeaning language coupled to them as well. This could improve patient morale and help the needless continuation of physical suffering within patients, as they would be more comfortable approaching and using opioids for therapeutic purposes1. That being said there are those within our communities who do abuse these substances and pharmacists must recognize the signs of abusers, it is important for them to reach out, without comment, to help those suffering from opioid abuse once they have been

There are three predominate forms of Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) that have proven effective in combating opioid use disorder. Methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone have all shown to be effective in the treatment of substance use. When prescribed and monitored properly, MAT has been shown to reduce illicit drug use and reduce the rate of accidental overdose. However, while as many as 2.5 million people are suffering from substance use disorder, less than 40% have access to MAT

The opioid epidemic has been the worst thing that has happened to our community or our country as a whole, much of which might have be prevented if doctor’s were not so quick to prescribe prescription after prescription of opioids on to their patients. According to Nora D. Volkow, Director, of the NIDA, The Federal government has provided restrictions on the over use of prescription medications and because individuals have developed dependence on the prescription opioids they resort to obtaining them illegally, and in some cases they are resorting to heroin for it is cheaper and easier to obtain (NIDA). Yes, these individuals have a choice to take them, and for a while they are alright, although as seen above the continued use can cause dependence which will cause withdrawal if they do not have these medications leading many to illegally obtaining and using these drugs. This is one reason one fights to see more treatment centers people can go, more harm reduction therapies that are going to help them become clean and live lives that are functional and socially

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are focusing on five different things to change this: improving access to treatment and recovery services, promoting use of overdose-reversing drugs, strengthening our understanding of the epidemic through better public health surveillance, providing support for cutting-edge research on pain and addiction, and lastly, advancing better practices for pain management.(National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2018, Opioid Overdose Crisis, P5.). There is no way to completely stop the opioid crisis but if we can make the numbers of people who overdose a year, then we can slowly make a huge change in the world of opioids. If these prescription drugs become more limited to people then they won't have access to buy off the streets or steal

Opiates have been commonly used in the United States for several decades. During the late 19th century opium and morphine became regular ingredients in a lot of widespread patent medicines (Spohn & Belenko, 2015, p. 25). Since then, the use and abuse of opiates has been a serious epidemic that has been growing at a fast pace in the United States for many years now. Every day roughly forty-one people die from overdoses which are related to prescription painkilling drugs in the United States (Clark, 2014, p. 1).

Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) is a chronic and potentially life-threatening disease, and the main feature of which is addictive and compulsive opioid use (Drugs & Crime, 2010). Opioid drugs include some of the prescribed pain relievers as well as illicit drugs, such as heroin, codeine, oxycodone, etc. In the United States, about 9.5 million adults use pain relievers for nonmedical purpose, 1.6 million adults meet diagnostic criteria of pain reliever use disorders, and 0.56 million have heroin use disorder (Hedden, 2015), at a huge social and financial cost (Alan G. White et al., 2011). Furthermore, the relapse rate of OUD patients in treatment is high (Davstad et al., 2007).

“The total toll from prescription opioid overdoses exceeds 175,000, three times the U.S. body count in the Vietnam war” (“Pain Medications are Killing…” 1). In 2013, half as many people died in a traffic accident than overdosed, and 2,000 less had been murdered (“Pain Medications are Killing…” 1). Opioid prescription has contributed to a rise in heroin abuse and deaths, because opioid patients turn to find new and stronger drugs and seek a street equivalent chemical that is easy to find and cheap to use (“Pain Medications are Killing…” 2). It has also lead to a rise in other drugs, and today there is the highest prescription and drug abuse rates ever. Not only is it causing deaths, but it is causing debt in America. To address the scale of

Drug use in America is one of the major issues we face and the problem has skyrocketed over the past three decades. Heroin and painkiller addictions exceed all other countries. It is important that we address some of the causes that lead to the abuse, how to treat the abuse, and how to prevent the distribution of illegal prescription drugs.

In the middle of night , a car was traveling at high speeds and became airborne launching itself into the second story of an office building. It sounds like something from an action movie, but it really happened last month here in our neighborhood. If you thought it was reckless driving you'd be wrong, it was actually narcotics.Usually when people abuse narcotics it a result to the euphoria one gets. Narcotics affects the central nervous system by stimulating the opioid receptors. Opioids are a class of drugs that include illegal and legally prescribed drugs. The most common illegal opioid is heroin and legal ones include OxyContin, Vicodin, and morphine. Recently, there's been a crisis coined the opioid epidemic due to rising popularity of opioid abuse.