Painkillers Use Opioids

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.

While our major access to these drugs is doctors, we cannot simply lay blame on them, as there is not enough knowledge about these treatments to correctly appropriate drugs, and therefore extra is given (Hemphill 373). Alexander of the Department of Epidemiology of the Journal of the American Medical Association, states that “There are serious gaps in the knowledge base regarding opioid use for other chronic nonmalignant pain” (Alexander 1865-1866), which leads to the unfortunately large number of leftover drugs. In fact, the main place that people get their drugs are from leftover prescriptions (Hemphill 373).

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

The patients who are in pain requires pain relief, but many of them with chronic pain have trouble with prescribed opioids either due to psychosocial problems

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

Doctors don’t exactly know how many people are addicted to pain medication, but one of the reasons so many people are is the availability.

Vivek Murthy, a U.S. Surgeon General, said he wanted to change the way Doctors have been taught to handle pain management for the last twenty to thirty years (824). The reason Murthy wants to do this is because while he was reading a training document for nurses and doctors it claimed , "If your patient is concerned that they may develop dependence on opioids, you can safely reassure them that addiction to opioids is very rare in patients who have pain" (823). This document also reassured doctors they could prescribe opioids as a long-term treatment. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention advises doctors that pain-relieving effects may wear off for long-term users(824). This explains how opioids can be used to deal with pain management, but if used as a long-term treatment it can create an

The opioid crisis has been gradually increasing since the discovery of opioids as pain management medication by pain specialists in the 1980s. If the crisis is not mitigated, more people are likely to suffer the consequence of the effects of addiction and overdosage, given the highly addictive nature of opioids. Mitigating the crisis requires collaborative efforts, particularly from clinical prescribers and drug manufacturers who need to recognize that these drugs are potentially harmful when used repeatedly and misused. Physical therapy is an alternative mitigation measure in handling chronic pain. Evidence shows significant success rates among patients who have chosen the physical therapy route as opposed to the opioid

Although addiction and overdose of opioids was not declared an epidemic by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) until 2011, the beginning of the epidemic can be traced back as early as the 1980’s when attention in medical care began to turn toward pain management. By the early 2000’s the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations named pain “the fifth vital sign,” implying that pain is as important clinically as pulse rate, temperature, respiration rate, and blood pressure (Wilson, 2016). At the same time, there has been an emphasis change from patient wellness to patient satisfaction metrics. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as Advil, Aleve, or aspirin have raised safety their own safety concerns, contributing to increased use of opioids. The lack of patient access to and insurance coverage for chronic pain management specialists or alternative healing therapies also contributes to the opioid epidemic (Hawk,

Jamison RN, Serraillier J, Michna E. Assessment and treatment of abuse risk in Opioid prescribing for chronic pain. Pain Res Cl. 2011;2011:1-12. doi:10.1155/2011/941808.

Mandated limits on opioid prescriptions for acute pain offers the promise of advancing the safe use of these medications in two ways. First, it will reduce the exposure of first time users to these addictive substances following episodes of acute pain. For some patients who come to misuse opioids, the euphoria or sedating effects of these medications are initially experienced in the context of routine medical care. There are countless anecdotes of patients who take opioids for a minor orthopedic injury or some other acute pain condition and then go on to use prescription opioids non-medically. A recent population-based study suggested that 6% of incident opioid users progress to long-term use.4 Another study found that patients who received opioids following minor surgery were 44% more likely to become long-term opioid users compared to those who did not.5 Decreasing the initial amount dispensed may potentially lessen the risk that patients develop an affinity for these drugs and transition to chronic use or misuse.

The issue of pain management has been an ongoing crisis for ages. The need for solutions and methods of avoiding pain is natural, however, as time has passed, misuse of these solutions has gotten out of hand. The abuse of prescription opioids, in particular, must be acknowledged. By prescribing opioids to patients, doctors are inadvertently creating drug addicts and fueling the heroin epidemic. As patients grow tolerant to opioids, they are forced to search for stronger drugs, commit crimes, and ultimately die. Alternate solutions for pain management and regulation of opiates must be implemented in order to prevent the meaningless loss of lives.

Chronic pain is an important public health problem that negatively impacts the quality of life of affected individuals and exacts a tremendous cost in both healthcare costs and lost productivity. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) in its landmark report on relieving pain in American estimated that 100 million individuals suffer from chronic pain at a socio-economic cost of between $560 and $635 billion annually [IOM, 2011]. Opioids have been increasingly prescribed for the management of chronic pain, and along with this increase in use has come an increase in opioid misuse and abuse. Of the opioids that are abused, 60% are obtained directly or indirectly through a physician’s prescription.

According to recent research from the Institute of Medicine, an estimated 116 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. All told, the health bill for all of that chronic pain comes out at around $550 billion. It is hoped that as the culture changes, society will become more comfortable with dropping the pills and trying out acupuncture or an alternative treatment. It is without question that opiate-related issues are becoming a huge problem in the healthcare community. If there is no change in the culture soon, the outlook is bleak for many in chronic

Pain is a basic mechanism in life that helps the body identify that something is wrong or dangerous. Without pain, the body would be severely damaged without realizing it. Pain can become an inconvenience when it spirals out of control; chronic pain, for example, leaves many miserable and unable to enjoy life to its fullest extent even with traditional medical intervention. Around 80% of people report chronic pain in their lifetime (Holtzman & Beggs, 2013). People afflicted by chronic back pain turn to modern medicine for relief, but even these alternatives are not always 100% effective.