Persuasive Essay On Painkillers

According to a federal official, the ongoing scourge of prescription-drug addiction is beginning to reach epidemic proportions, ballooning about 75 percent in the United States within the past five years (“Prescription-drug Abuse Escalates”). Prescription drugs have become extremely overused due to the pain killing aspects, along with a sort of “high” when they are being abused. This high has been something people chase and will do anything to get. A report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration indicated that there were more American adults using prescription painkillers than cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, or cigars combined (Ingraham). The over proliferation of prescription drugs has become a major problem with adults.

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).

We live in a nation where thousands of people are constantly suffering from chronic pain; due to hard work, improper use of body mechanics, and accidents. As a result the population has become fairly accustomed to taking medications as a fast way to alleviate their pain. The majority of the population does not know what is in the pills they are taking. They rely on their professional physicians to make the decision as to what is being prescribed. They rarely question the side effects, effectiveness, or safety. The public is constantly targeted by advertisement. Making people believe that they know all the information needed to use new medication. Companies are constantly introducing new pills with various uses. Advertisements urge the

Millions of Americans are affected by pain and opiate-based prescription painkillers account for significant morbidity and mortality in the U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prescription painkiller overdose has reached epidemic proportions over the past decade. This article explores the focus on inadequate treatment of pain in the U.S. and the subsequent rise of prescription painkiller abuse, misuse, and overdoses. States have increasingly used their authority to address inappropriate prescribing by establishing and strengthening prescription drug monitoring programs, regulating pain management facilities, and establishing dosage thresholds above which a consult with a pain specialist is required. Although prescription painkillers are an issue, providers want the freedom to use their clinical decision-making to treat patients, and some feel these new requirements are over-regulating the practice of medicine.

When one feels that they are experiencing pain, anxiety, or sickness whether it is mild or severe, one quick and easy solution is to head straight to the doctor’s office. A patient will describe his or her symptoms of pain to the doctor and more likely than not that doctor will prescribe the patient some type of prescription drug or pain reliever. Writing patient prescriptions and taking drugs for pain has become a socially acceptable standard in society and has also become an essential part of medicine. Today, Americans are spending millions of dollars every year on drugs, both illegal and legal, and both for medical and often non-medical use. However, what many do not realize is that the widespread increase of drug using in America

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.

Medicine has been around for thousands of years and has diversified and given us many options to treat illness or pain. Some are available as over-the-counter drugs that can be purchased almost anywhere and others require you to get a prescription from your doctor in order to get it. Some of these drugs that require a prescription often help people who deal with chronic pain, those who are at the end of their life, or cancer patients. Unfortunately these drugs, although helpful to those who need them, are being abused by millions of Americans every year. With doctors prescribing ludicrous amounts of prescription drug, sometimes when it is not even necessary, and our lack of knowledge on the subject, prescription drug abuse has become a big

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.

America is struggling with a new epidemic that is taking several lives every day. “Prescription drug overdoses claim at least 40 lives daily” ("Prescription Drug Overdose," n.d.Para 1). The opioid crisis occurring across the nation is devastating. A major problem is that once patients become dependent on these prescription medications, they are reportedly seeking more affordable alternatives such as heroin or fentanyl. In addition, patients may be switching to heroin when their doctor suddenly discontinues the medication they have become dependent on. Chronic pain is a controversial issue because opioid management can be beneficial but also detrimental as seen in recent years. “Between 2002–2016, deaths soared by 533% nationwide, from under

Often times patients will walk into a doctor’s office with a complaint for pain and quickly assume that the professional will prescribe something that will quickly treat the pain: an opioid painkiller. Instead of attempting to resolve the initial problem with alternative types of treatment (physical therapy, exercise, sleep, etc.), they are expecting medications for an easy, temporary fix. Doctors are seemingly failing to see any type of correlation in these frequent and popular mishaps. Medical Doctors should most definitely be required to take specific training courses on opioids, and they should have specific guides to follow in order to prescribe opioids Background checks for patients should also be required before patients are given painkiller prescriptions. It would be very beneficial for doctors to learn more information about their patients before prescribing them opioids for pain. “In fact, prescription drugs cause most of the more than 26,000 fatal overdoses each year Leonard Paulozzi of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC]” (Szabo, 2013). Many professionals have been on top of this issue and performing mass amounts of research because of the huge incline in the death rates of citizens. This information demonstrates that the opioid and

In the hectic pill-popping world we live in today, around 6.5 million people in the U.S. currently abuse prescription medication and out of those 6.5 million, 4.5 of those people abuse pain relievers according to Nova Science Publishers (Greer). Codeine, oxycodone, Adderall, and Xanax just to name a few of the favorites among abusers (Fahey and Miller). These medications can end up on the streets and in the hands of party-goers looking for a “good time”. Dangerous pills such as those listed above can be quite useful by people with authentic medical conditions such as anxiety and ADHD, but also have the power to be abused by teenage party goers that crave a

Getting involved with opioids now days seem fairly easy, our young ones are becoming addicted to these medications because our doctors don’t care. Doctors are just signing off prescriptions left and right. But in reality physicians have responsibilities, such as obtaining physical examination, a medical history, develop a written treatment plan for their patients, and comply with controlled substances laws and regulations. In a lot of cases doctors don’t want to deal with their patients so they will just prescribed medications to get people in and out of the office, to keep up with their hectic schedule, and don’t want to find the root of the cause, or maybe they just don’t have the time. Other ways to get opioids include within relatives, visits out of the country, pharmacy and hospital theft, and “stealing from grandma’s cabinet” (Inciardi, Surratt, Kurtz, and Cicero 2007). Despite the overload of opioids in our country almost 80% of the world 's population today has no access to morphine. And an estimated 33 million people, need specialized medical care but have no access to even basic care and symptom control. This terrible lack of pain relief can be attributed to our governments need to control and regulation.

Prescription drug abuse is a modern-day disease. In an estimate, over six million American have abused prescription medication. However, there is no completely accurate way to measure this abuse. The number of people who have died is important, but the fact that many people suffer from addiction to prescription drugs is. Negative effects such as torn apart families, destroyed lives, and deaths are all results of Opioid overdoses. The question is why do people take opioids and what are they? According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse “Opioid are drugs formulated to replicate the pain reducing properties of opium. They include both painkillers such as morphine, oxycodone, or hydrocodone prescribed by doctors for chronic pain, as well

60 million Americans are abusing the use of drugs to “help” with their minor pain or ailments (consumer health care productions association). But does the use of so many of these

So many people condemn their doctors for medication addictions, according to Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN, “Most of the blame, however, belongs on the shoulders of the American doctors themselves,” but is there others who are at fault? Doctors aren't the only ones who should be blamed for prescription drug abuse or addictions. Doctors are supposed to help people, but they are put into quandary about choosing who they help, because they are uncertain whether their patient is a drug addict. Some addicts will go far enough to fuel an addiction by dissimulating that they have chronic pain, and doctors wouldn’t be capable of determining if a patient is truly having internal pain, therefore the doctor would chiefly give the benefit of the doubt and would prescribe them to a medication. Also, patients should be au fait with medication, instead of just taking it and accusing doctors for a possible outcome of them abusing or becoming addicted to medicine.