Prescribing As A Social Problem

In the last two decades, opioid addiction started affecting more and more Americans. But who is at fault for this epidemic? The pharmaceutical companies. They make and distribute their drugs to doctors and pharmacies and are making billions off the American worker’s dollar. All while, lying to doctors about these miracle drugs effectiveness and advocating against protective measures for the drugs.

Opioids are taking over the United States with its addictive composition, once patients are take opioids there is no escaping. The drug directed from opium which is obtained from a plant (Katz). Opioids are most commonly found in prescription pill from making underground sales more common. Since opioids are derived from a plant this makes the reality of home grown drugs more of an issue. American citizens overdosing on opioids is what is sparking the crisis because opioid “overdoses killed more people last year than guns or car accidents” (Katz). Opioids are extremely addictive and that is why so many citizens overdose on these types of drugs. After patients become hooked on opioids their body constantly is needing more and more opium to escape they pain they think they are enduring. The overdosing of Americans is not a small percentage of the population either, it is estimated that “over two million people in America have problem with opioids” proving this growing issue is an ongoing crisis (Katz). The United States government needs to take action immediately to the opioid crisis because doctors are overprescribing patients because they seemingly overreact to pain, and opioids are one of the most addictive drug types in the world.

Various levels of governments in different communities across North America have initiated programs to deal with the opioid epidemic and its effect. Some of these initiatives will be examined in more details below.

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.

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.

The rate of death due to prescription drug abuse in the U.S. has escalated 313 percent over the past decade. According to the Congressional Quarterly Transcription’s article "Rep. Joe Pitt Holds a Hearing on Prescription Drug Abuse," opioid prescription drugs were involved in 16,650 overdose-caused deaths in 2010, accounting for more deaths than from overdoses of heroin and cocaine. Prescribed drugs or painkillers sometimes "condemn a patient to lifelong addiction," according to Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This problem not only affects the lives of those who overdose but it affects the communities as well due to the convenience of being able to find these items in drug stores and such.

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.

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

Considerable cautions have been obtained throughout the United States to decrease the misuse of prescription opioids and helps to minimize opioid overdoses and related complications. Even though the pain medications have a significant part in the treatment of acute and chronic pain situations, it sometimes happen that the high dose prescription or the prescribed medications, without having enough monitoring, can create bad outcomes. It is always a dilemma for the providers to find who is really in need of pain medications and to identify those who are questionably misusing opioids.

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.

The word “epidemic” itself spreads fear throughout society, however fluctuations in drug use are considered epidemics, which may not instill fear into the general public. Due to the fact that the CDC considers opioid overdose as a national epidemic, it may be confused to what this “epidemic” entails. This is not saying that the misuse and rising overdoses due to opioid painkillers is not a serious problem, it just may render the severity of the problem. In addition, because the CDC does consider the rise of overdoses due to painkillers an epidemic, the access to treatment needs to be more widely available. Through one of the interactions I had during my time at the NA meeting, I was able to understand that many people feel as though they do not or did not have access to help. Dan Mangan (2016), writes, “[a] survey released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation also found that a large majority of Americans believe that lack of access to care for people suffering from substance abuse is a problem in the United States.” In this, those who work in medicine should take from my supporting observations and numerous studies’ that access to recovery programs need to become more widely available. If the United States is going to consider the use of opioid painkillers as an epidemic, action needs to be taken to assist addicts and educate the nation on the effects of these

As we all have researched and found out the devastating numbers to the opioid epidemic “the abuse of prescription and non-prescription opioids is one of the greatest threats facing public health in the United States today. It is estimated that as many as 2.5 million people in the US are suffering from opioid addiction related to prescriptions, and an additional 467,000 are addicted to heroin”(2017).

I come from a small community in the mountains that once was a beautiful place to live. Methaphetimes and opioid addiction have taken over the town. Now my hometown that was full of fascinating Appalachian history is now known as a drug town. In the 1990's the use of opioids increased significantly across the nation and then by 2010 the use of heroin went up in its place (Davies & Talbots, 2017). I feel that a lot of people started taking pain medication innocently, but now it has turned into a horrible epidemic. I think that to get the opioid crisis under control, prescriptions for pain medications should be carefully monitored. I know there are many pain management clinics in my area. I feel that the majority of these places are pill mills for addicts and they need to be closed for good. I realize that this does not solve the issues of heroin abuse, but at least it

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

Instead of training thousands and thousands of doctors on prescribing opioids for chronic use, a select group of individuals will receive advance training relating to opioids prescription. Quality vs. Quantity. Training involves the risk and benefits of all types of opioids, how to effectively prescribe the opioids, and have a basic understanding of alternative pain management solutions. At the very minimum, each hospital’s board should contain a doctor that specializes in pain management and also a physical therapist.