Prescription Headaches: A Case Study

With access to prescription drugs, people are able to treat a multitude of diseases and illnesses. These drugs help deal with pain, inability to sleep, depression, and much more. Every day we are increasingly living in a world where there is better living through chemicals. However, what most do not seem to see is the rising tide of pain, illness, and ultimately death being caused by the pills people take every day. Most keep drugs in a special place in their minds, where they see them as harmless. Sadly, this is not the case, and in some cases our prescription drugs can be just as harmful as illegal drugs (King 68).

Millions of people throughout the world are taking drugs on a daily basis. If you were to ask someone why they take prescription drugs, most people would be taking them for the right reason. However, it’s estimated that twenty percent of people in the United States alone have used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons.1 Prescription drug abuse is a serious and growing problem that often goes unnoticed. Abusing these drugs can often lead to addiction and even death. You can develop an addiction to certain drugs that may include: narcotic painkillers, sedatives, tranquilizers, and stimulants.1 Prescription drugs are the most common abused category of drugs, right next to marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and

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.

Specific purpose: To inform my audience about the growing problem of prescription drug abuse, some common drugs that cause abuse, and their effects and some common treatments.

A new escalating drug abuse epidemic has come about in the recent years; people are now choosing prescription pills as their new drug of choice. The use, abuse and death caused by prescription drugs has increased significantly within the past couple years. All types of prescription pills are more easily accessible from their doctors, family members or off the street. Doctors are handing out prescriptions for pills, such as pain management pills, muscle relaxers, and anti-anxiety, like they are candy and not potentially dangerous to the consumers. In today’s society doctors are over prescribing pills to Americans and the prescription pill distribution should be more closely monitored and controlled. Although there are people who benefit

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

The misuse and abuse of prescription medications in the United States remains high, but few people are aware of just how big the problem really is. According to ASAM American Society of Addiction Medicine, "Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the US, with 55,403 lethal drug overdoses in 2015. Opioid addiction is causing this epidemic, with 20,101 overdose deaths related to prescription pain relievers, and also overdose deaths relating to heroin". Opioids are drugs which are prescribed to relieve pain. With continued use, the pain-relieving effects lessen and pain can become worse, so the body can develop dependence on the use of opioid. Opioid dependence causes withdrawal symptoms, which makes it difficult to stop taking

According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention 44 people die each day in the United States of America due to an overdose of a prescription painkiller (“Joining the Fight”, n.d.). A staggering 2.1 million people in the United States suffer from substance abuse disorders and the number of people using opioids for nonmedical uses is continuing to rise (Volkow, 2014). Who is to blame for these outrageous numbers? I believe that the patient and the pharmaceutical companies are to blame for this on-growing problem. Some of the largest contributing factors to these growing statistics is that the pharmaceutical companies have very aggressive marketing of the medicines, which in turn leads to a rising number of prescriptions written for

Would you believe me if I tell you that the number of deaths related to prescription drugs abuse has surpassed the number of deaths related to car accidents? In 2009, according to statistics from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug abuses accounted for at least 37,485 of deaths in America, doubling the number in the last decade. While most of these deaths are due to the abuse of opioid painkillers, excessive use of antidepressants and antibiotics have also led to many problems. Furthermore, overprescribing by doctors have contributed a huge part in promoting these deaths.

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 figure is startling: A 96.6 percent increase in drug-related deaths in a five-year period (Hanson, 2010). According to Brown University Pharmacology Update (2009), since the period of increases in opioid misuse in the 1990s, data over the last three-to-four years indicate a high, steady prevalence of opioid prescription misuse in the United States. According to the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 5.2 million people ages 12 and older were current nonmedical users of prescription pain relievers in 2006, comprising 2.1% of the population. This rate has remained statistically unchanged since 2002. Survey data from 2002 to 2005 found that 4.8% of persons ages 12 and older (11.4 million people) used a prescription pain reliever nonmedically in the 12 months prior to the survey. This data also indicated that an annual average of 57.7% of people who used prescription pain medication nonmedically in the past year used hydrocodone products, and 21.7% used oxycodone products. Recent male users were more likely to use hydrocodone products nonmedically compared to recent female users (61.4% compared to 54.9%). Young

Drug overdose deaths have become the leading cause of injury death in the United States. We all know that a pill is a commonly use prescribe in the United States in terms of clinically intervention to individuals seeking solution to their problem. Sociocultural beliefs can shape the approach to and behavior regarding drug use and drug abuse. People take drugs or pill for a variety reason; to feel good, to feel better, and to comfort the needs, and to relieve the pain. Most people take this drug when they feel depressed, Anxiety, back pain, headache ect… For example, hydrocodone pill, people think of this kind of pill is a quick pain reliever which it is not necessary to take them. When they craved for this pill, they become addictive and led

Even though people need their prescriptions, the abuse of them is getting out of control and we need to find a way to regulate it better,because it can destroy a family, cause some to become addicted, or even kill them. Prescription drugs are no joke, they can be worse than illegal drugs like marijuana, cocaine, and even heroin. The only difference is a doctor can prescribe these types of drugs. The problem we run into with prescription drugs is there is not enough being done to keep the person from becoming addicted or them selling to others. In 2007 2.5 million Americans abused just painkillers (Drug free world). That is not even including the other two types. Now it is starting to affect teens, one out of every ten teenagers admit to abusing a prescribed drug(Drug-free world).

Dasgupta, Beletsky, and Ciccarone (2018), state that “diversion, misuse, and abuse of legal drugs may be involved in as many as seven out of ten reports of drug-related injury or death” (p. 182). This is a very important issue because it deals with medicine which controls pain, as human sometimes we are feeling so much pain in our bodies that we will take or do anything to relieve that pain, that includes taking more medication if it means the pain will go away. Medical personnel has to be more aware and trained on the opioid crisis, “a small proportion of physicians were unscrupulous, doling out opioids without adequate regard for medical need,” (Dasgupta et al., 2018, p. 183). Too much of anything is bad for you. Doctors and scientist need

Taking over-the-counter or prescription headache medications more than 10 days in a month with continuously three months or in high doses may trigger serious medication-overuse headaches.