The Side Effects Of Drugs Have Urged Patients As Well As

Chronic pain is a tremendous public health problem, and a costly one. As health care advances and the need for palliative care rises, patients and health care providers are constantly investigating alternative methods of pain treatment and management. Questioning and challenging traditional health policies and practices has created a curiosity in the use of cannabis as an alternative option to standard opioids, for the management of chronic pain. Cannabis, is a leafy green plant consisting of buds and leaves of the cannabis sativa forma indica plants. Marijuana has been used in holistic solutions for hundreds of years; it has also been especially prevalent among terminally ill patients, who have been reported using it to alleviate symptoms like chronic pain, nausea and depression.

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.

There are so many diseases that can and can’t be curable. However, there are medications that can help ease the pain from different conditions. There is one medication that can be prescribed for pain is medical marijuana. Even though it’s illegal in some states, but marijuana has become the most profitable and healing vital substance. Medical marijuana, also refer to as medical cannabis, is a good herbal therapy according to health practitioners("Medical marijuana for pain and depression"). Medical marijuana has been around for centuries. Physicians back then used medical marijuana for illnesses and disorders("Medical marijuana for pain and depression"). This is used mostly for the GI System disorders (gastrointestinal

"Various forms of medicinal cannabis have provided mostly positive responses for patients with different types of pain: Neuropathic, chronic, postoperative, and that related to fibromyalgia, rhematoid arthritis, mutiple sclerosis and cancer" (Borgelt, Franson, & Nussbaum, 2013). In a study outlined in the article The Pharmacologic and Clinical Effects of Medical Cannabis, which evaluated smoked cannabis compared to placebo, significant improvements in pain were observed. The study included 56 patients and used cigarettes wtih varying THC contents. In general, a higher THC content (up to 9.4%) appears to be more effective for pain relief (Borgelt, Franson, & Nussbaum, 2013).

Pain is a common symptom that is associated with numerous medical issues, including musculoskeletal problems that physical therapist see on a day to day basis. There are several different ways to treat pain and one of them is to provide a means of releasing opioids in the body to alter the pain experience. In fact, there are three different types of opioids: naturally occurring (endogenous or exogenous substances such as natural endorphins or poppy), semisynthetic (exogenous substances that contain both natural and synthetic agents), and synthetic agents (man-made substances used to mimic the effect of natural substances) used to decrease the symptom of pain.1

The availability of prescription painkillers has increased substantially, painkillers are drugs that deal with the nervous system, it blocks pain and the patient will feel a “high”. The most common prescribed drugs

Chronic pain is a tremendous public health problem, and a costly one. As health care advances and the need for palliative care rises, patients and health care providers are constantly investigating alternative methods of pain treatment and management. Questioning and challenging traditional health policies and practices has created an interest in the use of cannabis as an alternative option to standard opioids, for the management of chronic pain. Cannabis, or marijuana, is a leafy green plant consisting of buds and leaves of the cannabis sativa forma indica plants. Marijuana has been used in holistic solutions for hundreds of years; it has also been especially prevalent among terminally ill cancer patients, who have been reported using it to alleviate symptoms like chronic pain, nausea and depression.

Opioids are prescription drugs that deal with reducing pain when taken. There are various types of prescription drugs that can classify as opioids such as morphine, codeine, hydrocodone, or Demerol, to name a few. The drugs originally are synthesized and derived from the opium poppy, Physicians will prescribe this medication as a painkiller, but many others turned to purer doses of these medications and started turning to more potent drugs like heroin or Percocet. The one thing that these brand name drugs have in common is that they contain opium, an extremely addictive narcotic drug. In many cases, many patients receiving pain killing medication from doctors become dependent on the drug, leading them to use it recreationally instead

What symptoms might Stan express given that he is Bi-polar and what are the benefits/side effects of his current medication?

It also offers a solution to the ongoing and increasingly common pharmaceutical opiate addiction problem, and addresses concerns about the social safety of the plant. Though readers with a higher education and/or degree in associated fields may understand more vocabulary and references, anyone who reads the article will acquire a basic understanding of its’ contents.

Chronic pain is intense suffering/agony that can persist between weeks to years. Currently, there are an estimated more than 3 million cases of chronic pain in the United States each year. That is where the Marijuana comes into play. An article on the JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association states the following for Marijuana being used for chronic pain as well as other medical problems,”Aside from nausea and appetite stimulation, indications for which there are 2 FDA-approved cannabinoids (dronabinol and nabilone), chronic pain, neuropathic pain, and spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis are the indications for medical marijuana supported by high-quality evidence”(Hill). As usual, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t state the drawbacks to using Marijuana to treat chronic pain. The same article states,”Medical marijuana and cannabinoids have significant potential health risks, such as addiction and worsening of psychiatric illnesses such as some anxiety disorders, mood disorders, psychotic disorders, and substance use disorders”(Hill). Currently, there are no ways to combatant these side

Every 14 minutes, a person is killed by prescription drugs -- and unlike most other causes of preventable death, which have been on the decline for years, medication-induced deaths are on the upswing across the US. According to a recent analysis conducted by the Los Angeles Times (LA Times), drug-induced deaths have become so prevalent that their average yearly total now exceeds the number of deaths caused by traffic accidents. It is truly a sad day in the world when the very medications prescribed for treating disease are one of the leading causes of death, including among young children. And based on data retrieved by the LA Times, the number of drug fatalities has doubled within the past ten years, as legal drugs now kill nearly 38,000 Americans

As n a nurse in the beautiful state of Utah I would like to discuss the current opioid epidemic. The efforts over the past few years to slow this addiction have proved meaningful. However, I believe more can be done. As a nurse I have witnessed many patients with addiction to prescription pain medication, I have also witnessed many patients free themselves of opioid addiction with the use of Kratom. Kratom is an herb that is gathered from a tree in Southeast Asia. Kratom has been used for hundreds of years in Southeast Asian countries to help with opioid addiction.

The authors explain how Kratom’s effects are dose-dependent, lower doses produce a stimulating effect, while in larger doses acts similar to an opioid-like effect. M. speciosa is made up of more than 25 alkaloids that vary in specific composition depending on the plant’s geographical location. “ Structurally similar to yohimbe, mitragynine is the most abundant of these alkaloids and is thought to be primarily responsible for Kratom’s opioid-like effects” (Rosenbaum et al., 2012, p. 22). A cross-sectional survey of 136 Malaysian Kratom users is provided documenting that 88% of short-term users and 80% of long-term users testify that the use of Kratom reduced their withdrawal symptoms from opioids. The authors conclude that treatment of Kratom withdrawal presenting clinically similar to opioid withdrawal may respond to supportive care as well as opioid-replacement therapy and also agree that given the known withdrawal syndrome associated with this compound requires further study to elucidate its abuse potential. It is also agreed upon that the therapeutic potential of Kratom should be further researched for the treatment of opiate addiction (Rosenbaum et al., 2012,

Kratom, whose scientific name is Mitragyna speciosa, is a medicinal plant that has been used for thousands of years in Southeast Asia. The plant only gained prominence in the Western world in the last few decades. According to an excerpt on Kratomlegend, a leaf of this plant can contain up to 40 naturally occurring alkaloids, the potent ingredient that interacts with the nervous system of the human body to produce wide ranging health effects. The leaves of the plant are usually dark green while the flowers are typically yellow in color. The plant grows very fast since it absorbs sunlight and CO2 at a much higher rate compared to most plants. A mature Kratom tree can grow up to 15 feet or more. Its treatment potential is wide and far reaching and includes: