I. Scope In the past seventeen years, the United States witnessed an acute crisis with a notorious classification of medication: opioids. Opioids are prescription painkillers where the medication attaches to opioid receptors in various parts of the human body, such as the brain; the binding of the drug and receptor reduces the quantity of pain by diminishing the number of pain messages to the brain. This type of medication originated in the 1970s, but it would solely take two decades for an Opioid Crisis to flourish at an exponential rate. In the 1990s, an increasing amount of physicians prescribed opioids, such as Fentanyl and Oxycodone for chronic pain, even when the pain symptoms were substantially mild. This overprescription of opioids …show more content…
On top of the widespread usage, these types of medications are profoundly infamous for their addictive repercussions. Opioids consist of a natural substance known as an endorphin; endorphins are natural painkillers that the brain and nervous system produce to combat chronic pain. Nevertheless, opioids can produce up to one hundred times more endorphin than the human body, and, thus, the intake of this medication causes the brain to cease endorphin production. This is where the addiction arises: a lack of opioids parallels to a lack of endorphins. Once the opioid effects halt, the amount of endorphin the body generates insufficiently meets the quantity of endorphin the body requires as a result of opioid adaptation; therefore, the addiction spirals out of control for the individual, the society, and …show more content…
Nevertheless, the President, in order to foster a more profound effort against the epidemic, must request funding in the billions from Congress to fund opioid addiction treatments across the United States. Under current conditions in the country, opioids, such Oxycodone, Fentanyl, and Heroin, is more accessible than the addiction treatments sparsely available due to drug trafficking, which, as a result, causes considerable opioid abuse and overdose. When these addiction treatments become more widespread than the opioids, the United States can ultimately observe dramatic decreases in opioid
Recent reforms can curb the opioid epidemic. Yes, health care professionals have realized the complex problem and they now understand the problem and what needs to be done. According to CQ Researcher, “Experts see some progress in the fight against opioid painkiller abuse. After peaking in 2012, the number of prescriptions written for opioids declined 12 percent between 2013 and 2015, according to IMS Health, a market research company. Symphony Health Solutions, a data company that studies the pharmaceutical industry, found an 18 percent drop in that period.”
As elaborated by Katelyn Newman, in her article ¨A Personal Look at a National Problem¨, the opioid epidemic in America is both severing family relationships and resulting in widespread suffering. In the aftermath of the historic increase of prescription drug abuse in the United States, as well as the opioid epidemic being deemed a national emergency by President Donald Trump, Newman brings to light the true impacts the crisis is having on the United States. By generalizing the population, expressing her words in a solemn tone, and through alternating between narrating and informing, Katelyn Newman calls all americans to be conscience of the opioid epidemic, and the effects it is having on the relationships between people within the United States.
So impressive, that almost all stories here were occurred in quiet, little towns. According to Quinones, turns out that in the 1980-90s, there was in US medical circles a revolution in pain management. The story was complicated, medical science came to be widely accepted as true. Doctors came to believe that opiates
In the past, opioids have been used to treat moderate to severe pain such as cancer or post surgery, and on a short term basis. Now they are prescribed to anyone who is experiencing chronic pain and on a long term basis. Opioids being taken for chronic pain allows everyone to have the ability to carry out their daily life easily and without pain. In light of opioids helping people manage their pain, the problem lies with what they are being prescribed for now, how long, and how much. Opioids are now being prescribed for back pain, migraines, and other small instances.
Underlying Causes: The increase in the sale of opioids is considered to be the root of the opioid crisis, as the drugs have been proven to be highly addictive. An addiction to prescriptive opioids, however, can lead to an addiction to synthetic, illegal opioids, such as heroine or fentanyl, which are less expensive and easier to acquire. In fact, in their journal article, “Associations of nonmedical pain reliever use and initiation of heroin use in the United States” Pradip Muhuri and associates discovered that “the recent (12 months preceding interview) heroin incidence rate was 19 times higher among those who reported prior nonmedical prescription pain reliever (NMPR) use than among those who did not (0.39 vs. 0.02 percent)” (Muhuri et. al). In other words, abusing prescription opioids significantly raises the chances of abusing illicit drugs, such as heroin.
Watch out if you get prescribed opioids. You’ll get lead down the wrong road to a strong addiction. Thousands of people die from opioid overdoses every year. Every year the deaths occurring by opioids increases rapidly. Opioids are way overprescribed by doctors and we need to stop them.
Dependence on prescription opioids can stem from treatment of chronic pain and in recent years is the cause of the increased number of opioid overdoses. Opioids are very addictive substances, having serious life threatening consequences in case of intentional or accidental overdose. The euphoria attracts recreational use, and frequent,
Opioid Epidemic in the United States The opioid crisis has risen over the years here in America. The addiction to painkillers has caused many drug overdoses across America. According to the Vox," In 2015, more than 52,000 people have died from drug overdoses from linked to opioids such as Percocet, heroin, Oxycontin or even fentanyl. This problem did not become an overnight health crisis, but it has become quickly known in America. Expanding our drug treatment centers across America would provide the support to those who are addicted to drugs.
Opioid is a pain reliever, and it produces euphoria in addition to pain relief, which can be misused in a different purpose (NIDA 1). Due to its high addictiveness, Opioid Crisis started in the late 1990s, and Dreamland specifically states that ‘Black Tar’ and Oxycontin were proposed to be the two main types of opioids in the United states (Sam Quinones). Heroin is one of the most famous examples of opioid as stated from the article. From the description of the drugs used, readers acquire more detailed information about the drug in Dreamland than the article because the article presented more variety of types of
Some patients prefer not to take pain medication because they fear addiction or may have a history of substance abuse. Educating the patients on their right to be free of pain and having their pain managed aggressively is a priority in the recovery phase. The goals that I hope to achieve during this clinical practicum
Many people do not realize that opioids do not only affect the consumers, they also affect the families and friends. It is a hard thing to overcome and often people forget to realize that it affects more than just the person using the drug. Personally, I 've seen how even the strongest person can be taken down. Just a simple night out with some friends can start a whole new addiction and destroy a future but at the same time create a motive to start a new one. Once making $80,000 a year at just 22 to being unemployed, struggling to survive till the end of the week.
These pills, such as xanax and oxycodone allow people for short periods of time to withdraw from the harsh reality faced today. “Between 1997 and 2002, sales of oxycodone and methadone nearly quadrupled” (Okie). Around 15 years later and the prescription pill problem is continuing to skyrocket. Since prescription pills are dispersed out to anyone by doctors, many people do not realize that it is as much of an illicit drug as cocaine and heroin is. “Misinformation about the addictive properties of prescription opioids and the perception that prescription drugs are less harmful than illicit drugs are other possible contributors to the problem” (NIDA).
Prescription drugs (opiates only) have caused over 165,000 deaths within the last 15 years and is currently on the rise. Over 2 million Americans in 2014 were addicted to Opiate prescription narcotics. The most troubling fact is listed directly on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website: “As many as 1 in 4
The most recent data demonstrate a high rate of heroin use in the United States, as well as rising overdose deaths linked to heroin and other opioids. At the same time, there has been an increase in the availability of heroin, which has been fueled by a number of factors, including an upsurge in the production and trafficking of heroin by Mexican criminal
Studies show that over the course of the last 5 years, as a nation, we have seen an increase in the amount of substances that are being abused by today’s youth. According to the National Institute On Drug Abuse, in 2010 more than 10,000 teens landed in the E.R. due to synthetic drugs an estimated 5,000 people under the age of 21 where linked to alcohol usage. A lot of teens don’t realize the detriment and long term cause of substance abuse. I do believe all drugs are made to cause more harm to our youth, especially spice.