The use of prescription drugs have been increasing since the 1960s and older the people get the more likely they are going to need them. More Americans use prescription drugs than those that use cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine combined. That puts prescriptions second only behind marijuana when it comes to drug use. We use prescription drugs for mostly sicknesses or injuries to help cope with the pain. However, when someone is in pain and continually needs to use meds to feel better that’s what can cause them to beomce addicted.
I feel that prescription meds are a good thing, but there needs to be a way to help people not get addicted by them. One option could be to not give them as many pills and have them still feel a little pain to help or give the pills to someone else and have them administer the pills to the person that is in need of them. Obviously they are needed to help people who have just gotten an operation done, but with the statistics showing that more people get addicted and die from prescription drugs there has to be something we can do to fix this problem. However, I don’t know what that is, but it needs to be addressed.
“In 1898 asprin is introduced into medical practice and is deemed the first safe and effective medicine that is not addictive. In 1900 Opium, morphine, heroin and cocaine in wide use in over-the-counter medicines made by a pharmacist or a manufacturer (known as patent medicines) and were found to be to addictive and the public called for it to be banned” (goodmedicine).
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Every day in the US 2,500 people ages 12-17 abuse a prescription pain reliever for the first time. While prescription drug abuse is a big problem in the US it is also a concern in many areas around the world including Europe, Southern Africa and South Asia. In the US alone, more than 15 million people abuse prescription drugs, more than the combined number who reported abusing cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants and heroin (drugfree). Prescription drug abuse causes the largest percentage of deaths from drug overdosing. Of the 22,400 drug overdose deaths in the US in 2005, opioid painkillers were the most commonly found drug, accounting for 38.2% of these deaths.In 2005, 4.4 million teenagers (aged 12 to 17) in the US admitted to taking prescription painkillers, and 2.3 million took a prescription stimulant such as Ritalin. 2.2 million abused over-the-counter drugs such as cough syrup. The average age for first-time users is now 13 to 14 (drugfree).
In 2005 prescription drugs (depressants, opioids, and antidepressants) at 45% had caused more drug related deaths than street drugs combined (amphetamine, heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine) at 39%. I find this very interesting because ive always thought more people overdosed on street drugs rather than drugs that actually help them get better. When I see people overdosing on social mediua or the news it is always from a strret drug, rarely have I ever seen someone overdose from painkillers.
However the fact that prescription drugs are good for you they bring many health issues. People think that the drugs they are taking to help heal pain are just for that and they have no idea how seriously addictive they can be. The addiction comes out of nowhere and you don’t even know what you are doing to yourself. When people get addicted to prescription drugs the main reason is because they develop a tolerance and proceed to take more pills than they need and it just goes downhill from there.
There are three classes of of medication that are most commonly misued. The first is opiods. Opiods are usually prescribed to treat pain. Opiods are very good with the treatement of pain, but they do have a lot of side effects. For example, you could get a tolerance from it, meaning youll need to take more of the medication to get the same pain relief. Physical dependence is another side effect that can occur from taking opioids. Phyyical dependence is when you are feeling symptoms of withdrawl once you stop taking the medication and force you to start taking it again even when you don’t need it. Being addicted to opioids is not something you want and can lead to an overdose. The most commonly used drugs in opiod overdoses are Methadone, oxycodone, and hydrocodone. “Anyone who takes prescription opioids can become addicted to them. In fact, as many as one in four patients receiving long-term opioid therapy in a primary care setting struggles with opioid addiction. Once addicted, it can be hard to stop. In 2016, more than 11.5 million Americans reported misusing prescription opioids in the past year” (Cdc.gov). this doesn’t surprise me that opiods are the most commonly misused prescription drugs because they are the most often prescribed, so it makes sense for it to be misused the most. Also, they help relieve the most of peoples pain and from that people are going to like it and want to keep using to feel the way the felt when they used it as medicine.
The second class of medication that is misused is central nervous system depressants, this includes traquilizers, sedatives, hypnotics which are used to treat anxiety and sleep disorders. Central nervous system depressants are drugs that reduce brain simulation. Depressants can come in liquid form, in powder form, and in pill form. They slow breathing, which is why overdose can end in death. They can also cause slurred speech, cognitive problems, coordination problems and low blood pressure. With the exception of marijuana, all central nervous system depressants produce tolerance and physical dependency. Alcohol is one of the most common use for depressants and cause a tolerance and physical dependency and that cause people to become alcoholic and that not only hurts them, but can hurt the people around them.
The third class of medication that is most commonly misused is stimulants. Stimulants are most often prescribed to treat attention deficit hperactiviy disorder or more commonly known as ADHD. Adderal and ritalyn are the most commonly prescribed stimulant drugs. Some short term side effects are intense feelings of happiness, increased energy, improved attention, and suppressed appetite. However these short term effects seem appealing they bring a range of risks to the users health (drugabuse). Some of the side effects to stimulants are increased heart rate, heightneded blood pressure, muscle shakes or tremers, and agitation. Long term effects of stimulants are extreme weight loss, chronic exaughtion, headaches, and the possibility of seizures. It is important to recognize the negative consequences of stimulant abuse, as they underscore the ugly truth behind the euphoric stimulant high (drugabuse).
All of the classes have similar side effects and physical effects to taking these drugs and that ust goes to show how dangerous these things really are and we as a society need to help fix this problem. We need people who no someone that is taking prescription drugs to help moniter their situation and make sure they are doing well with their meds. It is so easy to get hooked on these dangerous drugs and the outcome is not good.
An example of how someone can get hooked on a street drug from a prescription drug is when someone gets injured and they require surgery and post surgery the doctors prescribe them painkillers. While taking the pain killers it doesn’t help as much anymore therefore they will have to take more pills at a time than prescribed. After running out of pain killers they will be forced to find some more pills around their friends or familys house. Once out of their own pills they will resort to asking friends for other things to help them and by then they will have become addicted to whatever drug they take enxt to help them keep their high.
Religious plays a large role in the take of medications and prescription drugs. In the past physcicans were trained to diagnose and treat patients and had little to no expertise on acting in correspondence with the patients religion. With all of the different religious beliefs that go on in this world doctors aren’t expected to know what people believe in. it is thought that “the simplest solution suggests that physicians avoid religious or spiritual content in the doctor-patient interaction. As with many issues, however, the simple solution may not be the best. Research indicates that the religious beliefs and spiritual practices of patients are powerful factors for many in coping with serious illnesses and in making ethical choices about their treatment options and in decisions about end-of-life care” (Puchalski, 2001; McCormick et al., 2012).
I agree with this statement because the patient is and should always be allowed to make their medical decision based on whatever they believe in. The doctors should not have any influence on what the patient should say, all they should do is give their opinion and what will happen for what they choose to do. For example, if someone overdoses on drugs and they religiously don’t believe in getting medical attention and are somehow able to get tha information to the doctor they should not perform any medical treatment. For example prescribed drugs people have a bunch of different religious beliefs “it is essential that prescribers have a minimal level of awareness of parent’s religious sensitiveness so that these can be considered when prescribing.
Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, may choose to avoid blood derived products. Jewish law forbids any oral use of medication containing glycerol, stearates, lactose, and porcine products. Similarly, Hindus and Sikhs may be offended by medication containing animal products, particularly bovine derived products (for example, gelatine containing capsules). Islamic rulings that prohibit any systemic ingestion of pork or alcohol also need to be considered in the context of prescribing decisions involving Muslims” (adc). This just goes to show that there are many different religious thoughts on medication and no matter who it is they should have their choice of what they want.
For me, I consider myself to be a good Christian. I understand that people have different defintitions on what it means to be a good Christion, but I consider to be a good one. I go to church occasionally and thank God whenever good things happen to me as well as understand that everything happens for a reason even if they are bad. For my religion in the medical perspective, I know certain people that are Christian and consider themselves to be good Christians tend to reject and type of medication. I know someone who needed mediction to help with an ongoing llness and they denied anything the doctors tried to give them because it was against Gods way and they wanted to have their body to fight the illness on their own.
Thankfully they had a full recovery and are okay to this day. For me, I don’t find any problem with taking medication or being operated to help make me feel better or to keep me alive. I feel that yes God has a plan for us all, but he created people to help make the world a better place and by the creation of people he inadvertanly created medication anf wants us to make ourselves better.
“Becoming addicted to pain medication can happen to anyone. For example, Brandon, was a normal kid who was a bmx rider and one day he tore up the ligaments in his knee and was given prscription opioids to help deal with the pain. This was just the start of his addiction. He ended up getting reconstructive surgery on his knee and stayed on the pills for an even longer time. All Brandon knew was that the pills made him feel good and had no idea what they wer leading to. He sustained more injuries and continued to stay on the pills. Once he was no longer injured he was taken off the pills, but started to feel sick and he didn’t know why.
One night he was out with his friends and he ended up snorting oxy with them and didn’t feel sick anymore. He started to heavily drink and use oxy to make him feel good and at 17 his parents sent him to rehab. He didn’t finish his program and didn’t see the problem with drug abuse and started using opiods again. His opiod addiction ended up leading him to a heroin addiction to easily help him keep his high. Because he’d started using heavy drugs so early, he’d never had a chance to develop maturity or life skills. This put him in a very long rehab period and finally after a long time he started to feel like himself again” (narconon). This story gives us a great perspective of what its like to become addicted to painkillers and what it does to your body.
A persoanl story I have about prescription meds addiction is about a friend of mine who had been precibe pills to help with his depression and without anyone knowing he had been taking more pills at a time than he was supoosed to and when he ran out of pills he took some from his friends and this got him addicted and really started to destroy his life. He finally was able to step up and finally talk to his parents about his problem and they were able to get him into rehab and hes making a lot of progress. I think the scariest part about events like these is the fact that you have to speak out about a oroblem, which is probably the hardest thing to do because not only are you scared you don’t know how people are going to react.
Overall prescription drugs are a necessity in todays world, but they are also a big problem. It is one of the hardest things to take care of in the medical field and we have no way of knowing who is going to abuse these drugs and who will take them the right way. Everyone is different, but I feel that the best way to help is to let it be known that if youre having problems or still feeling pain and need more pills is to go talk to your doctor and have them help. It is never okay not to speak up.
