Use And Prescribing Methods Of Opioids

Opioid addiction is so prevalent in the healthcare system because of the countless number of hospital patients being treated for chronic pain. While opioid analgesics have beneficial painkilling properties, they also yield detrimental dependence and addiction. There is a legitimate need for the health care system to provide powerful medications because prolonged pain limits activities of daily living, work productivity, quality of life, etc. (Taylor, 2015). Patients need to receive appropriate pain treatment, however, opioids need to be prescribed after careful consideration of the benefits and risks.

While our major access to these drugs is doctors, we cannot simply lay blame on them, as there is not enough knowledge about these treatments to correctly appropriate drugs, and therefore extra is given (Hemphill 373). Alexander of the Department of Epidemiology of the Journal of the American Medical Association, states that “There are serious gaps in the knowledge base regarding opioid use for other chronic nonmalignant pain” (Alexander 1865-1866), which leads to the unfortunately large number of leftover drugs. In fact, the main place that people get their drugs are from leftover prescriptions (Hemphill 373).

Narcotic analgesics, especially morphine are underused for pain control with in the medical field. This underuse is because medical professionals, including doctors, fear patient addiction, side effects and possible lose of their licenses. These fears deny adequate healing and a better quality of life to those who would benefit from a more effective use of these drugs, as done in hospice care.

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

In fact, there was thought to be more of a need for them. Before the last two decades, opioids were used for cancer related or acute pain. However, in the 1990s chronic non cancer patients got attention because people nationally felt there was a shortage in patients receiving opioids, thus making them deprived of adequate pain management. Because of this, clinicians were encouraged to treat chronic non-cancer pain and patients in hospice care more often than they were used to. It was also encouraged to use high doses of opioids for long periods of time (Cheatle). The idea that providers seemed overly cautious about these medications caused a large increase in opioid prescriptions from health care providers. Threat of tort and litigation for some doctors that were deemed for not prescribing enough to alleviate pain of patients was also a concern for doctors This quickly turned a shortage of prescription opioids into a national prescription opioid abuse epidemic in under twenty years. From 1999 to 2010, the amount of prescription opioids sold to hospitals, pharmacies, and doctors offices quadrupled, and three times the number of people overdosed on painkillers in this time (Garcia). While some patients have benefitted from the increased sales and loose guidelines of prescription opioid analgesics, the increasing in opioid misuse, abuse, and overdose is truly daunting. As a nation, we need to back track, and

The use of opioid-based prescription medications to treat non-terminal chronic pain can cause side effects from short term use, and is overly common and ineffective. Firstly, opioid usage can induce negative short-term effects. According to William A. Darity, Jr., short-term opioid usage causes negative effects such as “euphoria, drowsiness, and impaired motor and cognitive functioning” (“Drugs”). The short term effects of the opioids may cause the patient to isolate him or herself socially due to being self-conscious about his or her friends and peers seeing the individual in their current condition. Due to his or her fragile emotional state, however, if the patient isolates him or herself during a time in which he or she should have increased

Opioid abuse, misuse and overdose is a problem in The United States. You can’t turn on the TV or read a newspaper without some mention of the epidemic. This issue has caused the practice of prescribing or taking narcotic pain medication to be looked at under a microscope. Patients are fearful to use some necessary pain medication, because they may become addicted. Other patients who genuinely do have pain and need medication are having a tougher time obtaining the help they need. The problem of abuse and addiction is tough to solve since for some people the medications are the only way they can function and live a semi-normal life. A patient with pain may be hesitant to visit the doctor and

Jamison RN, Serraillier J, Michna E. Assessment and treatment of abuse risk in Opioid prescribing for chronic pain. Pain Res Cl. 2011;2011:1-12. doi:10.1155/2011/941808.

Opioids, otherwise known as prescription pain medication, are used to treat acute and chronic pain. They are the most powerful pain relievers known. When taken as directed they can be safe and effective at managing pain, however, opioids can be highly addictive. Ease of access helps people get pain medications through their physician or by having friends and family get the medication for them. With their ease of access and being highly addictive the use and misuse of opioids have become a growing epidemic. Patients should be well educated on the affects opioid use can have. More importantly instead of the use of opioids, physicians should look into alternative solutions for pain management. While pain medication is helpful with chronic pain, it is also highly addictive, doctors should be more stringent to whom and how often they prescribe pain medication.

Opioid abuse is a growing epidemic within the United States. Not only are people abusing the prescription forms of opioids (such as oxycodone - OxyContin, hydrocodone - Vicodin, codeine, and morphine) by taking more than they are supposed to, but they are also being bought, sold, and used on the streets illegally; such as heroin. Opioids are highly addicting because of the high they can induce in a person, causing a dependence and yearning for continued use (NIDA, n.d.) In 2007, the United States was responsible for over 99 percent of the global consumption of hydrocodone and 83 percent of the global consumption of oxycodone (United Nations Publications, 2009).

Mandated limits on opioid prescriptions for acute pain offers the promise of advancing the safe use of these medications in two ways. First, it will reduce the exposure of first time users to these addictive substances following episodes of acute pain. For some patients who come to misuse opioids, the euphoria or sedating effects of these medications are initially experienced in the context of routine medical care. There are countless anecdotes of patients who take opioids for a minor orthopedic injury or some other acute pain condition and then go on to use prescription opioids non-medically. A recent population-based study suggested that 6% of incident opioid users progress to long-term use.4 Another study found that patients who received opioids following minor surgery were 44% more likely to become long-term opioid users compared to those who did not.5 Decreasing the initial amount dispensed may potentially lessen the risk that patients develop an affinity for these drugs and transition to chronic use or misuse.

Next, there is an extensive history of opioid use for pain management, and other symptom management as well. Morphine can be traced back to Civil War veterans trying to manage pain and, consequently, being addicted. “‘Drugs were already on the scene and being consumed at alarming rates long before the start of the war,’ said Mark A Quinoes, a scholar who studied drug abuse during the Civil War.” It was not until 1898 that heroin was on the market for commercial sale, considered a “wonder drug,” it began to spread in use along with users that found out injecting it would increase its effects. There was little known about these new opioids, they were even used as cough suppressants. Heroin worked for what is was being used as, a pain suppressant, and there were few other options. In 1914 the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act imposed a tax on importing and selling opium or coca leaves. In 1924 doctors were avoiding using opioids after being aware of their addictive nature which lead heroin becoming illegal. Without this opioid, doctors had to get creative when treating World War II soldiers, this sparked research into nerve blockers. These nerve blockers managed pain without the use of surgery. This was, unfortunately, not the end of the opioid. While these results were shocking the pharmaceutical industry still faces much leniency from the federal

A segment published by Postmedia News deliberates the good, the bad, and the ugly of opioid pain medication. The author of this article, Sharon Kirksey captures the personal and medical interpretation on this increasing problem. Prolonged use of these medications not only cause physical damage to internal organs, they also have a high risk for addiction. Sharon Kirkey wonderfully illustrates statistics in the form of monetary value, time, and human life. Although these facts and stories come from Canada, this topic is a huge problem in the United States as well.in

The problem with opioids as a sole source of relief is that not only are they physically and psychologically addictive, but the user also begins to build a tolerance to the therapeutic effects. Eventually one requires higher doses in order to achieve the initial levels of pain relief. As the dose increases, so does the level of dependency and addiction. If a doctor refuses to increase the dose for the patient’s safety, the pain returns and patient may begin to feel the effects of opiate withdrawal. In worst-case scenarios people begin to abuse alcohol or seek out prescription pain medication illegally. Illicit and less expensive street drugs are often sought out if the afflicted can no longer afford their medications or cannot find a source of pain and addiction relief anywhere else. Purchase of street drugs becomes common when addiction begins to affect someone’s ability to keep a steady source of income. As a result, there has been a surge of opioid, heroin, and alcohol abuse and eventual overdose. (Dart, et al., 2015)

As the difficulty of analgesic therapies rises, establishment of the priorities of care must be forced in order to avert or diminish adverse events from occurring and to ensure that high quality and safe care is followed through. Opioid analgesia, in particular, remains to be the main primary pharmacologic intervention for managing pain in hospitalised patients. Although, while opioid use is generally safe for most patients, it may be associated with adverse effects, the most serious and severe opioid-related adverse event being respiratory depression (Davies et al.