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Prescription Drug Use, Abuse, and Overdose Essay

Abnormal Psychology (Yale University)

PRESCRIPTION DRUG USE, ABUSE, AND OVERDOSE

Prescription Drug Use, Abuse, and Overdose

Prescription opioid analgesics abuse is a global problem that affects the social, economic

and health spheres of all societies. The CDC publication entitled Opioid Painkiller Prescribing

on the prescription drug overdose on July 8, 2015 indicated that the opioid abuse and dependence

has increased among the U.S from 2003 to 2012 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

2015). The publication indicates that the rise in the opioid use, misuse and dependence has

occurred albeit the rise of doctors and programs that offer Medication-Assisted-Treatment. In the

July publication, the CDC reported that in the U.S Forty-six people die from prescription

painkillers overdose daily. Additionally, the July publication reported that in the year 2012, the

health care providers wrote two hundred and fifty-nine million prescriptions for pain relievers

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). The publication further indicated that Ten of

the highest prescribing states is in the South especially West Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee.

The publication reported that the geographical location of the prescribers influenced how they

prescribed the opioid pain relievers. The increased demand for the prescription pain relievers

emanated from people who use them non-medically for the euphoric rewards. Moreover, most of

the states reported problems with the high-volume pain clinics that sell and prescribe large

amounts of the painkillers to persons who do not have medical needs for profit reasons. The

higher prescription of the pain relievers associated with additional overdose deaths (Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). More can be done to curb the over-prescription of the

prescription drugs particularly at the state level to ensure that patients access safe and effective

pain treatment.

Several factors may have led to the menace of the prescription drug abuse in the U.S. The

factors include an increase in the number of written and dispensed prescriptions, social
 PRESCRIPTION DRUG USE, ABUSE, AND OVERDOSE

acceptability, and aggressive marketing by pharmaceutical industries (Okie, 2010). These factors

have created a favorable environment for accessing the prescription medications and particularly

the opioid analgesics (Drugabuse.gov, 2015). The quantity of the opioid analgesics prescribed in

the U.S has drastically increased in the past twenty-five years. The number of the opiates

prescriptions has increased from seventy-six million to two-hundred and seven million since 1991

to date (Drugabuse.gov, 2015). The availability of the opioids has been coupled with the negative

consequences associated with their abuse in the United States. For instance, the non- medical use

of the prescription drugs has resulted in an increase in the number of visits to the emergency

department (Drugabuse.gov, 2015). Moreover, the deaths arising from an overdose of prescription

painkillers have tripled in the past two decades, rising to sixteen thousand six hundred and fifty-

one deaths in the U.S in 2010. Deaths resulting from opioid analgesics overdoses exceed the

number of deaths that result from heroin in the medium sized and rural communities in the U.S

(Okie, 2010).

It is estimated that between twenty-six million and thirty-six million people abuse

opioids globally with an estimated two million people in the U.S suffering from disorders related

to the use and abuse of prescription opioid painkillers (Drugabuse.gov, 2015). The consequences

of the opioid drug abuse have been devastating and are increasing day by day. For instance, the

number of deaths arising from an unintentional overdose of the prescription painkillers has

skyrocketed in the U.S more than quadrupling since 1999 (Drugabuse.gov, 2015). Moreover, the

available data shows growing evidence that indicates a relationship between the rise in the non-

medical use of opioids and heroin abuse in the U.S (Drugabuse.gov, 2015).

Data from Centers for Disease Control and Drug Abuse Warning Network have indicated

that males and females aged between twenty-one years to twenty-nine years frequently visit the
PRESCRIPTION DRUG USE, ABUSE, AND OVERDOSE

emergency rooms for reasons of the non-medical use of opioid pain relievers (Okie, 2010).

Furthermore, the CDC reported that the middle-aged are the people who are at higher risk of

fatal opioid overdose, with the non-Hispanic whites at the highest risk (Okie, 2010). In addition,

the CDC reported that the risk of overdose is related to the increasing opiates doses, rapid dose

escalation, early refills, doctor or pharmacy shopping, and concurrent use of sedative hypnotics

like benzodiazepines.

Opioid medications produce rewarding feeling in central nervous system. People who

abuse the opiates typically seek to intensify the pleasure by administering the drugs via the

wrong routes other than the routes prescribed. The inappropriate administration of the opiates

not only increases the euphoric reward but also increases the risk of medical complications like

coma, respiratory unrest and addiction (Drugabuse.gov, 2015). Another property of the opioid

drugs is their tendency to induce tolerance. Tolerance occurs when an individual would need

more opioid to achieve the same effect. The tolerance predisposes an individual to overdose

during a relapse after a period of recovery (Drugabuse.gov, 2015).

The emerging worrying trend in prescription drug abuse is the concomitant increase in

the abuse of heroin. Many people have switched from the use of prescription opioids to heroin

that further complicates the complex issues surrounding opiates addiction (Drugabuse.gov,

2015). The chemical tolerance towards the opioid analgesics and the strict control measures put

in place to prevent illegal acquisition of the opioids may explain the transition to heroin abuse.

Heroin is cheaper and easy to obtain than the prescription opioids. The number of heroin abusers

almost doubled in the U.S between 2005 and 2012 from three hundred and eighty thousand to

six hundred and sixty thousand (Drugabuse.gov, 2015). Like the prescription opioids, heroin is

dangerous because it is highly addictive can easily be overdosed. The danger of heroin addiction
PRESCRIPTION DRUG USE, ABUSE, AND OVERDOSE

is augmented by the lack of control over the drug’s purity and possible adulteration with other

drugs like fentanyl- a potent prescription opioid (Drugabuse.gov, 2015). The abuse of heroin that

is typically administered intravenously is linked to HIV transmission, hepatitis C, and sexually

transmitted infections because of the risky sexual behavior that drug abuse may provoke

(Drugabuse.gov, 2015).

In conclusion, the prescription opioid abuse presents a social, economic and health

problems globally. The abuse and overdoses have resulted in addiction, deaths, diseases and

risky sexual behaviors that the drug abuse engenders. The increase in the prescription opioid

analgesics abuse is associated with the aggressive marketing pharmaceutical industries,

increased written prescriptions, diversion from the legal distribution chain, and social

acceptability.
PRESCRIPTION DRUG USE, ABUSE, AND OVERDOSE

PRESCRIPTION DRUG USE, ABUSE, AND OVERDOSE

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References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2015). CDC Vital Signs - Opioid Painkiller

Prescribing. Retrieved 2 September 2015, from http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/opioid-

prescribing/

Drugabuse.gov. (2015). America’s Addiction to Opioids: Heroin and Prescription Drug Abuse

| National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Retrieved 2 September 2015, from

http://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/legislative-activities/testimony-to-

congress/2015/americas-addiction-to-opioids-heroin-prescription-drug-abuse

Okie, S. (2010). A Flood of Opioids, a Rising Tide of Deaths. New England Journal Of

Medicine, 363(21), 1981-1985. doi:10.1056/nejmp1011512