Opioids are drugs often prescribed by a physician that are intended to relieve pain in the body that affects the nervous system. Most of opioids are prescribed after injury or surgery and the continued use of the drugs have lead to dependence of the drug. In the United States, Opioid use has increased through out the years. The overuse of these drugs haves created an epidemic in the United States. The use of opioids has affected millions of people and has led to many over doses and has been linked to the epidemic of heroin use and abuse. As users continue to use the product, the tolerance for the drug increases, which ultimately leads to high dose dependence that can result in overdose. If no solutions are found regarding this epidemic, many
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In the year of 2013, it was estimated that the cost for opioid abuse was at $78.5 billion US dollars. (Williams and Wilkins, 2016) This cost is contributed to the healthcare costs, treatment, lost of productivity, and overdoses that can be fatal. If many close calls for fatal overdoses occur, the amount of money spent in the emergency department could potentially sky rocket healthcare bills if not covered by insurance. The impact from opioid use can directly affect the abuser as well as the family of the abusers. Cost impacts could be from lose of daily functioning such as a job from the pain currently enduring or the side effects from the drugs. Family members can also be impacted from the loss wage from the abuser or the pain and suffering from losing a loved one from a fatal drug overdose from opioid …show more content…
Multiple states in the southeast are considered to have more prescriptions for opioid drugs than actual citizens in it own state. This includes Alabama, Tennessee, and many more. Drug abuse has also affected more and more younger people. Those in the age of 35-44 years have 10.3 per 100,000 affected by overdose and 11.7 per 100,000 people in the age of 45-54 affected by overdose. Race has also played a role in epidemic of opioid abuse. The white population has seen a great increase in this type of drug use because a lot of doctors don’t want to prescribe such medications for the minority patients as they fear the may sell them or become addicted. (Nolan and Amico, 2016) Even though doctors may fear that minorities may be affected, middle-aged white people are actually at most risk of getting the
In the year of 2013, it was estimated that the cost for opioid abuse was at $78.5 billion US dollars. (Williams and Wilkins, 2016) This cost is contributed to the healthcare costs, treatment, lost of productivity, and overdoses that can be fatal. If many close calls for fatal overdoses occur, the amount of money spent in the emergency department could potentially sky rocket healthcare bills if not covered by insurance. The impact from opioid use can directly affect the abuser as well as the family of the abusers. Cost impacts could be from lose of daily functioning such as a job from the pain currently enduring or the side effects from the drugs. Family members can also be impacted from the loss wage from the abuser or the pain and suffering from losing a loved one from a fatal drug overdose from opioid …show more content…
Multiple states in the southeast are considered to have more prescriptions for opioid drugs than actual citizens in it own state. This includes Alabama, Tennessee, and many more. Drug abuse has also affected more and more younger people. Those in the age of 35-44 years have 10.3 per 100,000 affected by overdose and 11.7 per 100,000 people in the age of 45-54 affected by overdose. Race has also played a role in epidemic of opioid abuse. The white population has seen a great increase in this type of drug use because a lot of doctors don’t want to prescribe such medications for the minority patients as they fear the may sell them or become addicted. (Nolan and Amico, 2016) Even though doctors may fear that minorities may be affected, middle-aged white people are actually at most risk of getting the