This rate of opioid prescriptions led the health department to begin research on ways to decrease the number of prescriptions. In this study they provided pre and post surveys to 1182 prescribers in the area, after the pre-survey was taken they then provided education to all providers and the risk and benefits of opioid pain medication. The survey consisted of three questions which were taken from recommendations by the states board of health. These recommendations are: 3 day supply of opioids is enough for acute pain, Avoid opioids in non-cancer chronic pain, and avoid high dose prescriptions. The study looked for improved knowledge and improved prescribing practices through the provider’s response to these three questions.…
Gomes provides statistics for the staggering amount of deaths caused by opioid overdoses. Along with, presenting insight on the provincial and federal government plans to end this crisis. There are numerous issues surrounding the opioid dilemma, ranging from the number of overdoses to debates about the high dosage opioid formulas and how palliative care patients are affected. Society has continued to turn a blind-eye to the issue, choosing to believe it is an anti-drug society (McKnight, 2016). The opioid crisis could have been prevented and should have been made a priority when data surfaced in 2013 regarding the number of deaths caused from opioids.…
Helping someone with Opioid The general statement made by the source Chicago Sun Times in their work, “How to Help Someone with an Opioid Addiction”, is that the key to helping someone with an Opioid addiction is to make sure you understand the situation. More specifically, the author states that being punitive makes the person not want to seek help. They write,“You don’t want to be nasty. It just makes people less receptive to treatment ”(paragraph 1).…
My name is Megan Johnston and I am a registered nurse at a local hospital with nine years of critical care experience. During my career at the bedside, I have watched numerous parents, children, and other family members have to make the difficult decision to take their loved one off of life support and watch them die after an opioid drug overdose. To watch how devastating this is for patients and their loved ones is both heart wrenching and disturbing to me as a healthcare professional. The opioid crisis began to spiral in the 1990s when pharmaceutical companies told providers and prescribers that patients would not likely become addicted to opioid pain relievers, and therefore they were prescribed more frequently, which subsequently led to…
What Caused the Opioid Epidemic? Would you be surprised if I told you that the United States had 50% more people die last year due to a drug epidemic than in car accidents? I heard this on a news podcast and was shocked to find this statistic to be true. This drug crisis is the opioid epidemic we are currently facing in our country that last year alone claimed 60,000 lives. This prompted me to ask, why are we having this epidemic?…
Tony Luke Jr: Totally Driven Amidst Tragedy The overall goal when we started Totally Driven Entertainment, was that we wanted to entertain our fans. The staff at Totally Driven Entertainment certainly hope that we can entertain our audience, and will continue to do so for years to come. However, the last few years have seen the growth of an alarming new epidemic, and Totally Driven Entertainment feels that we also have a responsibility to speak out on social issues, especially ones that hit close to home. In 2017, we saw someone who I consider to be a part of the Totally Driven family suffer an epic tragedy.…
Thinking about the staggering numbers that are reported on the news, it is quite disturbing to see and read the statistics that account for what is called the opioid epidemic in the United States. However, drugs and addictions are not a modern plague, and it is a problem that has been around and piling for years. During the 19th century, the restrictions on drugs were insignificant, and highly addictive substances were not limited in terms of age. As described in parts of module four, in 1885, cocaine was introduced as a solution for every illness ranging from "depression to hay fever. "…
Prevalence of opioid abuse varies based on age and gender. Men are at higher risk for opioid abuse than women, for instance, but are more likely to seek treatment. Men also account for more opioid overdoses than women, although this gap is closing. Women are more likely to be prescribed pain relievers, be given higher doses, use them for longer, and may become dependent faster.…
The opioid epidemic is the deadliest drug crisis in US history, killing thousands of people through disease and overdose. Recently, President Trump declared the growing crisis a “public health emergency.” Opioids are part of a drug class that includes the illegal drug heroin as well as powerful pain relievers, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, fentanyl, and many others. Every day in the United States thousands of people are treated in emergency departments for not using prescription opioids as directed. Drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S., and opioid addiction is driving this epidemic.…
The opioid epidemic has been an issue that the United States has struggled with since the early 1900’s. Opioids are drugs commonly used in medical practice to relieve pain. Before the knowledge we have currently on opioids, opioids were an essential in curing a range of symptoms; from relieving pain to being used as cough suppressants. Today, the war on opioids is at an all time high. In 2014, 14 thousand people died from an opioid overdose.…
A long period of addiction to opioids in the country has been due to a large supply being sold behind the counter and behind the taco bell at three am. The spread of these opioids has been so bad not even the FDA has expected them. In a article written by Susan Okie, M.D, she stated that, “FDA officials have been scrambling to revise their proposed Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), after an advisory panel (the agency's Anesthetic and Life Support Drugs Advisory Committee and Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee) voted 25 to 10 against the FDA's plan, saying it didn't go far enough. If an Advisory committee is able to out-vote the FDA’s plan for opioid care by over 2-1 how deeply can they be trusted to protect and fulfill their duties? The proper training required to handle and prescribe medicine has not laid down by the FDA.…
The scientific community has recognized an opioid epidemic that has resulted from the wide use of opioids to treat postoperative pain (Reddy, 2006). Patients treated with opioids for postsurgical pain often develop a lethal addiction to those painkillers. Victims will often seek out more painkillers, prescription opioids, or illegal drugs to compensate their addiction. As a result, 2.1 million people are suffering from complications related to the prescription of opioid analgesics including morphine and lidocaine (Valkow, 2014). Opioids are the standard method of managing postoperative pain.…
When someone goes to the doctor because they are in pain doctors give them opioids also called opiates and narcotics which is a type of pain medication. People that take opioids for a long period of time become dependent on them or addicted and in the long run not good for people due to their side effects. Also, the risk of overdose higher with opioids. There need to be stricter regulations for doctors being able to prescribe these kinds of drugs long term due to that many patients that are prescribed these drugs should not be taking them because the abuse them. People can become not necessarily addicted to opioids but rather dependent on them.…
Opioid abuse can lead to severe overdose and death. Opioids are highly addictive due to its use as a pain reliever while also depressing emotions. Increased abuse of prescription opioids has correlated to an increase in the use of harder street drugs in areas that you wouldn’t except. Heroin use is among one of the most prevalent of these, “Heroin-related deaths increased 439% from 1999 to 2014” (Christensen, Hernandez).…
In April 2011, President Obama addressed the issue in the White House position paper, Epidemic: Responding to America’s Prescription Drug Abuse Crisis. The Obama administration announced it would seek legislation-requiring doctors to undergo training before being permitted to prescribe potent narcotics (Smith 68). The current most popular solutions at any level have included solutions such as requiring physicians to gain certification of training in addictive mediation and applying a system of monitoring for those who are prescribing and being prescribed these medications. There have been more spins offs of these two ideas as well, such as harsh punishment for diving under the influence of these drugs. The FDA is currently undergoing investigations of how they can productively address the opioid abuse in America, “taking action to protect patients from serious harm due to these drugs, [finding a] careful balance between continued access to these necessary medications and stronger measures to reduce their risks.”…