Informative Essay: Pain Medication Drug Abuse

Pain Medication Drug Abuse Americans are obsessed with popping pills. Our culture believes that a pill will cure anything from the common cold to cancer. Big pharmaceuticals have spent billions of dollars developing and marketing drugs to the young and old. While drugs are beneficial in many ways, there are some major disadvantages to being a society so heavily dependent on drugs. One of those disadvantages is unintentional drug abuse. Many times a doctor will prescribe a drug for pain and the patient becomes addicted to that pain medication, both physically and mentally. They enjoy the pain management side of the drug; however, they get pleasure from the way the drug makes them feel mentally. Drug abuse also occurs as a result of unused drugs left in medicine cabinets. Family members with access to these drugs, especially teens, start taking the prescription medication to get “high.” This access often results in drug addiction due to the feeling the drug gives them while taking the medication. …show more content…
Usually this results in a trip to the doctor’s office to get a prescription that will kill the pain. If the pain persists, the patient will seek a refill of the pain medication in order to keep the pain under control. Generally speaking, one or two prescriptions of pain killers will give the body a chance to heal in the area that is causing the pain. However, some people get use to the way the drug makes them feel resulting in a desire for more pain pills. The difficulty for health care providers is determining whether or not the patient is still in pain or simply attempting to get more drugs. Many health care professionals believe nurses are in a good position to find out if the patient is abusing the medication. In 2014, Medburg Nursing produced an article written my Registered Nurse Rhea Faye D. Felicilda-Reynaldo stating, “nurses are in a strategic position to help