In recent years, prescription drug abuse has reached almost epidemic proportions in the United States. According to the National Institute for Drug Abuse Control (NIDA), in 2006, about 3 percent of the US population was engaged in non-medical use of psychotherapeutic drugs. Recent studies show that these numbers are growing steadily every year.
The term “psychotherapeutic drug” is applied to drugs traditionally used in treatment to change the mood or condition of a patient. Drugs that fall into this category include painkillers, depressants and stimulants. Such drugs are usually prescribed for conditions ranging from physical pain to mental or emotional stress. When used correctly, psychotherapeutic drugs are very effective in reducing pain and discomfort that the patient may not end up on their own. The problem occurs when such drugs are used incorrectly.
In 2008, testimony in the Senate subcommittee, medical epidemiologist Dr. Leonard J. Pauluzzi from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated that each year more than 22,000 American lives are killed due to accidental drug overdoses and that unintended overdose mortality is statistically related to everything increased use of prescription drugs, especially opioid painkillers.
This point was emphasized by Andrei Kolodny, Chairman of Psychiatry at the Maimonides Medical Center in New York. “The practice of prescribing has changed to such an extent that doctors have become much more liberal, mainly due to pharmaceutical marketing. We have taught a whole generation of doctors to believe that if you prescribe opiates to patients who have legitimate pain, there is little or no risk of abuse of Egypt. ”
Easy access to prescription drugs from legitimate doctors is just one of the problems. Illegal appointment by unscrupulous doctors and illegal distribution by unscrupulous pharmacies is also increasing. Prescription drug users can often get any prescription they want if they are willing to pay the price, and some pharmacists have earned a reputation without a prescription.
With the advent of online pharmacies, a prescription is often not needed. According to an OpSec Security study conducted in 2009 by a company that controls pharmaceutical counterfeiting, the availability of online pharmacies that do not require a prescription has increased by 65% over the past two years. While highly controlled substances are generally not available on the Internet, many of the available drugs are very dangerous when taken in high doses or in combination with other drugs.
Perhaps one of the most troubling facts about prescription drug abuse is the frequency of use of older children. According to NIDA again, almost ten percent of high school students took the powerful opiate vicodin, and more than five percent took the highly addictive opiate OxyContin. Given the well-known statistics that early drug use significantly increases the likelihood of developing pathological dependence later in life, we can begin to understand why drug addiction is growing at such an alarming rate in young people.
One of the most neglected aspects of prescription drug abuse is its association with illicit drug use. Prescription drug abuse is still commonly seen as something separate and above the use of ordinary street drugs. But prescription drugs are usually more expensive than their street counterparties, and as drug users become more and more tolerant, they tend to drift towards using cheaper and more easily available substitutes.
One of the persistent problems with the abuse of prescription drugs is the difficulty that many doctors have in solving their patients' problems. Observers tend to focus on presenting the problems of their patients and often overlook hidden or repressed difficulties. Specialists are involved in expressing opinions outside the scope of their specialty. Substance abuse problems may remain unrecognized for many years, until the crisis brings the problem to the fore. Unfortunately, this crisis can often take the form of an overdose or other life-threatening episode, which could have been avoided by earlier detection.
Prescription drug addiction is no longer an invisible problem, it was just a few years ago. Due in part to the studies mentioned above, and partly to the recently published and highly tragic deaths associated with the use of drugs from several famous celebrities, prescription drug abuse is now recognized as one of the most serious health problems we face. The more we realize the problem, the better our chances of helping those in need, and the better our chances of avoiding the loss of life due to the abuse of drugs that were intended to be treated.
