Opioids such as OxyContin and Vicodin, are the most widespread prescribed painkiller for the treatment of moderate to chronic pain. While opioids are highly effective in masking the pain temporarily, these drugs are highly addictive. Many patients, especially those who take more than the prescribed amount, often develop a dependency on these drugs, resulting in addiction. There is growing evidence that opioid drugs are being widely prescribed and abused, causing an increase in healthcare costs.
To help fight the growing dependency and addiction to these drugs, doctors should take more time explaining the many harmful side effects of these drugs to their patients before prescribing them, In addition, doctors should be up front with their patients about the likelihood of developing tolerance to the drugs, which ultimately leads to dependency. Since there is widespread abuse of these drugs, opioid prescriptions should continue to be restricted because the addictive rates exceed the pain treatment benefits, therefore, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should ban opioid use outside of hospital care.
When opioid painkillers were developed, it was mainly used for the purpose of treating patients with chronic pain. As doctors began prescribing these drugs, patients started developing a dependency for the drug which caused a widespread increase of opioid use (Sibbald and Vogel 1). As a result, statistics showed that in 2004, patients abusing opioids was 82. 5 per 100,000 which later showed a dramatic increase to 184. 1 per 100,000 in 2011 (“Beating Opioid” 1).
Due to the widespread increase in dependency and addiction to opioids, the FDA was forced to change in regulations on how these drugs are classified and prescribed. The Food and Drug Administration implemented the Controlled Substance Act (CSA) which was created based off previous federal drug laws that helped classify drugs based off their harmful substances and it is arranged in lists called schedules (“Controlled Substances” 1). Opioid painkillers were classified under Schedule II. Any drugs on the schedule II list are considered a potential threat to cause problems dealing with brain functions and dependency.
The United States government began sponsoring methadone clinics to help monitor patients taking their daily doses in order to help prevent any misuses and abuses of the prescribed drugs (“Methadone” 3). Since the United States was able to sponsor clinics to help monitor patients, the U. S. should have the ability to force the FDA to change the policies on how doctors are prescribing drugs and encourage them to focus on banning opioids outside of hospital use. The FDA began restrictions on opioid prescription drugs to help decrease the amount of drug abusers.
The current FDA protocol calls for pharmacies to be registered under the FDA and these pharmacies must get approval from the FDA to sell these drugs (Kindy and Sun 3). Even though the FDA approves the drugs, there is no way to monitor how many doctors are prescribing, In addition, the FDA was forced to change its rules because pharmacies were ordering drugs without the government’s consent (Tavernise 1). However, with the advancement of technology, patients should be required to undergo strict background checks, aimed at identifying those individuals who go from one doctor to another obtain additional prescription drugs.
This will allow the FDA to identify drug abusers and assist them in finding the help they need to overcome addiction or dependency. With this drug monitoring program, doctors will be able to help reduce drugs abuses, saving the medical industry millions of dollars in medical costs associated with drug addicts and dependency. To help decrease the use of opioids, doctors should inform their patients about the many risks associated with the use of opioid painkillers, especially prolonged use of these drugs.
Patients are misusing and abusing painkillers by taking more than the prescribed amount, which can lead to addiction and dependency. Also, if these opioid drugs are prescribed so often, they will build tolerance for the drugs, and will eventually be prescribed with another pain killer medicine. Since many individuals abuse painkiller drugs, they are often taken to the hospital for treatment. Treatments of drug addicts has been seen in many hospitals showing an increase from 72 percent to 520,275 which is now 91 percent to 6,535. (“Researchers identify” 1).
This proves there is an overall increase of opioid drug abusers that are seeking treatment which eventually lead to an increase in health care cost. Researchers have established that opioid abuse and dependency has increased from a starting rate of $28,000 to $107,000 (“Researchers identify” 1). In addition, statistics have shown this abuse and dependency increased from 72 percent to 92 percent overtime (“Researchers identify” 1). On the other hand, some patients will take longer to be treated than others which adds to the rise in health cost.
They may also fail to proceed with the treatment methods and could possibly lead themselves to abusing the drugs again. With these statistics showing the increase in health care cost of treatments due to opioid abuse and dependency, the FDA has another reason to continue restricting these types of drugs. The addictive rates exceeds the pain treatment benefits. In Lisa Rapoport’s article, “Doctors see regular misuse of antibiotics, narcotics,” she claims that 27 percent of doctors recognize the common misuse of treatments such as antibiotics (1).
In addition, the rate of opioid misuse and the addiction rate have increased, therefore, doctors should take the initiative to find an alternative options instead of prescribing opioid painkillers. Doctors can also prescribe another painkiller medication in order to counter attack the addiction of having to take opioid medications (Bernstein 2). In addition, doctors should be reeducated on how these drugs should prescribed and to be shown statistics to prove that there was an increase in opioid abusers.
Also, doctors could decrease the use of opioid abuse, is prescribing low doses at first and then determining if this drug ould be acceptable for the patient to use. People that are using these prescription drugs deal with issues regarding a disease or psychological disorder. However, studies has shown how most doctors prescribe these drugs for the main purpose to handle chronic pain (“Data on” para 1). Some patients may even be just a victim of these drugs because they were unaware of the risks and side effects that can occur while taking this drug. The effects of opioid painkillers can have a negative impact on patients brain and cognitive functions.
Opioid use outside of hospital care can affect the central nervous system which primarily deals with brain and spinal cord functions (“Drugs of Abuse” 1). In addition, this abuse can also contribute to someone’s actions throughout the day and lead to irrational thoughts. If an individual has irrational thoughts, they may have see a psychologist who specializes in cognitive thinking to help improve their thought process. However, due to addiction and dependency, patients seeking treatment must decrease the dosage of opioid painkillers over time to slowly allow brain functions to return to normal.
The FDA should ban opioid should ban opioid use outside of hospital care because it allows opioids to have a negative impact on people in society. Banning opioids outside of hospital care will help prevent the abuse, however, patients can still be prescribed the drugs in hospitals where doctors will be able to monitor how much patients are taking. Two possible effects of banning opioids would help decrease the amount of drug overdoses and death. Patients wouldn’t have the ability to take the prescription home and use it with other prescriptions.
Doctors noticed when patients take the prescribed drug home, the patients may accidentally take another drug with it and this could possibly lead to death (“Methadone” 1). In addition, it would also help decrease the amount of patients that are hospitalized from abusing these opioid prescription drugs. Since every opioid prescription medication is monitored within hospital care, the cost of treatments for infections will decrease. Some may deny the fact that painkillers are being abused, or that the abuse is not widespread.
Some may also argue that painkillers do not lead to dependency or addiction. In addition, doctors may argue that prescription drugs are already highly regulated, and that the FDA should lessen its regulation, allowing doctors to help patients manage their pain. According to Karoun Demirjian, doctors are able to identify the problem regarding a high percentage of drug abusers that died due to opioid painkillers (2). However, research has shown that there is a widespread abuse of these prescription drugs, requiring the FDA to do a better job of regulating these drugs.
Studies have shown that prolong use of these drugs cause many harmful side effects, including infection and death. While there is clearly a need to prescribe painkillers to those who are in need, especially to those who are experiencing chronic pain, doctors need to do a better job of explaining the harmful side effects of these drugs to their patients. Doctors did a study on opioid drug abusers which showed how these patients were able to obtain more painkillers that were needed (“Many Medicare” 1).
In addition, doctors should also closely monitor their patients’ use of these drugs to ensure that their patients are not taking more than the prescribed amount. On the other hand, the FDA had to ensure that these prescriptions and the doctors prescribing them are being closely monitored. Quite too often, doctors are prescribing these painkillers at large quantities, creating a situation where their patients become dependent to the drugs. In addition, quite too often, doctors continue to prescribe these drugs even though there are signs of dependency or abuse.
Also, doctors could lessen the use of opioid by prescribing other medications. Prescribing these highly addictive painkillers should be the last resort for dealing with pain. To help reduce drug abuse and dependency, the Food and Drug Administration should ban the use of these drugs outside of the hospitals. This approach will ensure that the use of these drugs is highly controlled or monitored. In addition, doctors should do a better job of explaining to their patients the many harmful side effects of these drugs, and the reality of developing a dependency to these drugs.
When doctors explain the harmful side effects to their patients, it will encourage them to avoid any of these prescription painkillers. Also, it will decrease the amount of patients seeking treatment inside hospital care which is a lead cause of the rise in health care cost. However, the FDA should find a way to ban the use of opioid painkillers outside of hospital care or implement drug monitoring programs to monitor the doctors prescribing these drugs and monitor the patients who are receiving these highly addict painkiller drugs.