Alcohol Rehab & Drug Addiction Rehab Centers Indianapolis, IN
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Alcohol Rehab & Drug Addiction Rehab Centers Indianapolis, IN
Get help Now! Talk to a Specialist
Opioids have become some of the most popular medication that is used to assist in the treatment of pain. These drugs are made from a chemical that is found in the natural environment. The active compound is known as opium and is extracted from the poppy plant.
Today, not all opioid drugs that are available on the market contain the natural opium that is found in the poppy plant. Many pharmaceutical companies have started to develop synthetic compounds that feature a structure that is very similar to that of the natural opium. In these cases, the drugs made will yield a similar result compared to using a drug that contains a natural opium compound.
While the drugs are generally considered effective, there is a safety profile that is often taken into consideration before a patient is prescribed a type of Opioid medication. Failure to understand these risks can lead to potential overdoses, life-threatening complications, and more. Furthermore, opioid drugs have also been shown to yield the potential to cause addiction, which brings about further concern when looking at the high prevalence of opioid use in the general population.
The very first version of an Opioid was morphine. The development of the drug took quite a significant period of time, however. Friedrich Serturner was the very first to uncover the effectiveness of the poppy plant and successfully extract the specific compound that gave the plant these medicinal properties. Friedrich Serturner was a German pharmacist. He first discovered the properties of the poppy plant in the early years of the 1800s.
Hydrocodone and oxycodone are two other popular types of opioids that are widely prescribed to patients with certain conditions that are known to cause painful symptoms. A common brand name for hydrocodone is Vicodin. Oxycodone is often sold as Percocet or OxyContin.
When it comes to looking at the use of opioids, it is crucial for patients to understand that this drug is simply a compound that is able to provide temporary relief of pain by blocking certain receptors in the human body.
The drug was not developed and has never been intended to treat any condition or to cure any type of disease. Even though often utilized as a way to help patients with cancer cope with pain, the drug acts as a bandage and covers up symptoms that the patient is experiencing. It does not provide treatment for any type of underlying condition.
The drug was not developed and has never been intended to treat any condition or to cure any type of disease. Even though often utilized as a way to help patients with cancer cope with pain, the drug acts as a bandage and covers up symptoms that the patient is experiencing. It does not provide treatment for any type of underlying condition.
Any licensed practitioner or specialist is able to provide a prescription for opioids when a patient presents with pain-related symptoms. In the majority of cases, it is found that opioids are often prescribed to patients by clinicians. There is also a general concern regarding the high number of prescriptions for opioid drugs reached out to patients by general practitioners.
Patients who have been admitted to a hospital may also be provided with a prescription for opioids by the specialist overseeing their care. In such a case, morphine is often one particularly common option, especially following events such as surgery.
While there are cases where a patient may be provided a prescription for an opioid drug when they suffer from chronic pain, this is rare, and the patient then needs to be continuously monitored by the prescribing physician. Long-term use of the drug can be appropriate when the physician monitors the patient and the individual taking the drug closely adheres to all dosage instructions that are provided to them, but this is not a recommendation.
There are cases where medications like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and other painkillers yield ineffective results for a patient with a chronic pain condition. Arthritis and fibromyalgia are two examples of such conditions. When this occurs, the physician may turn to opioids as a last resort to see if this type of drug can yield a more effective level of pain relief in the patient.
Since opioids cause dependency, it is critical to understand that suddenly stopping the use of the drug is likely to cause a person to suffer from a number of withdrawal symptoms. In fact, some studies have found that there are life-threatening complications that can result from opioid withdrawal syndrome, which occurs when a more serious dependency has developed.
An estimated 34 million people use some type of opioid each and every year. In just 2016 alone, according to the World Health Organization, at least 27 million individuals throughout the world suffered from a substance abuse disorder that involved the use of opioids. When it comes to deaths – it should be noted that around 118,000 people died due to the presence of opioid use disorder. In these cases, the patients usually experienced complications due to an overdose of the drug or due to long-term effects that the chemical had in their bodies.
There is a number of opioid drugs that physicians are able to prescribe to patients today. The FDA is responsible for closely regulating the approval and distribution of these drugs, and may often provide warnings and certain guidelines for physicians to follow when it comes to providing patients with prescriptions.
It is also important to note that not all drugs that are classified as opioids are FDA approved. For example, Heroin is classified as an opioid drug, yet there is no FDA approved to use for this particular drug. In fact, heroin is an exceptionally dangerous drug that has caused millions of deaths already. Contact Addiction Rehab Centers for more details.
