...| The Addiction of America | The Abuse of Prescription Drugs in the United States | Sean Barnes | Western Governors University | 12/19/2014 | The abuse of prescription drugs in the United States has reached epidemic proportions and continues to get worse. Most people, however, do not realize how big the problem really is. It continues to get worse every year and it demands our attention. In 2011, just three short years ago, an estimated 52 million people in the United States over the age of 12 had used prescription drugs for a non-medical reason (National survey on drug use, 2011). The most commonly abused prescription drugs are pain relievers. Why are people abusing these drugs and where do they get them? This paper will attempt to answer those questions as well as pose a possible solution on how it can be corrected. Analyzing the Problem To begin, we must first take a look at why so many American citizens are abusing prescription drugs. Most will probably tell us that they became addicted to pain relievers after some sort of horrible accident or surgery. They were prescribed these medications by their Primary Care Provider and told to take them in the correct manner, which are usually one or two tablets/pills every four to six hours apart, as needed for pain. What they were probably not told by their Primary Care Provider is that they should not take them sooner than directed, nor should they take them whenever they are not experiencing pain. The directions on...
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...Based on the 2010 census there were almost 309 million people in the United States (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2011). People over the age of 65 made up 13% of the total population with just over 40 million people. Between 2000 and 2010 the population grew at a faster rate in the older population then the younger population. I feel the population of people older than 65 is important to focus on for this assignment because this population will continue to grow every year. In this assignment I am going to talk about the population of people over the age of 65 in the United States, then discuss the known patterns of substance abuse in this population. I will also talk about the treatment needs for people over the age of 65 affected by substance abuse. While the primary focus of this report is about the population older than 65 it is important to note the age group percentages in the U.S. People under the age of 18 make up 24% of the total population with 74 million people. The 18-44 age groups make up 36% of the total population with just fewer than 113 million people. People aged 44-64 totals 26% of the population with 81 million. The rest of the population is the group of people 65 and older who total 40 million people and make up the remaining 13%. Understanding the population percentage in the U.S. is important, because by 2030 the percentage of people over the age of 65 will account for 21% of the total population (US Bureau of the Census, 1996). This percentage...
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...Mental health concern is becoming more common in today’s society. However, there is a raising concern for the correlation between aging and mental health. With age comes health concerns due to the fact that all organ systems in the body undergo an aging process. Mental illnesses in older adults include, but are not limited to: depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, substance abuse, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. This paper will discuss the raising concern of mental health and aging, new treatment options, approaches to mental health in the elderly, and recent studies conducted on each of these critical and debilitating diseases. Depression is a very common, yet devastating disease originating from the brain. It can affect...
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...Progress: Drugs In The Health Care Market This is a review of the above fore mentioned article. The U.S. health care system in the new century comes with good and bad news both stemming from the same source; medical innovation. The good news: life expectancy and health status in the United States are improving; infant mortality is declining and disability rates among the elderly have been falling. These improvements all point to one source: major pharmaceutical breakthroughs in the 1990s. The bad news: This medical progress is expensive meaning better medicine increases cost in the long run. Debate over our specific choices seems always to devolve back to a list of competing alternatives: restrict patient access; shift costs to the recipients of progress; shift risk to providers; or share through higher premiums the cost increases. . Unnecessary Regulations That Increase Prescription Drug Cost This is a review of the above fore mentioned article. As drug coverage has become more widespread, so too have calls to impose additional regulations on drug plans and the firms managing them. A reason sometimes given for increasing drug plan regulation is the need for transparency to prevent drug plan managers from excessive mark-ups for drugs at the expense of patients and health plans. In the pursuit of protecting consumers, there are frequent calls for state and federal lawmakers to enact laws that hamper the efficient management of prescription drug benefits...
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...Medications can be taken in oral which would be a pill or liquid, sublingual in tablet or drops, topically in cream or ointment, inhalation, drops etc. The type of medication and the route will have an effect on where the drug will enter the body and what areas the drug will focus on. In this paper I will explain how antidepressants work with chemicals in the body and also the good and bad of taking antidepressants. About 20 million people in the United States suffer from some form of depression (Schimelpfening, 2012). Depression occurs in someone when endogenous chemicals in the brain are used by the central nervous system to help communicate signals from one area to another. This imbalance in neurotransmitters, such as Serotonin, Dopamine and Norepinephrine plays a role in clinical depression. Decreased production of these neurotransmitters, a lack of receptor sites able to receive these neurotransmitters, and the inability of these neurotransmitters to reach a receptor site plays in an important factor in depression. The most common and effective drug used for people with depression are Tricyclic antidepressants. This medication works by increasing the release of norepinephrine. According to National Science Digital Library, the action of the Tricyclic drugs depends on the central ring of the atoms which looks like the shape of a twist. The side chain must have at least 2 carbons. The amine group is either tertiary or secondary. The goal of tricyclic...
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...Demographic Correlates Of Drug Use CHAPTER OVERVIEW_____________________________________ • Certain segments of the population are more vulnerable to drug use and abuse than others. • Men are generally more likely to use drugs than women. • Whites are more likely to report drug use than either Hispanics or blacks. • Cultural, economic and historical features contribute to unique experiences and problems associated with drug use • Drug use varies in prevalence and type across different age groups • The extent and nature of drug-using behavior varies by social categories • There are social as well as individual factors that account for patterns of drug use. LEARNING OBJECTIVES__________________________________ 1. Discuss the major differences between the onset and socialization of drug use between males and females. 2. What are some of the special problems encountered by drug-using women, especially health- related problems and those with regard to stigmatization? 3. Discuss the major differences in drug use among races and ethnicities. 4. Which age cohort is most likely to use drugs and why? 5. How are drug use and effects unique in the elderly? 6. Describe the social class correlates of drug use. CHAPTER OUTLINE______________________________________ I. Introduction ...
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...The Truth Uncovered Substance Abuse within our communities pose a severe threat to society. The United States is consumed with dissatisfied people who are unable to cope with the struggles in their life, so they coat their problems with powder . They consider drugs to be a victimless crime, and argue that it should be their choice in what they do with their body, and life. As true as this may be, sometimes people need to be protected from themselves, and their irrational, uneducated decisions. People often become victims to their own crimes, and in the end they pay the ultimate price. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, approximately 7 million Americans abuse prescription drugs, and roughly 6.3 million report they...
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...Most of us respect prescription drugs, mainly used for the reason the doctor intended. Understanding problems, pitfalls and the magnitude prescription drug abuse and misuse has on today’s society. Medical society estimates the number as high as 40 million people (aged 12 and older); have used drugs for nonmedical reasons in their lifetime. Making nonmedical use of prescription drugs a defining drug dilemma of the new century. The management of chronic pain is an art and a science, according to the Center of Disease Control (CDC). Nevertheless, the opioid epidemic has received substantial publicity and policy makers are more aggressively trying to combat the problem. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the three classes of...
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...from the Los Angeles Times, it is estimated that 100 people die every day from drug abuse or overdose. Abuse or overdose being defined as taking more medicine than a doctor prescribes, or taking medication not prescribed to the victim. These totals don’t even include deaths related to side effects from other prescription drugs, and those reach over one hundred thousand people annually. These numbers have alarmed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but rightfully so because from the years 2000 to 2009 the report states, “The percentage of poisoning deaths among those aged 15–19 years with prescription drugs as a contributing cause increased from 30% in 2000 to 57% in 2009.” There are many different speculations that would drive such a rapid climb, such as music and lifestyle, accessibility to the drugs, and affordability for many teenagers. Agencies like the CDC and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), are working together with the White House to reside this issue by improving education of healthcare professionals, using state prescription monitoring programs, and proper disposal of controlled substances by business trade and the public. I agree with Obama in that there are steps that need to be taken to help end this recent issue in society. Although, I believe there are other ways to go about it and the first is to federally decriminalize marijuana. Prescription drug abuse has been recognized since the 1980’s, but it hasn’t received as much attention...
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...and Current Drug Trends in America Sarah Pierce PSY425 October 25, 2010 Scharlene De Horney Past and Current Drug Trends in America Drugs come in many forms and from many places. Drugs have been around since the beginning of time and people have been using them since they discovered them. Drug use began thousands if not a hundred thousand years ago as humans started exploring their environment. People would see a new plant or observe an animal’s behavior after consuming the plant, and out of curiosity, they would experiment with it or taste it. This is how some of the drugs we know today came about. Cocaine, opium, LSD, peyote, and marijuana all come from plants that primitive people discovered while tasting the environment around them. This paper will identify the past and current trends in the use and abuse of substances (drugs) in the United States. It will also discuss when it is viewed appropriate to use illicit drugs. Moreover, this paper will analyze the health and social problems in the United States that occur due to drug abuse and addiction. Trends American views on drugs have gone from one extreme to the opposite over a period of about 200 years. In the late 1700s through the 1800s, everyday Americans legally used substances like opium, cocaine, and marijuana for medicinal, spiritual, and recreational uses. At the beginning of the 1900s, the American view on drugs began its dramatic change. As of 1971, America is in an outright “war on drugs”. Past The...
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...Principles of Economics Sharonda Thorpe, RN, BSN Professor Sarah Uhimchuk Principles of Economics-ECO 100 January 29, 2012 Suggest how an economist would approach the problem of alcohol abuse. Provide two (2) possible solutions to this problem. Include the four (4) elements of the economic way of thinking in your analysis. To suggest how an economist would approach the problem of alcohol abuse, one needs to understand the elements of the economic way of thinking. Four elements are: principle of opportunity cost, which means what you sacrifice to get something. Marginal principle is another element, which includes marginal benefits that result from a small increase in activity and marginal cost, which is the additional cost resulting from a small increase in activity. The principle of voluntary exchange is another element of the economic way of thinking, which is based on the notion that people act in their own self-interest. People won’t exchange one thing for another unless the trade off makes them better off. A forth element would be the principle of diminishing returns which means at a certain point (called the point of diminishing returns), additional input to a system of production will produce less and less output. O”Sullivan (2012). In other words, Scarcity: where economists study situations where needs or wants exceed means. Therefore, people have to make choices. Rationality is assumed to guide people's choices...
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...Polypharmacy in the Elderly Courtney Lopez Western Governors University Polypharmacy in the Elderly I. Introduction a. Audience hook: John, an 85 year old man is admitted into the emergency room with a heart rate of 40, and complaints of dizziness and weakness for several days. Nancy RN is the nurse taking care of John when he is brought in. Upon reviewing Johns’ medications, Nancy is aware that there are two prescriptions for the same beta blocker each with a different dose and frequency, among six other prescriptions. When questioned about his medications, John states "he takes two different medications for his heart with some other pills, but doesn’t know the name of the medication or the dose." John is diagnosed with a beta blocker overdose. After four days in the ICU, John is feeling much better now, with normal vital signs and a better knowledge of his medications, and will be transferred to a telemetry floor for continued care. b. Thesis statement: Polypharmacy in the elderly population can be reduced by early discharge education in the inpatient setting, along with the use of drug combinations or extended release medications to lower the frequency, amounts, and financial burden incurred by this population. c. Main points: 1. Multiple dosing changes and frequency of medications can cause confusion, adverse reactions, and noncompliance. 2. Education during hospitalization can decrease recurrence of repeat hospitalization. II. Polypharmacy...
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...has been very noticeable among creative individuals, affecting such artists as Hector Berlioz, Gustav Mahler, Ernest Hemingway, and Virginia Woolf. Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. Bipolar disorder is a long-term psychological condition known to create extreme changes in mood, which range from extreme lows of depression to extreme manic highs. The rate of mood swings varies from many times a day to a handful of episodes in a year. The condition can be controlled with the use of medication and counseling. The disorder is defined in a hierarchy of severity. There are different levels of bipolar disorder which will be discussed. Bipolar I involve intense and potentially dangerous manic episodes, and often negatively impacts work, education, and personal relationships. Bipolar II is not as severe as Bipolar I, but still includes heightened mood and agitation. It is possible to live a more normal everyday life with this level of the disorder. Lastly, Bipolar III, a fairly recently discovered form, comes about as the result of the medication prescribed to people with depression. A lot of times an individual who suffers from depression will be given drugs such as the steroid cortisone or antidepressants which can actually reverse the depression into mania. The resulting cycle of depression and drug-induced mania manifests into...
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...Lemke Introduction Unsecured medication is harmful to human life but can be extremely dangerous especially to innocent children. The fatalities or health complications attached to unsecured medication cannot be overlooked and there is a growing need to prevent medication errors like leaving medicine unsecured (Malloch & Porter, 2009). Leaving medication unsecured mostly happens accidentally and has dire consequences. As a result, this research will focus on the imperative need for parents with toddlers to store medications and poisonous products safely. The challenge of leaving unsecured drugs at home is larger than car crashes today. More than 2100 kids engage in behavior such as accidental abuse of unsecured medication for the first time (Betar, 2012). Accidental use of drugs and wrong medication by toddlers is a result of unsecured drugs lying somewhere in the house. Literature review Unintentional poisonings at home are a major cause of fatal or nonfatal injuries in children aged 0-24months. Reports from studies carried out in 2003 showed that 49.6% of all poisonings exposure reported in the USA occurred amongst school going children. 3 out of 1000annual poisoning incidents in Dutch children aged between one and two was as a result of leaving medication unsecured at home. This number was much higher as compared to children from other age groups. In the study, it has come across that one year olds have a six-fold risk of poisoning as compared to...
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...Social Problems 2601 “Aging Nursing Home Dysfunctions” Do you have a loved one in a nursing home, assisted living facility, or long-term care center? Do you suspect neglect or abuse happening or even worse a sudden, unexplained death? Do not allow owners of nursing homes to line their pockets with your hard earned money, while their facilities are dangerous and unsanitary for your family members. Abuse is happening everyday all over the world; senior citizens are at a vulnerable stage in life, when they may not be able to defend themselves. Every year, tens of thousands of elderly Americans are abused in their own homes, and even in facilities responsible for their care. If you suspect that an elderly person you know is being harmed physically or emotionally by a neglectful or overwhelmed caregiver or being preyed upon financially. By learning the signs and symptoms of elder abuse and how to act on behalf of an elderly person who is being abused, you’ll not only be helping someone else but strengthening defenses against elder abuse in the future. Many early signs of elderly abuse are commonly over looked due to carelessness, lack of knowledge and many times understaffed facilities. Look out for the signs of abuse and or neglect. Signs and Symptoms of Abuse and or neglect are as followed; Visible injuries are, naturally, the type that you will pick up on right away. Examples are broken bones due to extreme falls, cuts, scars, extensive bruising and bed sores (pressure...
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