...Prescription Opioids Deanna Pannell Aurora University One of the growing problems in America is the abuse of prescription opioids. In the past 10 years, the misuse of prescribed opioids has gone out of control, making it a national issue that many people are attempting to attack. Prescription opioid use is increasing in public health, creating an epidemic that is growing rapidly. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse: opiates, depressants, and stimulants are the three drug classifications most commonly abused by Americans. A multitude of research on the subject has concluded that there is more than a single solution to the problem, such as taking immediate action as well as creating prevention strategies. I decided to do additional research on this topic since it plays a huge part in my career as well as personal life. Being a substance abuse counselor in the criminal justice field, I experience first-hand the effects of prescription opioid abuse. A large number of client’s participating in the TASC (Treatment Alternatives for Safer Communities) are dealing with prescription opioid abuse due to an injury or surgical procedure. On April 25, 2015, my first cousin died from a heroin overdose at the age of 23. After a football injury, he was prescribed Hydrocodone and became addicted. Since the pills are too expensive, he began using heroin and his battle ended 5 years later. In 2009, 16 million Americans age 12 and older reported taking a prescription pain reliever...
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...I-Prescription Drugs Prescription drug abuse and prescription overprescribing, of all categories, is becoming rampant in the United States. It is also one of the most rapidly growing dilemmas in America influencing people of all ages. Prescription drug use in the past was limited to adults. Over the last decade, more and more children and adolescents are consumers of these drugs. Coping with children who behaved badly in the past has taken a new direction that includes prescribing medications. Medical professions now have the option to prescribe these medications as they see fit. Many physicians are more than willing to write a prescription based on the complaints of a patient rather than finding other treatment options or the root of the problem. Drugs manufactures have had to come up with new and innovative ways to market these drugs to healthcare providers and the public as well. As society changes so will the way drugs are marketed, prescribed and taken. Demand for prescription drugs will continue to increase as well as the overall cost. Consumers today demand more flexibility in acquiring prescription medications rather than using the traditional drug stores. Patients are swamped by pharmaceutical ads and physicians are repeatedly proliferated with drug prescribing information from pharmaceuticals representatives. Getzen and Allen (2007) states, “the average American fills 11 prescriptions per year. Pharmaceuticals were a $188.5 billion industry in 2004, for which...
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...The drug epidemic in America is at a shocking all time high. The rate of people dying from drug overdoses has been quickly increasing more and more over the last 10 years. Yet these drug overdoses are not always from scary street drugs like in the movies, many of the big killers come from behind the pharmacy counter. When in medical distress, a doctor is the first person many turn to. Medical emergencies, life-long illnesses, or developed diseases, and a doctor can either completely stop the problem in its tracks or curb the issue until its manageable. However more and more doctors are making mistakes while treating their patients. Not only are prescription drugs not always even necessary, but doctors are prescribing medications at alarmingly...
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...remain disease or cancer free. The United States of America is known as a developed nation and people would assume that it provides its citizens with equal and an adequate medical care. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “America spent more on health care per capita ($8,608) and more on health care as a percentage of its GDP (17.2%), than any other nation in 2011.” This means that the US puts a lot of emphasis on their healthcare compared to any other country in the world. But the reality is the Commonwealth Fund, a private American foundation, ranked the United States of America last in the quality of healthcare compared to the world in 2014. Also, America is ranked as one of the most expensive healthcare providers in the world. The US was compared to countries like Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland. The rankings prove that the American healthcare system is indeed facing many issues. Some of the major issues are accessibility of healthcare to all, lack of consolidation within the industry, deficiency in technology, lack of data availability and lastly, over dependence on medications by healthcare professionals such as doctors. The issue highlighted in this research is that the doctors are not focusing on promoting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle to prevent chronic conditions in their patients. Instead, their emphasis is only on prescribing medicines as a cure when it is also their duty to spread...
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...| 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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...Risks of Mental Health Drugs for Our Youth Rapa Barsel Prof. Stephen Webber ENG 215048VA016-1142-001 February 15, 2014 Although there is a considerable amount of children with mental health disorders, more research and stricter regulations are necessary to investigate the diagnoses and the overuse of prescribing mental health drugs to our children. In our current age of advanced technology, medicine is also advancing. Although, these advances can detect many illnesses earlier on, they may not be an accurate diagnosis for minors. Thousands of children are prescribed antipsychotic drugs without proper medical assessments. I have a two and half year old son and I would not be willing to put him on any mental health drug unless I was absolutely certain it was necessary. These mental health drugs can cause suicidal thinking and behavior. It can also lead to an altered personality, or lack thereof. These drugs can be harmful to brain and physical development in younger children. According to the U.S. Surgeon General (2000), as many as 1 in 10 American children and adolescents a year have “significant functional impairment” as a result of a mental health disorder. The trends in administering psychotropic medication to young children are on a rise in the U.S. Since psychotropic medications are substances that affect brain chemicals related to mood and behavior (NIMH, 2009). These trends have caused a great deal of debate. All parties without an economic agenda agree...
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...straighten patient’s teeth without metal braces invisibly and effectively. They made invisalign system which operates by obtaining virtual image of patient’s teeth, manipulating these images in prescribed increments, creating positives of these positions and then manufacturing plastic thin negatives of teeth for every stage of treatment which as a result was a clear and removable appliance that straighten patient’s teeth effectively. Operations of this system take place in US, Mexico and Pakistan. Issues These were some factors which effect company sales and demand: * Main issue with Align Inc was that the demand of its product becomes less than its manufacturing capacity so that company was not meeting its financial targets. * In US over 200 million people had malocclusion while less than one percent has treatment from orthodontist which results in less demand of their product. * Many of the customers (Orthodontist, GPD) were not interested in switching from traditional way (Metal braces) toward invisalign system. * The cost of the company was too high then its price which leads toward loss for the company. * Company was just marketing and providing training about its product to orthodontist not to the general practice dentist but many of the case were first go to them and stop there with traditional way because GPD does not know about the invisalign system. * Company also has restricted applicability of its product to adults with mild malocclusion. Analysis ...
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...July 22, 2014 Abstract The purpose of this research paper is to inform the reader about the fraud and abuse of controlled substances being committed by physicians and pharmacies. Academic sources are the main reference point in this paper and they are used to give insight of the various ways that this crime can be committed. In addition, participant-observation research is included from the DEA diversion group who regulates controlled substance fraud. Lastly, this paper explains how this crime affects America and what is being done by the government to manage this problem. White Collar Crime: Abuse of Controlled Substances The abuse of controlled substances is so underrated in our community that a lot of people do not realize how they are being affected by it. I chose to write this topic because I am doing an internship with the Drug Enforcement Administration and I got a first hand look at the magnitude of this problem. This issue is important because we as citizens are all being affected by this issue and most people don’t realize it because it is not in the media as much as street drugs. After reading this paper, the reader will have more insight on what controlled substances are, the type of fraud that is being committed involving controlled substances, and the consequences of committing these fraudulent acts. Literature Review What is A Controlled Substance? Controlled substances are any drug...
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...E P I DE M IC: R E SP ON DI NG T O A M ER ICA’ S PR E S CR I P T ION DRUG A BUSE CR I SI S 2 011 Background Prescription drug abuse is the Nation’s fastest-growing drug problem. While there has been a marked decrease in the use of some illegal drugs like cocaine, data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) show that nearly one-third of people aged 12 and over who used drugs for the first time in 2009 began by using a prescription drug non-medically.1 The same survey found that over 70 percent of people who abused prescription pain relievers got them from friends or relatives, while approximately 5 percent got them from a drug dealer or from the Internet.2 Additionally, the latest Monitoring the Future study—the Nation’s largest survey of drug use among young people—showed that prescription drugs are the second most-abused category of drugs after marijuana.3 In our military, illicit drug use increased from 5 percent to 12 percent among active duty service members over a three-year period from 2005 to 2008, primarily attributed to prescription drug abuse.4 Although a number of classes of prescription drugs are currently being abused, this action plan primarily focuses on the growing and often deadly problem of prescription opioid abuse. The number of prescrip tions filled for opioid pain relievers—some of the most powerful medications available—has increased dramatically in recent years. From 1997 to 2007, the milligram per person use of prescription...
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...Does Mental Illnesses over diagnose? By Eric Galvin Does the Mental Health Community over diagnose patients? In a world where almost everything is solved by taking some sort of pill it’s not at all irrational to question just how many people are taking prescription medications for illnesses they may not even have. The question isn’t whether these illnesses exist as decades of research prove that they do and psychiatry has moved bounds from its neanderthalic behavior early on. Shock treatments and lobotomies were common for everything not quite understood and even slight differences in normal behavior could be classified as some sort of malady. Children with ADD/ADHD were considered mentally deficient but we now know that their minds just function differently than most people and there truly is no difference in their intelligence levels. Depression is the most widely afflicting mental disorder in America. Current statistics show that 16.6 % of the population will develop it at some point in their lifetime. Major Depressive disorder is much different than the typical lows we all experience during stressful times in our lives. It’s a state of depression that lasts for an extended period of time with feelings of emptiness, apathy and lack of appetite. A british phycologist named Gordon Parker carried out a 15 year study of 242 teachers and found that nearly three quarters of them met the current criteria for depression. Obviously the odd that 171 of the teachers...
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...opiates. Terrorists are being funded by many of these drug trafficking operations in America. Another huge issue in The United States is the drug trafficking inside our country. In Florida and Texas, it is epidemic, the pill mills and grow houses are a major concern because they are supplying the entire United States with access to these drugs at a steady rate. As a result, there are many individuals and families that are being affected by addiction, illness, overdose, and death. The United States Government believes they have this under control and are helping to solve the situation, but in reality, drug trafficking in the United States is out of control. “Drug Trafficking is an activity that involves the cultivation, manufacturing, processing, importation and distribution of drugs” (Desroches, 2007). Going down the line of drug trade you have what is similar to an assembly line. You have the manufacturer or grower who grows and makes the actual drug which then is processed and packaged to be smuggled into the country. Eventually, making its way into America’s neighborhoods, by which is called the dealers. This is a process that has no end, because once one batch or shipment of drugs is distributed, there is already another on its way into America, or being made in America. First, let us look at the prescription drug trafficking, which is at an epidemic level and a major concern in America right now. There are illegitimate doctors who are acting as almost legal drug dealers...
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...Telemedicine according to Shi & Singh (2015, p.108) came about “the 1990s, with technological advancement in distant transmission of image data and the recognition that there was inequitable access to medical care in rural America” is sought to levy for federal funding to create telemedicine projects for electronic health visit (e-Visit) that has since then becomes the understanding of telemedicine for health care information and services offered over the internet for electronic medical record (EMR) that enable the online processing of patients information for health services as to the alternative of going to doctor office for patient intake . Therefore, telemedicine is the remote use of telecommunication for a virtual visit. Although telemedicine eliminates face-to-face for physical contact, however , the engineering for telemedicine for consultation include “videotelephony” such as iPhone or iPad and “videoconferencing” such as a laptop or a personal computer with webcam applications and other specialized health devices with “robotic operation” etc. According to the America Telemedicine Association (2013), “telemedicine is the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve a patient’s clinical health status....
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...Those who would be most impacted by having opioids banned are important names such as doctors and healthcare providers. By seeing a decrease in their industry as well as not being paid as much to prescribe and cover medications. According to CNN, “Physicians who prescribed particularly large amounts of the drugs were the most likely to get paid” (Kessler). Physicians who are prescribing the medications to patients are benefiting the most and without the access to drugs, they are not making as much money. They believe that they should have the ability to continue to make scripts for patients who in fact need medication but they are fueling the addiction just by continuously writing scripts to people who may not need the medication. Patients are being seen by doctors who only want to give medications instead of finding other strategies of dealing with pain. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have promoted limits for fewer doses of morphine per day and it has been said, “This year’s proposal, however, goes even further, by reducing the threshold and allowing pharmacists to deny prescriptions that exceed it” (Facher)...
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...1914, when the United States passed its first federal drug policy called The Harrison Narcotics Act. Drugs. This act restricted the manufacture and sale of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and morphine, and specifically targeted physicians and pharmacists who were over prescribing drugs. Drugs use continued to sky rocket well into the 1960’s, with administrations continuing to create stricter drug policies. The 1960’s, known as the “hippie era”, gave birth to rebellious movement that popularized drug use. Not only did marijuana become increasingly popular amounts college teens, but many soldiers returning from the Vietnam War had heroine and marijuana habits. In 1971, when President Nixon officially declared a “War on Drugs.” In this famous speech, Nixon depicted a battle between the United States and drug users in which the United States was greatly loosing. Nixon states “ Drug abusers continue to fill out courts, hospitals, and prisons…the only beneficiaries of this war are organized crime members and drug dealers.” In 1973, Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Agency, specifically created to pressure Mexico to regulate its marijuana growers. In the end, Nixon did succeeds in curtailing the supply of Mexican marijuana in America, although shortly after, Columbia quickly replaced Mexico as Americans marijuana supplier, resulting in increased demand, and 400 million dollars down the drain. This was the United States first lesson in drug economics with several bad choices to follow, but...
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...Interstate Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs - A Priority Issue for Partnership for a Drug Free America Abstract One ongoing priority of the Partnership for a drug free America (PDFA) is supporting Prescription drug Monitoring Programs (PDMP). With adolescent prescription drug abuse on the rise PDFA started a 5- year campaign called the Medicine abuse project to prevent teen prescription drug abuse. A vital tool taking precedence in this project is ensuring that Interstate prescription drug monitoring programs are implemented, utilized, and funded in all 50 states. PDFA points to research from the CDC showing the rise of prescription drug abuse amongst teens ,and their recommendation for using prescription drug monitoring programs to gain control over this epidemic. In supporting PDMPs, The Partnership for a Drug Free America is rallying with the Congressional caucus on prescription drug abuse and their initiatives to support nationally interconnected PDMPs. Recently, PDFA has received a great deal of backlash, and their motives for supporting interstate PDMPs have come into question. Mainly, because of their financial support from Pharma Pharmaceuticals. However, PDFA address all funding questions responding that Pharma provides funding solely for educational grants. The use of Interstate PDMPs comes into controversy with states like Florida, suggesting that utilizing interstate PDMPs violates...
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