Opioid Anagesia In Hospitalised Patients

Recent reforms can curb the opioid epidemic. Yes, health care professionals have realized the complex problem and they now understand the problem and what needs to be done. According to CQ Researcher, “Experts see some progress in the fight against opioid painkiller abuse. After peaking in 2012, the number of prescriptions written for opioids declined 12 percent between 2013 and 2015, according to IMS Health, a market research company. Symphony Health Solutions, a data company that studies the pharmaceutical industry, found an 18 percent drop in that period.”

To introduce this topic, I will talk about what opioids are, why the opioid ban is an issue for those who use them, and the effectiveness of the governments’ and doctors ‘recommended alternatives. Opioids are drugs prescribed to people who are in a lot of pain, opioids tend to have a morphine like effect on their consumers, and it helps them rid of all their terrible pain that other prescription medicines are not strong enough to do. When the opioid ban is taken into serious effect many people who take opioids will have their prescription taken away from them. When their pain medicine(opioids)

Communicating with other medical staff members is very important, but recognizing pain in a patient is of more importance. Early identification of pain in a post-surgical patient is important in overall pain management. Some patients prefer not to take pain medication because they fear addiction or may have a history of substance abuse. Educating the patients on their right to be free of pain and having their pain managed aggressively is a priority in the recovery phase.

         Hospitals have prescribed opioids more than doctors do. According to the Baltimore Sun, "Only 20% of doctors have shown to only provide opioids.  However, hospitals have changed the approach to pain management but still haven 't made a change. More hospitals still provide opioids to patients with the dependence on the drug.

For over a decade, acute and chronic back pain has been treated with opioid analgesics also known as opiates or narcotics (such as Percocet or Oxycontin), and nonopioid analgesic, including NSAID’s (such as Naproxen and Ibuprofen). On average, 182,727,272 opioid analgesic prescriptions are dispensed annually (Dal Pan, 2016). Unfortunately, each of which is accompanied by potentially serious adverse effects. Opioids serious side effects including respiratory depression, drowsiness, nausea, constipation, addiction, and ultimately death. Although constipation does not sound like a serious side effect, it does pose the potential for serious consequences. Because of the depressed peristalsis of the gastrointestinal tract or ileus the patient can develop constipation or

Underlying Causes: The increase in the sale of opioids is considered to be the root of the opioid crisis, as the drugs have been proven to be highly addictive. An addiction to prescriptive opioids, however, can lead to an addiction to synthetic, illegal opioids, such as heroine or fentanyl, which are less expensive and easier to acquire. In fact, in their journal article, “Associations of nonmedical pain reliever use and initiation of heroin use in the United States” Pradip Muhuri and associates discovered that “the recent (12 months preceding interview) heroin incidence rate was 19 times higher among those who reported prior nonmedical prescription pain reliever (NMPR) use than among those who did not (0.39 vs. 0.02 percent)” (Muhuri et. al). In other words, abusing prescription opioids significantly raises the chances of abusing illicit drugs, such as heroin. Thus, the increased prescription of addictive opiates has also helped cause the increase in addiction to illegal

Prescription drugs pose many health risks including both short term and long term side effects. Every prescription information sheet from any local pharmacy lists a plethora of warnings, cautions, and possible side effects. In many cases, the patient is forced to wonder if the prescription drug will help their illness, or cause further medical issues. Side effects that are considered “mild” are still troubling. Side effects such as drowsiness, sleeplessness, muscle pain, dizziness, nausea and bouts of depression may not appear to be harmful but can cause serious consequences. Dizziness, for example, can cause falls and broken bones, especially in elderly patients who are already unsteady on their feet. Even a side effect such as muscle aches can affect one’s ability to work. In addition to common side effects, many drugs can cause dangerous side effects. These risks include heart attack, stroke, cancer, and suicide. Patricia Barry, a healthcare columnist, points out that medications can lead to completely separate health problems. Barry insists that when patients consult with their doctors about the side effect, they are only treated with yet another drug; this is known as a drug “cascade.” She goes on to claim that tens of millions of people suffer each day due to the side effects of drugs. Also, she acknowledges that adverse side effects cause for 4.5 million emergency room and doctor’s office visits per year. Moreover, Barry acknowledges that serious drug reactions are the fourth leading cause of hospital deaths, only topped by stroke, cancer, and heart disease. The facts Barry offers are notable because of the cyclical effect drug use imposes on patients: a patient takes drugs, the patient has side effects which land him or her in the emergency room or hospital, the patient is prescribed new or “better” drugs, the patient continues to have side

I think that doctors should give patients more information when prescribing opioids to patients. Many people that just had a painful surgery take opioids to stop their pain and then shortly get addicted after from taking the pills, I believe people would not get as tempted, and feel like it is ok to take opioids, if they knew they were highly addictive. Allen, a recovering addict, had to research her symptom to find out why she was having this temptation to take these pain killing pills when she was not even in pain. Allen’s doctor never told her about the danger of these “painkillers” but once Allen found out, she was concerned about herself, and knew she was addicted and in

Sam Quinones’ Dreamland is a commentary about the opioid problem in America. Quinones draws attention to how in the twentieth century opioids were seen as addictive: “[D]octers treating the terminally ill faced attitudes that seemed medieval when it came to opiates” (184). In the 1970s, Purdue Pharma stated that opioids such as morphine were not addictive substances. After this study was released, many doctors began to view opioids as a viable option for pain relief. Throughout the rest of the book, Quinones explains the shift from doctors never prescribing opiates to prescription opiates being used to treat any sort of pain: chronic back pain, arthritis, severe headaches, etc. Pain became the “fifth vital sign” and with everyone wanting to

Morphine, heroin, oxycodone, and fentanyl are used for many different medical uses until companies started to combine these four ingredients into one small simple pill. The pill reduces chronic pain from a body in a matter of minutes taking a minimum dosage. The company that produces Opioids have discovered that for the most part opioids are healthier and safer than any other medications. Like other medications, opioids can also have its side effects too such as; sedation restlessness, respiratory depression, nausea, vomiting, constipation and much more. Due to the ingredients and the wrong

A percentage of the population doesn’t consider prescription drugs very dangerous because they are prescribed by doctors. Unfortunately, that's true and it is very concerning to other people who are aware of the problem. We as a community must help each other and inform each other about the effects prescription drugs have. These types of drugs develop addicts which can be treated effectively depending the type of drug they took. There are two main treatments behavioral treatment and medications. Behavioral treatment helps addicts change unhealthy ways of thinking, counseling and sometimes psychotherapy. Medication treatment might sound wrong, why give them other prescribed drugs?. The addict suffers withdrawals symptoms and to help them stop using opioids, we supply them with other none dangerous drugs which close to the same effect. Treatment is possible, we just gotta reduce the epidemic among our young

According to the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) (Merskey et al., 2004), pain is defined as the unpleasant sensory and emotional experience due to the actual or potential tissue damage. According to McCaffrey and Beebe, pain is whatever person describes to be experiencing at the moment. Hence, when the pain exceeds tissue damage, the nervous system is triggered to respond. The postoperative pain is supposed to subside after the first week of the surgery. Minimal activities such as coughing and walking can be painful at that time, as the wound is healing, due to which the patient’s mobility can be limited. In order to minimize the pain, the patients are administered opioids and analgesics, which are accompanied with general side effects such as nausea, sedation, respiratory recession etc. (Brennan, 2011). Pain management requires more than simple treatment of the tissue injury. The management strategy for pain costs and burdens the postoperative care, as there is a lack of knowledge and resources for treating pain (Harsoor, 2011). It has known to be associated with poor wound healing and demoralization of the patient, leading to slow recovery and increased care costs (Woldehaimanot, Eshetie, & Kerie, 2014). There are several guidelines that can suggest management of acute postoperative pain; such as education of the healthcare staff, effective planning techniques, medicinal management and conservative strategies, methods to improve organisation, and improvement of discharge protocols which will decrease the incidence of mismanagement or diagnosis errors (Chou et al., 2016). Understanding the mechanism of acute pain in postoperative care, and the development of new analgesic treatments can also effectively improve the correct management of the pain (Wu, & Raja, 2011). The mismanagement of the pain can cause

Opioids include legal prescription drug like morphine, oxycodone and also includes illegal street drugs like heroin. Opioid are generally safe when taken for a short amount of time and is prescribed by a doctor, it becomes a problem when they are misused. They can be misused when they are taken a different way or in a larger quantity than prescribed. Opioid pain relievers can lead to overdose incidents and deaths. Opioid addiction is becoming a widespread problem not only in Michigan especially in the Detroit area, but all over the United States. The different papers that could be address are how the misuse of opioids can affect professional careers such as police officers or doctors, how it is affecting families, why there has been an increase in the misuse of

Opioids are substances that act on opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects. Medically they are primarily used for pain relief, including anesthesia. Opioids are also frequently used non-medically for their euphoric effects or to prevent withdrawal symptoms. Examples of opioids are morphine, heroin, oxycodone, and methadone. Opioid overdose is an acute and serious condition due to excessive opioids use. Dependence on prescription opioids can stem from treatment of chronic pain and in recent years is the cause of the increased number of opioid overdoses. Opioids are very addictive substances, having serious life threatening consequences in case of intentional or accidental overdose. The euphoria attracts recreational use, and frequent,

Across the world abusing prescription drugs causes more deaths than street drugs do combined (“International Statistics”). Prescription drugs are so easy to get ahold of and so easy to get addicted to. The misuse of prescription drugs have gotten out of hand. These drugs can cause unintentional overdoses easily. The misuse of prescription drugs can lead to addiction, affect the health of users in a dramatic way, and even cause death.