One of the dangers of opioids starts when patients unknowingly get a prescription for them. It looks like an innocent little pill that can relieve them from the most common bodily pains. With the rise of prescription medications today, many are getting hook on these drugs either by choice or not. Opiate addiction belongs to a group of addictive drugs very difficult to treat.

 

In a data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, more than 20% of the younger population ages 12 years older have taken medications recreationally at least once during their lifetime.  Taking prescription opioids without a valid medical reason remains as a public health problem in the US. It’s a serious medical concern that needs immediate action to stop it from spreading even more. Over the past 20 years, drug overdose tripled causing thousands of lives lost due to using these dangerous drugs.

 

 

Stopping Addiction

 

The medical community never let their guard down when it comes to finding ways to treat addiction. For them, prevention remains their top priority in putting a lid on drug addiction. Here is one of their many examples of how they plan to treat the disease.

 

“One of the nation’s most prominent health topics has again come into focus with a recent upsurge of high-profile overdose cases. Physicians at Loma Linda University Behavioral Medicine Center say they hope this can serve as a wake-up call for others who may need help.

 

Opioids can negatively affect heart rate, sleeping and breathing, while also holding the potential to be highly addictive, says psychiatrist Katia Stoletniy, MD. Stoletniy said she hopes healthcare providers can learn more about addiction and slow the opioid crisis even further.

 

Improving addiction treatment

 

There are more than 2,000 opioid-related overdose deaths in California each year, according to the most recent data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Most people taking opioids don’t know they are at risk of addiction. It may take as few as 4-5 days of taking an opioid to create dependence,” Stoletniy says.

 

Misuse of prescription opioids has been a serious public health problem in the United States. According to results from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, more than 20 percent of the population ages 12 and older have used medications for non-medical reasons at least once in their lifetime. The survey also showed that deaths due to overdose on opioid pain relievers have more than tripled in the past 20 years.”

 

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