Millions of people overdose on opioids each year accidentally and non accidentally. Opioid overdose has become a widespread epidemic, claiming lives and putting governments on alert. Doctors who treat pain are finding themselves at dds regarding pain treatment.
Many doctors argue that the plight of some, being those who become addicted to opioids, shouldn’t compromise the ability of most, those who don’t become addicted, in their chance at being treated for pain. In contrast, other doctors feel that opioid use for pain management is completely unnecessary.
Risk Of Opioid Use
Opioids were never meant to be the long term treatment solutions. However, through the handy work of sales representatives and doctors who believed in the treatment, opioids became the treatment of choice for any kind of pain. Originally, opioids were meant only to be used for treating chronic pain. Today, emergency room doctors and urgent care doctors can prescribe opioid narcotics for the slightest of injuries and most moderate of migraines. Three main risks come from opioid use:
- Dependency
- Addiction
- Hyperalgesia
Dependency can occur without any abuse of an opioid drug. With regular use of an opioid, like Oxycontin, for example, at the prescribed dosage and timing of the dose, dependency can still occur.
Should a single dose be skipped, there will be slight to severe symptoms of withdrawal. Of course, this often causes panic, encouraging someone to take more medication- either earlier than their next dose or more than their prescription at their next dose.
Increasing the amount of drug being used is typically a precursor to addiction. Opioids pose a particular threat in this area. Oxycontin was exposed for not lasting the famously advertised twelve hour dose it was supposed to. As doctors prescribed higher doses, people still found that the pain did not last twelve hours.
Desperate for pain relief, they started taking more. Hyperalgesia is what happens when someone takes a opioid painkiller but is no longer affected by the drug. Regardless of substance abuse, many found that their pain killers were no longer killing any pain.
They turned to more and more pills at higher and higher doses to try and solve the problem, unknowing that the problem was inherent in their solution.
Lakehouse Recovery Center provide a peaceful and freeing facility tofr helping people recover from their addiction to opioids, painkillers, and prescription drugs. For information on our medically assisted detox and residential treatment programs, call us today at 877.762.3707.