When you or a loved one is sick, your initial instinct is to contact and consult with your primary physician in hopes of receiving the proper treatment and guidance you need in order to overcome the aliment or illness you are facing. When we find ourselves in these times of sickness and in need of professional health care, we put our trust and well-being in the hands of our physician with full trust and believe they are doing what is best for us and our families. Although this scenario is true in most cases, unfortunately there are instances in which a physician’s course of treatment may lead to an even more serious, life threatening illness.
Over the course of the last few decades, we have seen the unfolding truth of medical malpractice of physician’s abuse of prescription drugs causing trusting patients to develop unintentional and even avoidable addictions. Although this is not the case for all, many innocent individuals can attest to the fact that their current drug addiction and dependence stems from a physician prescribed drug which only caused them more harm than good. Throughout the course of this research paper, I would like to delve into the often overlooked issue of prescription drug addiction and how many addicts developed their addictions through physician prescribed drugs.
When we think of the term “addiction” or “addict,” we tend to envision an individual who has chosen a path of self-destruction and self-inflicted illness. More often than not, we tend to stigmatize addiction as a chosen action rather than examining the causes and underlying issues that may have lead the user to such a lifestyle. What many individuals fail to realize is that addiction has no one face or personality. Addiction does not discriminate against race, gender, or social class.
The pain and destruction of addiction is faced by individuals from all walks of life who have unfortunately found themselves within the grasp of an awful disease and a path of self-destruction. While many may argue that addiction is due in part to the choices an individual has made, the hidden truth for many lies within their medicine cabinet at home disguised as a well-intended aid to a happier, healthier life. Sadly many individuals have found themselves physically, mentally, and even emotionally dependent upon addictive medications prescribed by their physicians.
When a physician prescribes their patient a powerful medication such as a pain killer or an antidepressant, their initial thought is certainly not to create an addict out of their patient. Most physicians innocently prescribe these medications to their patients to treat a genuine medical condition. Unfortunately for many other patients, however, physicians simply prescribe certain medications because they reap the benefits of doing so. Lost in the mix of the reasons why these drugs are prescribed are the potentially harmful consequences of taking those drugs.
Many physicians do not properly educate their patients on the harmful side effects of taking a particular drug and how a chemical dependence may occur in some cases. Given the accessibility to medical history and pharmaceutical records, physicians may now have the ability to reduce the likelihood of giving a potential, current, or recovering addict the accessibility to a new source of supply.
The pharmaceutical industry is one of, if not the most powerful industries in our country and has gained notoriety as a legal drug-dealing system that has manipulated the economic market and has created one of the worst drug crises in American history. Dating back to the late 1990’s when pharmaceutical companies had begun to market prescription opiates as safe, non-addictive pain relievers, medical professionals and prescribing physicians began prescribing these highly addictive medications to treat their patients.
During this time, advertisements for these drugs had become so widespread that patients would even ask for a particular drug by name and request a prescription. Believing any major threat of these drugs to be nonexistent, physicians complied and began prescribing these medications in record numbers. Due to the lack of knowledge of it’s highly addictive chemical makeup, physicians kept prescribing, patients and users alike were abusing and becoming increasingly addicted, and many cases of overdose deaths went unreported due to the high profile heroin and cocaine epidemic of the time period. It was not until 2010 that prescription opiates were found responsible for the climbing overdose death toll.
During this year period, 16,651 people died from drug overdoses, only a fraction of those being the cause of illicit street drugs. It was also within this time period that opioid overdoses outnumbered heroin, cocaine, and automobile accident deaths combined. (Scholl et al, 2018)
From 1999 to 2015, Pharmaceutical drugs were responsible for approximately 568,699 deaths in the United States. Most recently reported in 2016, opioid related overdoses accounted for 66.4% (42,249) of those deaths, with various increases amongst age groups, racial and ethnic groups, urbanization levels, and throughout multiple states. (Scholl et al, 2018) As overdose death rates continue to climb and the presence of opioid drugs are involved in an increasing number of those deaths, pharmaceutical companies and physicians have come under fire for creating and encouraging this tragic epidemic.
In recent years, more overdose deaths have been caused by accessible prescription opiates than illicit street drugs and other substances combined. The most commonly abused prescription drugs are opiates, stimulants and depressants. Although these prescriptions are given for legitimate patient treatment, such as pain management post surgery or to help with the debilitating side-effects of mental and behavioral disorders, these medications are often abused for their desirable side-effects. Opiates such as Vicodin or Oxycontin are pain killers whose side effects create a relaxing, numb-inducing “high.” This release of dopamine within the brain creates such a desirable sensation that it leaves the user wanting to repeat the experience.
It is this never ending cycle that fuels the opioid epidemic and further develops from bad to worse. It has been reported that nearly 80% of heroin users first began misusing prescription drugs before turning to this cheaper and unfortunately more accessible option. Many users turn to heroin use once their prescription drug habit has progressed beyond accessibility and affordability. Prescription opiates and heroin are chemically similar and create a similar high. Heroin is a cheaper and more easily obtained option for users and is why the heroin epidemic continues to progress at such an alarming rate. (NIDA, 2018)
Of all the prescription available opiate drugs, fentanyl is the most powerful and has quite possibly the highest risk of addiction. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid analgesic that is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent. (NIH, 2018) Similar to the previously discussed prescription opiates, its intended medical use is to aid in pain management after major surgery or to help treat patients who suffer from numerous forms of chronic pain. Typically prescribed in the form of transdermal patches, it can also be administered intravenously.
Although fentanyl is prescribed for a well-intended purpose, it is one of the most commonly abused prescription drugs on the market and has even infiltrated the illegal non-pharmaceutical drug market, often times being mixed with substances such as heroin or cocaine. When taken in large doses or combined with other substances, Fentanyl can be extremely harmful and even deathly. In fact, fentanyl has been a major cause of the rising number of drug overdoses we have seen in recent years. In Pennsylvania alone, fentanyl was the main cause of sixty-seven percent of the states overdose related deaths in 2017. Since 2015, overdose death rates have continued to rise at an alarming rate, with Philadelphia being amongst the nation’s worst cities facing a severe opioid crisis. (Whelan, 2018)
Although big pharma has contributed negatively to the opioid crisis our country is facing, thankfully a pharmaceutical drug has been developed to help reverse the effects of an overdose and can help save those lives jeopardized by these drugs.
