Prescription drug abuse painkillers

Business Wire. Ten Things You and Your Family Should Know about the Dangers of Prescription Painkillers, According to the Waismann Foundation. Available online. URL http //www.opiates.com/media/ prescription-painkiller-dangers.html. Posted September 7, 2004. This document aims to help parents become aware of the risks of this major source of prescription drug abuse. It encourages parents to talk with children about the risks and to look for signs of abuse. 

Misuse of prescription drugs, including painkillers, is common among elderly people. However, unlike with younger people, when elderly people misuse or abuse prescriptions it is more likely to be accidental or unintentional. Since the body s ability to metabolize, or break down, many medications decreases with age, elderly people usually are prescribed lower doses of potent drugs than younger persons are. 

Prescription drug abuse has infiltrated current teen culture. PATS data revealed that 37 percent of teens say they have close friends who have abused prescription painkillers like Vicodin and OxyContin. Some 29 percent say the same about prescription stimulants Ritalin and Adderall . Average teens demonstrate a remarkable sophistication and knowledge when it comes to prescription (Rx) medications, which must be subscribed and supervised by a doctor, over-the-counter (OTC) medications, which are available for general purchase and use, and all other drugs. Teens are familiar with brand names of a wide variety of medications and can accurately describe their effects. 

The most commonly abused prescription drugs are opioids and opiates such as oxycodone and morphine, central nervous system depressants such as barbiturates and benzodiazepines, and stimulants such as dextroamphetamine and methylphenidate. Brand-name painkillers such as Vicodin and OxyContin, depressants such as Valium and Xanax, and stimulants such as Ritalin and Dexedrine are commonly abused (as are some OTC cough remedies). Although helpful and safe when used appropriately, these drugs can cause serious harm when taken in unapproved ways. 

Adult abuse of prescription drugs occurs as well. Of the estimated 4.7 million who used painkillers, tranquilizers, sedatives, and stimulants for nonmedical purposes in 2002, 56 percent were ages 18 and over.71 Many young adults use the drugs for recreation, but others aim to treat themselves medically with prescription drugs. According to the New York Times,... 

Roche, Timothy. The Potent Perils of a Miracle Drug. Time, vol. 157, January 8, 2001, p. 47. Describes the emergence of OxyContin, the opiate painkiller that is becoming one of the most widely abused prescription drugs. The time-release capsules are broken open and the drug can then be snorted or injected, producing an effect not unlike heroin. Federal au-... 

The number of Americans abusing prescription drugs doubled from 7.8 million in 1992 to 15.1 million in 2003. The painkiller hydrocodone was used by 7.4% of college students in the United States in 2005. It is a semisynthetic opioid derived from two of naturally occurring opiates, codeine and thebaine. Production of this drug has increased in recent years. In Scandinavia, flunitrazapam, a sedative, is sold as Rohypnol, and it is widely known as a date-rape drug. ... 

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For many centuries morphine and codeine, alkaloids found in the oriental poppy plant, have been used as effective painkillers. Codeine, which is structurally similar to morphine, is used in some prescription painkillers and cough syrups. Heroin, obtained by a chemical modification of morphine, is strongly addicting and is not used medically. The structure of the prescription drug OxyContin (oxycodone) used to relieve severe pain is similar to heroin. Today, there are an increasing number of deaths from OxyContin abuse because its physiological effects are also similar to those of heroin. 

Michael Jackson, one of the world s most popular singers and performers, who died in 2009 from misuse of a powerful anesthetic to help him sleep. Jackson had a history of abuse of prescription painkillers, caused initially by injuries sustained during a rehearsal accident that set his hair on fire. The inappropriate use of propofol, the drug that killed him, has led authorities to charge Jackson s personal physician with manslaughter. 

Another group that is potentially at increased risk for abuse of painkillers is doctors, nurses, pharmacists, anesthesiologists, dentists, veterinarians, and others who work in health care. It may be easier for people working in environments where drugs are kept or dispensed to either steal pills or forge prescriptions for themselves or others. 

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