In the early 2000s, there wasn’t much care about the increase of prescriptions of opioids by physicians combined with increased pain management claims. The intentions of the prescriptions were good, but they played a major role in the menacing opioid crisis in the United States that continues today.
There has been a national crisis of opioid abuse in our country. Opioids are prescribed painkillers, synthetic opioids, and illegal drugs such as Codeine, Heroin, Hydrocodone, Hydromorphone, Methadone, Morphine, and Oxycodone. Some of these are prescribed daily for acute and chronic pain. Many people who are prescribed painkillers abuse them. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH):
- Roughly 21 to 29 percent of patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain misuse them.
- Between 8 and 12 percent develop an opioid use disorder.
- An estimated 4 to 6 percent who misuse prescription opioids transition to heroin.
- About 80 percent of people who use heroin first misused prescription opioids.
- Opioid overdoses increased 30 percent from July 2016 through September 2017 in 52 areas in 45 states.
Everyone knew, for many years, what the usual opioid drugs were – heroin and commonly prescribed painkillers, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, and morphine. Because of the opioid crisis, drug manufacturers started introducing new kinds of opioids that wouldn’t cause addiction.
The New Deadly Drugs On The Block
The opioid overdose deaths today are being increasingly driven by the presence of potentially dangerous synthetic opioids, including fentanyl and closely related fentanyl-derived drugs, such as carfentanil — sometimes diverted from legal sources but also cheaply manufactured in illicit laboratories for inclusion in the nation’s supply of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and counterfeit pharmaceuticals.
We aren’t there yet, but even when fentanyl and those others are gone, there will always be something else to take its place. It has been reported that forensic analysts have identified a new and highly potent family of synthetic opioids. They are called protonitazene and isotonitazene. Experts estimate that each is at least several times more powerful than fentanyl. This synthetic opioid has displaced heroin in many parts of the United States and is now responsible for most of the country’s drug overdoses.
What’s Being Done About It?
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH), in response to the opioid crisis, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is focusing its efforts on five major priorities:
- improving access to treatment and recovery services
- promoting the use of overdose-reversing drugs
- strengthening our understanding of the epidemic through better public health surveillance
- providing support for cutting-edge research on pain and addiction
- advancing better practices for pain management
Find Addiction Help From Opioids At Aria Fl
Suppose you or a loved one goes through an opioid addiction and is ready to stop. In that case, the Addiction Recovery Institute of America can get you in the right direction with our Medication-Assisted Addiction Treatment (MAT). Medication-Assisted Treatment is an addiction intervention approach that involves the use of medication along with behavioral counseling. This treatment option has seen high success rates even with addicts with a chronic drug and alcohol abuse history.
The main goal of MAT is to help the individual sustain recovery. The recommended medication works to stabilize the brain’s chemistry, shut off the euphoric effects of opioids and alcohol, ease physiological cravings and stabilize body functions without the adverse side effects of the abused substance. Get help today!