Introduction
Picture yourself just
sitting down to enjoy your meal. As you are taking your first bite and suddenly
you hear and feel the sound of something cracking in your mouth. So, you jump,
stop chewing, and clinch your mouth with your hand. To your dismay you immediately
spit the partially chewed food onto your plate. As you are looking down at the
food on your plate, what do you see, but part of your tooth setting there. You
get up and go to rinse your mouth out to get a good look at the damage, when it
hits you like hard. You scream in agony as the pain shoot up your face. This is
how it all started, with a toothache. Then came the opioids.
History
Opioids are in a couple of
different classes; some are natural or synthetic chemicals. They interact with
opioid receptors on nerve cells in the body and brain and reduce the intensity
of pain signals and feelings of pain (“Commonly Used Terms” 1). This class of
drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl,
and pain medications available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone,
hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, and many others (1). Opioid pain medications
are generally safe when taken for a short time and as prescribed by a doctor,
but because they produce euphoria in addition to pain relief, they can be
misused (1). Thought-out
history opioid use has been common to treat pain. Opium became available in
America around the late 1700; “They used opioids to treat soldiers in the 1860s
during the Civil War and many soldiers became addicted to them” (“History of
the Opioid Epidemic” 1). By the late 1800’s there was a rise in opioid
addiction due to over the counters availability (1). Bayer brands sold heroin
as a cough suppressant and pain reliefer (1). Early 1900’s morphine was
interduces as a pain reliever (1). Americans began to crushing opioids and
snorting them for pleasure (1). By 1914,
the Harrison Narcotics Act regulated opioids to limit their recreational usage
(1). In the 1970s, the stigma of addiction led doctors to avoid prescribing
opioids and instead opting for surgical operations to block nerves from
receiving pain signals (1). By 1976 Percocet and Vicodin were approved by the
Federal Drug Administration (1). Although in the 1980s and 1990s, opioids began
to be used again to relieve pain from chronic disease (1).
Social effects
In the early 2000s,
opioid use increased dramatically. Morphine and hydromorphone both increased
over 50% and fentanyl were over 200% and oxycodone were increased by over 400%.
Around the mid-2000s, teens started using opioids found in their parent’s medicine
cabinets (1). In 2016, over 200,000 kids between the ages of 12 to 17 used pain
relievers (including opioids) for non-medical reasons, and over 100,000 were
addicted to prescription drugs. It is only getting worse with teens. Teenage
opioid addiction rates increased by 19 percent between 2014 and 2015. When asked,
12th-grade students identified the ease of availability of Heroin as a factor
in their use (“The Problem of Teenage Opioid Addiction”1).
Examples
What seems so long ago, still has many side effects on our
family today. It all started about eight years ago. My husband always had bad
teeth. One morning after breakfast a tooth broke and he was in severe pain.
That’s how it all began. My husband was
working a great job, he was the general manger of a sales store and I was hired
to work as administration. The only down side to his promotion was he
was never home. He worked hard and many hours. Little did our family know, we
were losing my husband to an opioid drug addiction. He needed those
opioids to keep himself going he
would say. Everything fell apart. Within
a few years our family lost everything, jobs, house, cars, and even the ability
to feed my kids. My husband went from being head of the house hold to be a
burden to the family. We lost a father, a husband, and a
great over all hard worker to this
addiction. He chose to go to rehab. In rehab it really helped. What we thought
was a fix to his addiction, was only a band-aid. The doctors at the time told
us how great this new drug that came out was helping people with opioid
addiction. So, we thought great he will be fixed. We were wrong. This drug is
now his new addiction and must work and deal with this every day.
Solutions
To handle the opioid crisis in the United States, the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services began focusing its efforts on a couple of areas
(National Institute on Drug Abuse 1). Some of these are improving access to
treatment and recovery services, providing support for cutting-edge research on
pain and addiction, and advancing better practices for pain management (1). The
National Institutes of Health, a component of HHS, is the nation's leading
medical research agency helping solve the opioid crisis by discovering new and
better ways to prevent opioid misuse, treat opioid use disorders, and manage pain
(1).
In the summer of 2017, NIH met with
pharmaceutical companies and academic research centers to discuss different
ways to tackle the epidemic. Here are a few ideas they came up with, a
non-addictive strategy to manage chronic pain, and new innovative medications
and technologies to treat opioid use disorders; “In 2018, at the National Rx
Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit, NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.,
announced the launch of the HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term)
Initiative, an aggressive, trans-agency effort to speed scientific solutions to
stem the national opioid public health crisis” (National Institute on Drug
Abuse 1).
HEAL explored into therapeutic
options for opioid addiction (“HEAL Initiative Research Plan” 1). Some of the
treatment options for opioid addiction are needed to promote long-term recovery
in more patients (1). Methadone,
buprenorphine, and naltrexone are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) to treat opioid addiction (1). Another popular brand of
drug on the market for recovered patients is suboxone.
Suboxone is the brand name for a prescription medication
used in treating those addicted to opioids (“Suboxone” 1). It contains the
ingredients buprenorphine and naloxone (1). Buprenorphine, a partial opioid
agonist, blocks the opiate receptors and reduces a person’s urges (1). The
second ingredient, naloxone, helps reverse the effects of opioids (1).
Together, these drugs work to prevent withdrawal symptoms connected to an
opioid addiction; “Suboxone has become the preferred treatment medication for
opioid addiction. It is now used more than methadone, which can be
habit-forming.” (“Suboxone”1). The suboxone works by attaching to the receptors
and partially blocks the effects of other opioids ("Suboxone Detox
Program” 1). It is as if Suboxone takes up the opioid parking spaces in the
brain, making it difficult for opioids to park there (1). With daily
maintenance doses, Suboxone continues to keep the brain’s opioid receptors
unavailable (1). Even if the patient uses another opioid, the effects of that
opioid will be significantly be reduced (1).
Many people today in the area, including my husband, are on
the suboxone treatment plan for opioid addiction. Our family has dealt with
this recovery plan for over five years now. We understood it to be a long-term treatment
plan but never knew it could also take the place of another addiction. On the
website “Starting Point; Doesn’t Suboxone Just Replace One Drug for Another?”,
it explains that there are pros and cons.
Suboxone is a drug and the use of it to help free the body of the need
for opioid drugs such as prescription painkillers or heroin (“Suboxone Detox
Program” 1). Though, because Suboxone is a partial opioid agonist, its unique
features allow people to reduce or avoid withdrawal and cravings while at the
same time largely blocking the effects of other opioids (1). Studies have shown
that people taking Suboxone tend to better their chances of achievement with
non-drug therapies. Suboxone patients usually are better able to focus on their
counseling and recovery because they are not sidetracked by cravings and
withdrawal symptoms (1). Handling the physical symptoms of the disease can
allow people to gain control over their dependence (1).
Absurd
As a family we have seen whether
this drug treatment has worked for my husband. We have watched my husband go
from one addiction to another one. It has worked to keep him from opioids, but
now he can’t live without the suboxone. It has now become an addiction. When we
did not have medical insurance, the cost was over $1500.00 for one month’s
dose. There were times we had to choose whether to pay our rent or pay for the
suboxone. We lost many things and have had to move due because we couldn’t pay
the rent just to keep my husband from have withdrawals. Many people today call
suboxone a wonder drug. Many of the doctors that we have seen only see my
husband for just a few minutes and do not require their patients to seek
theory. These doctors also do not take insurance and are cash only. This can be so costly for a family trying to
take care of an addict. From websites to
paper pamphlets, suboxones seems to be a go- to for opioid addiction. The
problem is the site will not inform people that they could become addicted to
it or without insurance it is very costly. Due to the cost being so high and
patients becoming addicted to suboxone, a black market for it has been seen in
the past few years on the rise. There must be a batter way of treating opioid
addiction because suboxone has only takin the place of opioids. One way is the
government needs more regulations on this drug. Therapy needs to be more
available for opioid addicted patents. There is an underline start for that
addicting behavior and it should be more focused on. Going from taking one
addiction and replacing it with another is not treating it, just coving it up
and pharmacies companies are profiting from it.
For some their purpose for living or what
motives them every day is now gone. The addiction is so powerful that it takes
everything from the person like family, work, pride, faith, and even their
health. All of this is no longer important to the person. In most part, some of these people are living
in cycles. Just as Camus states “Work-eat-love-sleep daily existence”. This is
how some people with addiction see life as cycles, work more, to make more
money, to buy more drugs, to be able to work more. It's so absurd to see
someone live their life just for a drug, instead of things they love. To sit
back and choose this drug above all the things; is just madness and
meaningless. Our family watched my husband live this cycle.
Conclusion
Dealing with this opioid epidemic in my family
for so many years and still dealing with it today has changed our family so
much. Throughout the years this epidemic has been on the rise. So many lives
have either been changed and even lost. When a person becomes addicted to
opioids, the addiction doesn’t just affect the addict but the people around
them also. It's very hard to watch your love one chooses this addiction over you,
your children, work, and even a roof over their head. To think we have lost so much over a bad
tooth. There are solutions to this opioid epidemic, but it will take everyone
to help.
Work cited
“Commonly Used Terms.” Center of Dieses
Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html
"HEAL
Initiative Research Plan." National Institutes of Health (NIH), 18 Apr.
2019, www.nih.gov/research-training/medical-research-initiatives/heal-initiative/heal-initiative-research-plan.
“History of the
Opioid Epidemic”. Foundations Recovery Network. https://www.dualdiagnosis.org/infographics/history-of-the-opioid-epidemic/
National
Institute on Drug Abuse. "Opioid Overdose Crisis." National Institute
on Drug Abuse (NIDA) |, 22 Jan. 2019, www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis.
"Suboxone
Detox Program." Starting Point Behavioral Healthcare | Starting Point
Behavioral Healthcare, www.spbh.org/services/suboxone-detox-program/.
"Suboxone."
AddictionCenter, www.addictioncenter.com/treatment/medications/suboxone/.
"Teenage
Opioid Addiction." RehabSpot,
www.rehabspot.com/opioids/who-addiction-affects/teenage-opioid-addiction/
“Understand the
Epidemic.” Center of Dieses Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html
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