Members Suffering from Chronic Pain at Risk for Opioid Addiction, Accidental Overdose Death
JOURNAL: ISSUE 3 - 2016
Chronic pain, according to the National Institute of Health (NIH), impacts nearly one in three Americans. Chronic pain can be so debilitating that many who suffer from it can no longer function or maintain employment. In fact, among those Americans who file for Social Security Disability, chronic pain is a leading factor.
Chronic pain sufferers, including BAC members coping with repetitive motion injuries, weakened or arthritic joints, and workplace injuries, typically seek help from physicians and ask them to prescribe pain medication to treat their symptoms. But, along with pain relief, many are not aware they may be placing themselves at risk for prescription painkiller abuse, addiction and cross-addiction to other drugs, and accidental overdose.
The fact is, both prescription painkillers and street narcotics, such as heroin, belong to the same class of drugs – Opioids.
In the past decade, especially potent painkillers, including OxyContin, have contributed to a nationwide crisis of opioid addiction. Unaware of the highly addictive nature of these medications, many people with no prior history of addiction find themselves easily hooked – and “jonesing” for more. At the start of their addiction, many addicts are unaware that due to a physical phenomenon called, “tolerance,” a person’s body requires higher and higher doses to achieve the same level of pain relief. Addicts soon learn the agonizing reality, however, that with higher doses comes an increased risk for addiction. In the end, addicts no longer receive pain relief nor are they getting high, but instead continue taking opiates simply to prevent painful physical and emotional withdrawal symptoms. Some will resort to “doctor-shopping” by asking multiple doctors for the same prescriptions in order to double or triple the dosage. Others often turn to the streets to purchase painkillers on the black market, or resort to switching from painkillers to readily available heroin.
Since 2000, in United States, the propensity to spiral from painkiller use to abuse to full blown opiate addiction to accidental overdose death has increased five-fold!
In June 2016, for example, the United Nations’ Drugs and Crime Office announced that throughout the United States, heroin addiction and overdose deaths have reached an “alarming 20-year high.” This news follows President Barack Obama’s acknowledgement that, “More Americans now die every year from drug overdoses than die in motor vehicle crashes.” As opiate addiction and accidental overdose deaths skyrocket, medical and addiction treatment professionals, emergency room and primary care physicians, lawmakers and congress continue to grapple with a key question: “What can be done to prevent opiate addiction and accidental overdose deaths?”
Click to enlarge
If you or someone you care about is at risk for or struggling with opiate addiction, call the BAC Member Assistance Program for prompt, professional, confidential assistance and guidance. MAP is generally open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday. You can learn more about opiate addiction, including symptoms of opiate abuse, physical and emotional effects, treatment options and funding and a host of additional information by reading articles under the headline, “Opiate Addiction” on the BAC website at www.bacweb.org.