Abusing Prescription Drugs

Describes the effects of abusing prescription drugs upon the body and mind.

This outstanding resource guide for students and young adults provides an introduction to the history of prescription drug abuse that explains how this problem has arisen and examines the social, political, economic, and health issues associated with prescription drug abuse in modern society. Evidence suggests that both adults and youth are abusing a wider range of prescription drugs and abusing them more frequently than has been the case in the past. Prescription drugs are the second most common class of drugs abused by Americans, more than twice as commonly abused as cocaine, and five times as commonly abused as heroin. This book provides readers with information about the specific health effects that can result from using certain types of medical chemicals, particularly opioid analgesics, stimulants, depressants, and hallucinogenics; explains the most important factors that have led to the growth of prescription drug problems; and reviews the current status of the issue in the United States and other nations. Readers will learn about the dangers associated with the use of prescription drugs for nonmedical purposes, the methods that have been put in place and are being developed to prevent the abuse of prescription drugs, and the trends in prescription drug misuse, with possible explanations for these trends. The book also reviews some of the steps being taken by governments and other organizations and agencies to combat the problem of prescription drug abuse.

Drug overdose, driven largely by overdose related to the use of opioids, is now the leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. The ongoing opioid crisis lies at the intersection of two public health challenges: reducing the burden of suffering from pain and containing the rising toll of the harms that can arise from the use of opioid medications. Chronic pain and opioid use disorder both represent complex human conditions affecting millions of Americans and causing untold disability and loss of function. In the context of the growing opioid problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an Opioids Action Plan in early 2016. As part of this plan, the FDA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to update the state of the science on pain research, care, and education and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the opioid epidemic, with a particular focus on informing FDA's development of a formal method for incorporating individual and societal considerations into its risk-benefit framework for opioid approval and monitoring.

In 1966, Joan Gadsbys four-year-old son died of a brain tumour. In response, her family physician prescribed a 'chemical cocktail' of tranquillisers, sleeping pills and anti-depressants -- an act that initiated Gadsbys slow descent into an abyss of unrecognised addiction. Over the next 20 years, Gadsbys career, her family relationships, her financial security and her health were all threatened. She was on various occasions arrested, restrained, and sedated as a result of the paradoxical side effects of the drugs. It was only after she unintentionally overdosed in 1990 that she found out the insidious effects of the drugs, stopped taking them and went through the 'hell' of withdrawal -- alone. Gadsby has emerged from her addiction to become a health and wellness consultant to corporations, governments, healthcare organisations. She is a tireless advocate for systemic change and accountability of prescribed sedative/hypnotic drugs. She interviewed thousands -- from consumers to doctors to pharmaceutical representatives and government officials as she conducted extensive international research -- in her quest to expose the shocking truth of the depth and breadth of addiction by prescription which affects hundreds of thousands of men and women world-wide who become 'accidental addicts'.

This outstanding resource guide for students and young adults provides an introduction to the history of prescription drug abuse that explains how this problem has arisen and examines the social, political, economic, and health issues associated with prescription drug abuse in modern society. Evidence suggests that both adults and youth are abusing a wider range of prescription drugs and abusing them more frequently than has been the case in the past. Prescription drugs are the second most common class of drugs abused by Americans, more than twice as commonly abused as cocaine, and five times as commonly abused as heroin. This book provides readers with information about the specific health effects that can result from using certain types of medical chemicals, particularly opioid analgesics, stimulants, depressants, and hallucinogenics; explains the most important factors that have led to the growth of prescription drug problems; and reviews the current status of the issue in the United States and other nations. Readers will learn about the dangers associated with the use of prescription drugs for nonmedical purposes, the methods that have been put in place and are being developed to prevent the abuse of prescription drugs, and the trends in prescription drug misuse, with possible explanations for these trends. The book also reviews some of the steps being taken by governments and other organizations and agencies to combat the problem of prescription drug abuse.

Discusses how prescription drugs are abused, how to recognize this problem in parents and friends, and how to seek help.

Sets out clear recommendations, based on the best available evidence, for healthcare staff on how to work with people who misuse drugs (specifically opioids, stimulants and cannabis) to significantly improve their treatment and care.