LenoraSammons12
De Wikis en Educación
Pharmaceutical drug abuse is not just on the rise-- it has become a national crisis, based on a just-released White House study revealing a 400 percent increase in drug abuse rehabilitation admissions for prescription painkiller between 1998 and 2008.
The information underscores the need for regulation amongst a culture that has become progressively reliant on ever-more-powerful and addictive doctor prescribed medicines, say experts.
The non-medical use of prescription painkiller is currently the second-most rampant form of illicit drug use in America "and its destructive effects are seen in substance abuse rehabilitation facilities and hospital emergency units throughout our the U.S.," says Pamela Hyde, supervisor of The Narcotics abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in a statement.
The studies are being released to showcase a dilemma that has become all too familiar through the noteworthy deaths of such personalities as Michael Jackson and Anna Nicole Smith. However the problem impacts all ages and socioeconomic levels, says Dr. Scott Glaser, president of Pain Specialists of Greater Chicago.
From '94 to '03, the amount of doctor's prescriptions for narcotic drugs went up from 24 million to 354 million every year, says Dr. Glazer. The number of admissions for abuse of prescription pain relievers to hospital emergency rooms climbed from some 40,000 in 1994 to over 350,000 in 2008, he includes.
"There has been a strong push among doctors in recent years to become more assertory in concentrating on pain," he mentions. "This has caused the dramatic rise in narcotics like morphine, but the problem is there hasn't been a lot of research to go along with that."
The abuse of these strong drugs is an indicator of a even more far-reaching societal problem, says addiction specialist Clare Kavin of The Waismann Method, a biophysical rehabilitation facility for narcotic addiction, which has cared for many star addicts.
"We are in a acculturation of immediate gratification and nobody will stomach even the tiniest discomfort anymore," she says. This needful attitude leads many patients to require stronger pain relievers when lower strength-- but non-addictive-- medicines would have been enough previously, she adds.
