Opioid addiction: Battling a new epidemic

Published 5:30 am Sunday, July 24, 2016

There is an epidemic spreading across America. It’s not the Zika virus or Ebola, it is opiate and opioid addiction.

An estimated 26.4 million to 36 million people worldwide suffer from opioid addiction, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Since 1999, the number of accidental overdoses has more than quadrupled, Nora Volkow, M.D., said in a 2014 address to the U.S. Senate.

Opiates are a type of drug derived from the opium poppy which cause sedation, pain relief and euphoria. Opioid drugs act on the opiate receptors in the brain and are often prescribed for pain relief. 

The most notorious opiate is heroin; what people often do not realize though is how similar other drugs stored in medicine cabinets across the country are to this nefarious substance. 

There is also growing evidence to suggest a relationship between increased non-medical use of opioid analgesics and heroin abuse in the United States, Volkow said. 

The Centers for Disease Control reported heroin use among young adults has more than doubled in the past decade.

The use of opiates has long been documented and to some extent even glorified in some realms. 

Opiates are a part of our culture, albeit a subculture.

Just this year, the artist Prince was reported dead due to the accidental overdose of fentanyl, an opioid painkiller almost 100 times as potent as morphine. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Heath Ledger, Dee Dee Ramone of the Ramones, Chris Farley, Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols and countless other celebrities have died through the years due to their use of either prescription or illicit opioids. The list of opioid-related deaths is growing exponentially and it is not just the rock stars who fall victim to the drug, reports indicate. 

Opioids, such as OxyContin, Vicodin and Percocet, are often given to patients after surgery to ease pain; unfortunately, for many, the feeling produced by the drug is enough to continue use after the original pain subsides.

This is the making of a drug addict. 

One of the most surprising aspects of opioid addiction for many is the type of people who become addicted. It is not the stereotypical drug addict most people envision, rather, it is the soccer mom next door, the doctor, the lawyer, the high school athlete who recently had surgery — it could happen to anybody, according to addiction counselors.

The use of heroin and opiates has become more and more prevalent, according to national studies.  

“Heroin use has increased across the U.S. among men and women, most age groups and all income levels. Some of the greatest increases occurred in demographic groups with historically low rates of heroin use: women, the privately insured and people with higher incomes,” according to the CDC.

The stigma attached to addiction can lead people to their deaths. Addicts are often too afraid of losing their jobs or too afraid of the consequences of admitting they have a problem and often continue their use despite the risks, according to health-care professionals. 

After a period of prolonged opioid use the body becomes accustomed to their presence and begins craving them. The individual will begin needing more and more of the same drug simply to get the effect of feeling normal, this is known as a tolerance.

“This tolerance contributes to the high risk of overdose during a relapse to opioid use after a period in recovery; users who do not realize they may have lost their tolerance during a period of abstinence may initially take the high dosage that they previously had used before quitting, a dosage that produces an overdose in the person who no longer has tolerance,” Volkow said. 

Another contributing factor to opioid addiction is one every addict fears: withdrawal. 

“When people addicted to opioids first quit, they undergo withdrawal symptoms, which may be severe, including pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, hypertension, tachycardia and seizures,” Volkow said. 

The severity of the withdrawal symptoms often require abusers trying to get clean to enter into medical facilities where they can be monitored and some of the physical symptoms can be managed, according to experts. 

The mental aspect of opioid addiction must be managed with counseling and at times psychotropic medications, according to experts. 

Family, jobs, houses, friends and anything else a person once held to be sacred are suddenly afterthoughts. The need to eat becomes second to the need to get high. Opioid addiction takes indiscriminately and with a vengeance.