Prescription drug overdose is also referred to as prescription drug abuse. Prescription drug overdose is defined as using prescription medication that was not intended by the prescribing doctor. Prescription drug abuse manifests in many ways, including but not limited to, taking a family member's prescription or injecting some pills to get high or snorting. A significant number of national surveys reveal that prescription medications (including those used for treating anxiety and pain) are being abused at a very high rate, coming in second place only after bhang. The drug overdose consequences have worsened with time, as evidenced by the increased treatment admission, overdose deaths, and emergency room visits. Prescription drug overdose is a problem for all age groups, including teenagers ( Nam, 2017 ). The most abused prescription drugs include opioid painkillers, stimulants, sedatives, and anti-anxiety medications. Studies reveal that early identification of prescription drug overdose and early intervention could effectively solve the problem before it becomes an addiction.
Study Relevance
Two-thirds of drug overdoses occurring in the Americas involve opioids. It is projected that about 91 Americans succumbs each day as a result of an opioid overdose. It is further projected that 1,000 people receive treatment in the emergency hospital units across the country for misusing prescription opioids. The increasing rates of opioids abuse and misuse have been connected to the rise in accidental overdose deaths and outbreaks in hepatitis C infections and HIV Aids. These are more than enough reasons to identify the risk factors for a prescription drug overdose, understand why it is an issue and how it affects society. It is also essential to understand the stakeholders and their contributions, and ultimately solve the problem.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Factors Contributing to Prescription Drug Abuse
An individual could be leading his life naturally without abusing any drugs, but then disaster strikes, and then this individual finds himself taking painkiller prescriptions after surgeries. Some of these people end up being prescribed addictive medicines, and they become drug abusers. It is not harmful to take painkillers, but some individuals express fear of getting addicted to taking addictive drugs ( Liang & Shi, 2019 ). However, prescription drug abuse can be avoided by strictly following a doctor's instructions. Prescription drug abuse can begin at any age, but it is common among young adults and teenagers.
The main risk factor to prescription drug overdose includes present or past addictions to other substances like tobacco and alcohol. Sometimes the family history of substance abuse can be a risk factor. Patients already having pre-existing psychiatric conditions are at risk of getting addicted to a prescribed drug. Another common risk factor to prescription drug overdose is peer pressure influence or living in an environment where people are already finding the drugs with ease. Teenagers are the most vulnerable family members because they easily abuse drugs, especially when they are readily available. For example, when prescription drugs are kept in the medicine cabinet where everyone can access. People also abuse prescription drugs unintentionally. Lack of knowledge about the drugs and their potential harm could be dangerous to those who use them.
Why Drug Overdose is an issue for Healthcare
The prescription drug overdose problem and its associated health consequences are critical public health concerns. In American, drug overdose death rates rose five-times, beginning in the 1980s. Drug overdose in the US for the first time in 2009 surpassed death numbers from moto vehicle crashes. In the last decade, prescription drugs, specifically opioid analgesics, have significantly contributed to overdose deaths ( Beletsky, 2018 ). The numbers had reached 60% by 2010, where 16,651 people died from opioid analgesics related causes.
Morbidity related to prescription drug overdose also increased. The prescription drug overdose level associated with emergency department visits and patients' treatment admission also substantially increased over the last few years. Many adverse health outcomes may originate from drug prescription misuse, including self-injection with the drugs, which places the person at risk of contracting HIV and hepatitis C. The older adults may suffer falls and fractures neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome.
The prescription drug overdose problem is a sophisticated one and multi-faceted. The type of health consequence and prevalence varies based on race, age, gender, socioeconomic factor, geography, and existing medical conditions. There are numerous drivers to the overdose problem, including inadequate oversight to deal with the inappropriate prescriptions, pharmacy and insurance benefits policy, provider clinical practices, and young people's belief that prescription drugs are not harmful and associated with high usage levels. Therefore, it means that drug prescription overdose is a health problem. It calls for a multi-pronged, sustained, and targeted approach that can only be achieved through teamwork and concerted efforts among the public health, public safety, clinical medicine, and other stakeholders.
Impact of Prescription Drug Overdose
The time has come to change how society addresses drug and alcohol misuse and substance abuse disorders. The national opioid misuse has won the public, state, federal, and local leaders' attention across the country. There are numerous ongoing efforts to reform the criminal justice and health care systems and create new opportunities to make it easy to access treatment and prevention services. The parity laws and healthcare reform provide incentives and significant opportunities to solve the substance overdose problems and the associated disorders more effectively in diverse health care environments. Similarly, several American states are making relevant drug policies, including mandating PDMPs, to eliminate compulsory minimum drug sentences.
The need to solve subscription drug overdose and the related substance misuse disorders for all Americans is directly connected to economic impact. It is estimated that substance use disorders and substance abuse cost the society about $442 billion every year in healthcare costs, criminal justice costs, and lost productivity. Estimates reveal that more than 10 million full-time American workers engage in substance abuse disorder, a primary cause for disability. When such a large workforce is abusing drugs, it means a significant part of productivity is impacted.
The Stakeholders
Solutions to prescription drug overdose demand a joint effort of several stakeholders involved in the pain management process. Different private-public partnerships models have been developed depending on the finding, type of participants, objectives, and missions.
The PPPs, including IRDiRC, could act as a role model in the struggle to control the opioid addiction. The FDA could significantly benefit form closely collaborating with the industry to review the systemic barriers and the organizational challenges in the regulatory effort and work toward action to terminate the practice of aggressive marketing approaches. The IRDiRC Orphan Products Grants Program integrates regulatory agencies, industry, and patient advocacy organizations to create recommendations together for enhanced guidelines and R&D, patient involvement, and regulation.
The FDA works in conjunction with the other industry stakeholders to define incentives. The FDA incentives include expedited reviews of the new drug applications for the latest alternative drugs, providing the necessary support in creating risk management plans, and having tamper-resistant properties.
Socio-economic Perspective
The United States drug overdose deaths increased from about 16,00 every year in 2001 to more than 41,000 every year in 2015. These figures have been rising despite the political will and policy efforts to deal with its drug overdose situation. The study also shows a variation in the death rates from drug overdose from region to region. It is reported that the non-Hispanic whites accounted for 80% of deaths from the overdose in some states ( Liang & Shi, 2019 ). Understanding region death rates from overdose help in understanding the factors that drive drug overdose deaths. The legally prescribed opioids, workforce, and social capital involved accounted for about 53% to 69% of the state variation in prescription drug overdose deaths in Non-Hispanic Whites.
Resolution
To find an amicable and sustainable solution to prescription drug overdose, the clinicians, patients, manufactures, and pharmacists must all play their roles effectively ( Houry et al., 2018 ).
Clinicians : in 2016, more than 84% of the Americans visited a health care facility, placing the doctors at a vantage point in identifying the non-medical use of prescription drugs. The advantage accords doctors an opportunity to help prevent the increase in patient misuse to a substance use disorder. By understanding the kinds of drugs, the patients are using; the physicians are better positioned to help them recognize whether the patients have a problem, give the appropriate treatment of referring them, and set a recovery objective. There is also the need to incorporate evidence-based screening tools for non-medical prescription drugs into routine medical visits.
Patients: the patients' needs to take the appropriate actions to ensure they are using prescription drugs in the right manner by:
Following the instructions given by the pharmacists or as explained in the label
Being aware of the potential danger and interactions with other drugs and alcohol.
To continue medication and only stop when instructed by a doctor
Not to use friends, relatives, or any third-party prescriptions.
Safely storing the prescription opioids, sedatives, and stimulants.
Pharmacists : the patients purchase drugs directly from the counter, and it should be the pharmacist's duty to help their clients understand the instructions for taking their medications. The pharmacists also need to help the patients understand how the drug works. Additionally, by being careful with prescription alterations or falsification, the pharmacists can be the first line of defense in identifying any trends that could signal problems in the prescription. This measure can be done using a hotline to sound an alarm to pharmacies in a geographic location when a fraudulent drug prescription has been detected. In the same manner, pharmacists can raise the alarm when identifying a prescription drug misuse in a patient.
Development of Safer Medications
The manufacture of non-addictive and effective pain medication is a priority for public health. The increasing number of senior adults and the rising figures of the injured military me are indicators of the need for urgent treatment solutions ( Robinson et al., 2019 ). Researchers are already studying new treatment solutions that aim at alternative signaling systems in the human body like the endocannabinoid system, which is also very useful in pain management.
To best outcome for implementing these solutions would be a significant drop in the number of deaths caused by prescription drug overuse. A good result also needs to be measured through an effective collaborative, communal system that effectively detects and takes appropriate action when an illegal prescription circulates and reports individuals to buy drugs for the wrong reasons.
Controlling prescription drug overuse is a matter of collaboration amongst the already established stakeholder, including FDA, manufacturers, and the community. While the government would need to inject more funds to support the initiatives, it would be important that every party take their roles seriously, as the pharmacists, patients, and clinicians.
References
Beletsky, L. (2018). Deploying prescription drug monitoring to address the overdose crisis:
Ideology meets reality. Ind. Health L. Rev. , 15 , 139.
Houry, D. E., Haegerich, T. M., & Vivolo-Kantor, A. (2018). Opportunities for prevention and
intervention of opioid overdose in the emergency department. Annals of emergency medicine , 71 (6), 688.
Liang, D., & Shi, Y. (2019). Prescription drug monitoring programs and drug overdose deaths
involving benzodiazepines and prescription opioids. Drug and alcohol review , 38 (5), 494-502.
Nam, Y. H., Shea, D. G., Shi, Y., & Moran, J. R. (2017). State prescription drug monitoring
programs and fatal drug overdoses. Am J Manag Care , 23 (5), 297-303.
Robinson, A., Christensen, A., & Bacon, S. (2019). From the CDC: the prevention for states
program: preventing opioid overdose through evidence-based intervention and
innovation. Journal of safety research , 68 , 231-237.
