Prescription drug abuse

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What If Medicine Disappeared? Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea See book keywords and concepts

What all this means is that prescription drug abuse is not only a personal problem, but also an institutional one. Making and marketing drugs is what pharmaceutical companies do (we'll return to this issue at the chapter's conclusion); prescribing drugs is what physicians do; retailing them is what pharmacists do. For better or worse—and both outcomes are evident, though the latter is more frequent—each of these legal activities is tremendously profitable.

Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs Melody Petersen See book keywords and concepts

Most alarming was the 212 percent rise of prescription drug abuse found among teenagers during those years. Some parents had become unwitting drug pushers, the researchers said, by filling their bathroom cabinets with addictive prescription narcotics, depressants, and stimulants. But there was more behind the rise in addiction than medicine chests stocked full. Today's children are the first generation to grow up with omnipresent prescription drug ads.

Bottom Line's Prescription Alternatives Earl L. Mindell, RPh, PhD with Virginia Hopkins, MA See book keywords and concepts

In case you think prescription drug abuse is uncommon, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service Administration's 2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 16.6 million Americans are abusing either alcohol or illicit drugs such as cocaine, crack, and in heroin and between 4 and 6 million people are gesics), sedatives, tranquilizers, and stimulants. abusing prescription drugs. Our guess is that the Of the top 10 prescribed drugs in the United numbers for prescription drug abuse are much States, three are narcotic painkillers.

Psyched Out: How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills That Kill Kelly Patricia O'Meara See book keywords and concepts

Our nation is in the throes of an epidemic of controlled prescription drug abuse and addiction." The following are just a sample of the results of the CASA study: • From 1992 to 2002, prescriptions written for controlled drugs increased more than 150 percent, almost 12 times the rate of increase in population and almost three times the rate of increase in prescriptions written for all other drugs. • From 1992 to 2003, abuse of controlled prescription drugs grew at a rate twice that of marijuana abuse, five times that of cocaine abuse and 60 times that of heroin abuse.

Prescription Medicines, Side Effects and Natural Alternatives American Medical Publishing See book keywords and concepts

Although prescription drug abuse affects many Americans, many troubling trends can be seen among older adults, adolescents, and women. In addition, health care professionals - including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, anesthesiologists, and veterinarians - may be at increased risk of prescription drug abuse because of ease of access, as well as their ability to self-prescribe drugs.

Bottom Line's Prescription Alternatives Earl L. Mindell, RPh, PhD with Virginia Hopkins, MA See book keywords and concepts

Those most at risk for prescription drug abuse are the elderly, people with a history of drug abuse such as alcoholics, and, believe it or not, those in the medical profession with access to the drugs. Elderly people tend to be much more sensitive to the effects of a drug, and a slight overdose or negative side effect has a much greater potential to cause illness and even death.

Our guess is that the Of the top 10 prescribed drugs in the United numbers for prescription drug abuse are much States, three are narcotic painkillers. We obviously higher but that most of it goes unreported. have a huge problem in the United States with More than 20 million people over the age of addiction to narcotic painkillers. Shouldn't some- 12 have used one or more psychotherapeutic body at the FDA, our government watchdog drugs for nonmedical purposes at some point in agency that we pay for with our taxes, be taking time.

Prescription Alternatives, Third Edition: Hundreds of Safe, Natural Prescription-Free Remedies to Restore and Maintain Your Health Earl L. Mindell, R.Ph., Ph.D. See book keywords and concepts

In case you think prescription drug abuse is uncommon, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service Administration's 1993 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 138 million Americans are abusing alcohol, nearly 19 million are abusing marijuana, over 10 million are abusing illicit drugs such as cocaine, crack and heroin and over 11 million people are abusing prescription drugs. Other surveys estimate that as many as 50 percent of the drug overdoses treated in the hospital are a result of prescription drug abuse.

Bottom Line's Prescription Alternatives Earl L. Mindell, RPh, PhD with Virginia Hopkins, MA See book keywords and concepts

People who have never used street drugs, tobacco, or alcohol are just as susceptible to prescription drug abuse as those who have. Those who abuse prescription drugs usually start out rationalizing their problem as okay because a physician wrote out the prescription. This is a dangerous assumption. A tragic prescription drug-abuse scenario is the recovering alcoholic who breaks a bone or has surgery and is given a potent narcotic pain reliever such as Vicodin or Demerol by a physician who never asks whether the person has a drug abuse problem.

Prescription Alternatives, Third Edition: Hundreds of Safe, Natural Prescription-Free Remedies to Restore and Maintain Your Health Earl L. Mindell, R.Ph., Ph.D. See book keywords and concepts

Those most at risk for prescription drug abuse are the elderly, people with a history of drug abuse such as alcoholics and, believe it or not, those in the medical profession with access to the drugs. Elderly people tend to be much more sensitive to the effects of a drug, and a slight overdose or negative side effect has a much greater potential to cause illness and even death.

People who have never used street drugs, tobacco or alcohol are just as susceptible to prescription drug abuse as those who have. Those who abuse prescription drugs usually start out rationalizing their problem as okay because a physician wrote out the prescription. This is a dangerous assumption. A tragic prescription drug-abuse scenario is the recovering alcoholic who breaks a bone or has surgery and is given a potent narcotic pain reliever such as Vicodin or Demerol by a physician who never asks whether the person has a drug abuse problem.

Prescription Medicines, Side Effects and Natural Alternatives American Medical Publishing See book keywords and concepts

In addition, health care professionals - including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, anesthesiologists, and veterinarians - may be at increased risk of prescription drug abuse because of ease of access, as well as their ability to self-prescribe drugs. In spite of this increased risk, recent surveys and research in the early 1990s indicate that health care providers probably suffer from substance abuse, including alcohol and drugs, at a rate similar to rates in society as a whole, in the range of 8 to 12 percent.

Bottom Line's Prescription Alternatives Earl L. Mindell, RPh, PhD with Virginia Hopkins, MA See book keywords and concepts

On the Drug Enforcement Agency's (DEA) list of the THE PAINKILLERS top 20 most-abused controlled substances, 12or more than half—are prescription drugs. Addiction to painkilling drugs is not the same as The drugs most likely to be abused are the use of these drugs by people with cancer or painkillers (especially opioids and narcotic analother illnesses who take them for legitimate pain.

Prescription Alternatives, Third Edition: Hundreds of Safe, Natural Prescription-Free Remedies to Restore and Maintain Your Health Earl L. Mindell, R.Ph., Ph.D. See book keywords and concepts

Other surveys estimate that as many as 50 percent of the drug overdoses treated in the hospital are a result of prescription drug abuse. On the Drug Enforcement Agency's (DEA) list of the top 20 most-abused controlled substances, 12 or more than half are prescription drugs. The drugs most likely to be abused are painkillers (especially opioids and narcotic analgesics), sedatives, tranquilizers and stimulants. Of the top 10 prescribed drugs in the U.S., three are narcotic painkillers. We obviously have a huge problem in the U.S. with addiction to narcotic painkillers.

Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? The Rest of the Story on the New Class of SSRI Antidepressants Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Lovan, Luvox & More Ann Blake Tracy, Ph.D. See book keywords and concepts

We are aware that doctors in general have on of the highest rates of prescription drug abuse. Just how serious is the abuse of these mind-altering drugs among the individuals we are trusting with our lives? Psychiatric nurse, Joyce Strom-Paikin, puts her license and credentials on the line to fight the "conspiracy of silence" that exits in the medical profession with the use of drugs by doctors and nurses in her book, MEDICAL TREASON. She feels this is a practice which "threatens to corrupt the profession and cost lives of many patients.

The Longevity Code: Your Personal Prescription for a Longer, Sweeter Life Zorba Paster, M.D. and Susan Meltsner See book keywords and concepts

They frequently go hand in hand with self-sedating behaviors such as prescription drug abuse, heavy drinking, and compulsive eating. But anxiety's greatest impact, beyond the immediate discomfort it causes, is on the quality of our fives. We limit fife's sweetness by limiting our activities, movements, relationships, careers, and more. Anything that makes us anxious is cut from our life. We don't make presentations—and miss out on promotions. We stay out of social situations—and become lonelier and lonelier.

Prescription Medicines, Side Effects and Natural Alternatives American Medical Publishing See book keywords and concepts

Conclusions In the case of prescription drug abuse, you may think the patient is more to blame than the drug maker, or the doctor that handed the pills out, month after month. But the truth is, in this case, all three take some blame. As we said, even people who have never had a drink or a smoke of anything in their lives fall prey to prescription drug addiction. Many people get addicted after taking their very first pill. It can truly be that easy, and addiction is that fast and powerful. But this is something doctors should know — yet millions of people are getting addicted.

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