Use of Opioids in the USA

Use of Opioids in the USA

In the United States, more than 130 people die daily due to opioids overdose. The Opioids addiction and misuse, which involved heroin, prescribed pain relievers and some synthetic opioids such as fentanyl resulted in a severe national crisis that affected economic and social welfare and public health in the USA. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimation, a case of opioids misuse led to a financial burden that approximated more than $78.5 billion every year (Jones et al., 2018). The economic burden escalated due to addiction treatment, healthcare cost, the involvement of criminal justice and lost productivity. Also, 1,014 deaths were reported in Georgia in 2017 that involved opioids overdose. This was an approximate rate of 9.7 deaths per 100,000 individuals. Death rates in Georgia were increased compared to the national death rate of 14.6 per 100,000 per person. The use of synthetic opioids primarily fentanyl contributed to an increase in deaths cases in Georgia. This led to a rise in death cases of 419 in 2017 compared to 61 deaths reported in 2012. Also, more deaths from heroin cases transpired in Georgia between the year 2012-2017, thus resulted in a rise of death cases from 40 to 463 in the five consecutive years. Besides, 568 people died due to prescribed opioids in 2017, hence, was recorded as the highest death rate in Georgia.

Nonetheless, I had an experience with opioids crisis. I was five years old since I discovered that my sister is using opioids. However, it took me sometime before I knew what geared my sister into using opioids drugs. My sister was 15 years old since she began using drugs. My sister often took advantage of a night club owned by my parents, where she started experimenting with alcohol and drugs. At this time, the concept of addiction was no longer in her mind. She thought she was using drugs for recreational purposes. Conversely, she became addicted to opioids drugs after some time, and she would use drugs in and out of school. My sister further became pregnant while still using drugs, thus caused her baby to be born with heroin in her system. The addiction effect made the baby left at the hospital for a while. However, my sister’s recovery process was not easy. She made several attempts at voluntary treatments, where she finally met with some counsellors who assisted her with her recovery journey. Through my sister’s experience with opioids addiction, I learnt to focus on the things that I could control in my life, such as education. This helped me to keep off from drugs. I further learnt that opioid disorder is a disease, which chemically adjusts the body into being addicted to drugs.

Moreover, Nurse Practitioner plays a fundamental role in making a primary impact on decreasing overdose of opioid in speciality practices and primary care. The Nurse Practitioner offer buprenorphine treatment that is often associated with a decrease in the illegal use of opioid and other related fatalities. Besides, Nurse practitioner plays a vital role in reducing deaths by providing assessment to patients. Assessment process often involves matching needs of the patients. This includes the history of past prescribed medications. Nurse Practitioners can further assess other pain management relievers if the patient had been using opioids drugs in history (Hudspeth, 2016).  Nurse Practitioners also monitor their patients to enhance the health of patient’s suffering from opioids disorder. These measures protect Nurse Practitioners from engaging any possible legal actions, which may occur from opioids. A nurse practitioner should also cater to optimal patient care by providing an evidence-based practice of pain management. The nurse can consider nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which involves ibuprofen as initial pain medication (Oliver, 2019). A combination of acetaminophen and NSAIDs drugs are deemed to be effective in managing pain than opioids.  However, Nurse Practitioners are obligated to verify that patients are not prescribed to anticoagulant other medicines such as aspirin by checking renal impairment and hepatic conditions. This will assist Nurse Practitioners in being protected against any legal actions.

Nevertheless, apart from opioids prescribed for pain management, other alternative measures can be undertaken as pain relievers such as steroids, ibuprofen (Motrin), aspirin (Bayer) and acetaminophen (Berkun et al. 2016). Conversely, other people may fight relief when taking non-drugs therapies such as physical therapy, acupuncture, surgery and nerve block or injections. Physical therapy involves the creation of an exercise program by a specialized physician. This program helps in improving a patient’s way of functioning and also decreases pain. In this case, deep-muscle and ultra-sound tools are used in massage. In addition, Acupuncture involves the use of needles that are often inserted at various places on a patient’s skin, which is used in interrupting pain signals (Jung, 2013). Surgery is also used in correcting body abnormalities that cause pain. Besides, local anaesthetics are always injected to patients to help in reducing pain. However, some latest high-tech methods can be applied for pain management to people suffering from chronic pain (Molea, 2005). This involves radio waves, electrical signals, nerve blocks, pain pumps, and spinal cord stimulation.

References

Berkun, R., Khechen, B., & Berkun, R. (2016). Opioid Addiction: Addressing the Crisis of a National Opioid Overdose Epidemic. Journal Of Pain & Relief, 05(06). doi: 10.4172/2167-0846.1000271

Oliver, J. (2019). 5A NSAIDs: Friend or Foe as Opioid Alternatives?. Pain Management Nursing, 20(2), 99. doi: 10.1016/j.pmn.2018.11.032

Hudspeth, R. (2016). Safe Opioid Prescribing for Adults by Nurse Practitioners: Part 1. Patient History and Assessment Standards and Techniques. The Journal For Nurse Practitioners, 12(3), 141-148. doi: 10.1016/j.nurpra.2015.10.012

Jones, G., Bruera, E., Abdi, S., & Kantarjian, H. (2018). The opioid epidemic in the United States-Overview, origins, and potential solutions. Cancer, 124(22), 4279-4286. doi: 10.1002/cncr.31713

Molea, J., & Augustyniak, M. (2005). Treating chronic pain in patients suffering from addictive disorders: The psychodynamics. Techniques In Regional Anesthesia And Pain Management, 9(4), 212-215. doi: 10.1053/j.trap.2005.10.002

Jung, W., & Chen, L. (2013). Acupuncture and Neuropathic Pain Management. Medical Acupuncture, 25(4), 261-268. doi: 10.1089/acu.2012.0943