Opiate painkillers
From Drug Rehab Wiki
Opiate painkillers are drugs that contain narcotics and are used to relieve pain. The legal definition of narcotic is opium, opium derivatives, and their manmade substitutes, but the more common meaning is any drug that produces effects similar to those of morphine.
People have been using opium to relieve pain as early as 5000 BC. Opium is derived from a fluid in the seedpods of the Papaver poppy plant. In 1803 Dr. Friedrich Serturner first isolated morphine in Germany, and it became the first opiate painkiller in medical use. By the 1860s, thousands of soldiers who had served in the American Civil War were coming home addicted to morphine.
Today the United States imports 500 tons of opium a year for legal medical purposes in opiate painkillers, but many of them contain synthetic opium manufactured in laboratories.
The Food and Drug Administration regulates narcotic painkillers under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 because these drugs are addictive. Consequently, you need a doctor’s prescription to obtain them or you could face severe penalties and fines if you are convicted of buying, selling, or possessing them illegally.
Today abuse of opiate painkillers has reached epidemic levels in many parts of the United States, and keeps increasing. Women are slightly more likely to abuse them than men. The number of young people ages 12 to 25 years old who abuse them rose from 400,000 in 1985 to over two million by 2000.
In 2007, the number of deaths from prescription drug overdoses was five times greater than in 1990, and overdoses from opioids exceeded deaths from heroin and cocaine combined. State governments are increasingly cracking down on the abuse of opiate painkillers by better monitoring the records of pharmacies and physicians, and closing down “pain clinics” - also known as pill mills - where they are often dispensed too freely. More doctors are facing criminal charges and malpractice suits from families of loved ones who died from opiate painkillers.
Opiate painkillers are all addictive, but some of the strongest ones, which are supposed to be reserved for use only among the terminally ill or those in severe pain, are extremely addictive. Signs of addiction to these drugs can be pinpoint pupils, drowsiness, moodiness, stupor, clammy skin, confusion, skin rash, poor health, loss of weight, tremors, constipation, irritability, hostility, loss of interest in normal activities, secretiveness, “doctor shopping” and faking pain at Emergency Rooms in order to obtain a prescription. The person may sell personal items, steal, and run up credit cards to obtain money for the drugs. Signs of overdoses, which can be fatal, can be very slow breathing and heart rate, extreme sleepiness, confusion, dizziness, fainting, unconsciousness, coma, and stupor.
People who abuse opiate painkillers develop a tolerance to them, which means they need more to get the effects that they want to achieve. Many of these drugs contain acetaminophen which can permanently damage the liver and kidneys, and this is one of the greatest dangers of overuse, besides the danger of overdoses by increasing the amounts used. Another problem with opiate painkiller abuse is the way people administer them to themselves. Instead of swallowing a pill, for example, they crush it to get around its time-released feature, or mix the powder they have made with a liquid and inject it. Some people also snort these drugs via nose or use them as suppositories. These methods increase the effects of the drugs and also their dangers.
Withdrawal from opiate painkillers can be very difficult, and many people can achieve it only by entering a detoxification unit where they can be monitored by medical professionals. Symptoms can be extremely uncomfortable, like a terrible case of flu, and may include vomiting, nausea, fatigue, chills alternating with sweats, fever, heart palpitations, muscle and joint pain, twitching of extremities, gooseflesh, coughing, chest pain, insomnia, anxiety, depression, watery eyes, and drug cravings. These can last several days or longer, depending on the drug used, in what amounts, and for how long.
The kinds of opiate painkillers are codeine, meperidine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, morphine, fentanyl, hydromorphone, and oxymorphone.
Codeine is the mostly widely used painkiller in the world, and sometimes prescribed for coughs or to relieve diarrhea as well as for pain. Usually made from morphine, codeine is sold in pill, tablet or liquid form, and commonly prescribed for pain from kidney stones, dental surgery, migraines, athletic injuries, and slipped discs. Many codeine drugs contain acetaminophen, aspirin or ibuprofen. Common trademarked names of codeine drugs are Tylenol 3, Nucofed, and Colrex. Teenagers often abuse codeine cough syrups, and teach each other how to filter out aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen.
Meperidine is commonly sold under the trademarked name Demerol, and prescribed for pain before and after surgery, labor, and during Emergency Room procedures. A derivative of morphine discovered in 1924 in Germany, hydrocodone is used to treat dry and painful coughs, and moderate to severe pain, and among patients who developed hallucinations after using fentanyl. It is faster acting than morphine, but not as long-lasting. Hydrocodone products are sold as liquids, pills, tablets, and in solutions under the brand names of Dilaudid, Dilaudid-5, Exalgo, and Palladone.
Oxymorphone is a synthetic opioid marketed under the trademarked names of Opana, Opana ER, and Numorphone HCI. Since it provides constant and round-the-clock pain relief, it usually is prescribed on a long-term basis for severe chronic pain, and not on an "as needed" basis or for temporary pain, such as post-operative. This drug is increasingly being abused because the makers of oxycodone drugs are producing more products that are tamper-proof.
Propoxyphene was sold in the United States under the trade names of Darvon and Darvocet. Darvon was pulled off the market in November 2010 by its manufacturer Xanodyne Pharaceuticals because of safety concerns about overdoses and suicides, and later banned by the FDA. It is not available in Europe because the risks do not outweigh the benefits, which are the equivalent of mild painkiller.
Hydrocodone addiction is the most common reason given for entering drug rehabilitation, and the most commonly drug abused is Vicodin. Hydrocodone products are also sold under the trademarked names of Anexsia, Dolorex, Hycet, Liquidicet, Lorcet, Lortab, Xodol, Maxidone, Norco, and Vicoprofen. These drugs are commonly prescribed for moderate pain from broken bones or slipped discs.
Oxycodone is one of the drugs that are fastest growing in terms of abuse, partly because of the way one version, OxyContin, was aggressively and some would say fraudulently marketed. It was originally used only for long-term pain, but now prescribed for neuralgia, fractures, low back pain, arthritis, and bursitis. Some trademarked versions of this drug are OxyContin, Percocet, and Percodan.
Morphine is used for pain in those who are terminally ill or who have chronic pain that cannot be relieved any other way. Many people cannot tolerate morphine, especially if they have undiagnosed conditions or allergies. It is sold as pills, liquids or suppositories under the trademarked names of MS Contin, Azinza, Kadian, and Roxanol.
Fentanyl is an extremely dangerous drug, and can be dangerous even to handle. Common trademarked names for this drug are Duragesic, Fentora, and Actiq, and it comes as a skin patch or lollipop because those who take it are usually too sick to swallow. Its use is limited to cancer patients, or those in hospitals and nursing homes where its use can be carefully monitored. It carries the highest risk for fatal overdose due to respiratory depression, but yet it is highly abused for non-medical reasons.
