Prescription Opioids and Health Risks

This assignment examines the increasing trend of prescription opioid use, highlighting its potential adverse effects on human health. It delves into the connection between opioid misuse and respiratory distress, organ damage, and even fatalities. The paper also discusses the dangers of opioid dependence and its consequences, including the likelihood of individuals resorting to illegal sources for obtaining these medications. It emphasizes the importance of patient screening, medical education regarding potential side effects, and responsible prescribing practices to mitigate the risks associated with opioid use.

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Nursing assignment
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

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Introduction
Illicit and addictive use drugs is a growing concern globally, attributed to a number of
side effects produced from the overuse of such substances on the health and well-being of a
person. The uncontrolled use of narcotic substances reduces the amount of control one has over
their bodily systems. Additionally, the use of such drugs can also have a much pronounced effect
on the thinking and cognitive abilities of a person. The current assignment focuses on the
concept of the illicit and randomized use of prescription opioids and the serious health impacts
produced by the same on the long-term health of a person.
The opioids can be classified as a group of narcotic drugs which are used as pain relievers
are recommended by the general medical practitioners for the management of aggravated pain
symptoms. There has been a sharp increase in the number people using prescription opioids for
the management of pain in Australia. The present concern is the growing number of death cases
in Australia due to over usage of prescription opioids. Thus, with the help of this study, an
endeavour has been made to analyse the plausible causes for the overuse of such narcotic drugs
and the drastic side effects.
Thesis statement: Effects of increased use of opioids within the Australian population
Causes of increased use of prescription opioids
The illicit use of drugs has been an ever growing concern and need proper care and
redressal. The drugs could be further divided into scheduled and non-scheduled drugs, which
possess major risk factors. However, as mentioned by Blanch et al.(2014), the use of the opioids
have gained prominence in the current decade and have resulted in serious health concerns and
side effects. The opioids such as morphine and oxycodone are some of the top drugs of misuse in

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Australia. As reported by the Australian drug counselling helpline they receive twice more calls
for prescription opioids than for other non-scheduled drugs. As suggested by the Sydney
medically supervised injecting centre higher numbers of visits are obtained for the injection of
crushed opioid tablets compared to some of the non-scheduled drugs. As commented by Schaffer
et al. (2016), most people using prescription opioids have been advised so for various pain
management symptoms and issues. The doses are initiated in low amounts and escalated
gradually resulting in physical discomfort for the patient. As argued by Miller et al.(2017), the
epidemic of the problem has to be blamed equally upon the health channels prescribing and
promoting the use of such medications. Over the last ten years, the sale of the prescription drugs
has doubled in Australia, particularly one of the prescription drugs oxycodone have shown a
significant increase.
There are huge numbers of disputes regarding the use of the opioids that is whether or not
the opioids should be used. As argued by Schaffer et al. (2016), limiting the use of opioids is
challenging owing to the ability of the medications to manage chronic and cancer-related pain.
The growing demand for the drug appears from three overlapping groups such as the patients
with chronic pain, the ones undergoing treatment for cancer and the ones who extract the
medicines in an illegal manner. Reports and evidence have pointed that a quarter of the
population of Australia is ageing at a drastic rate. This makes pain management important
criteria for the medical channel. As argued by Compton et al. (2016), the use of opioids should
not be thought of as the only strategy for the control and management of pain.

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Effects of the increased use of opioids
There has been a sharp rise in the number of opioid-related deaths in the Australian
population. Border detection of pharmaceutical opioids doubled from 2011-2012 to 2012-2013.
Oxycodone accounted for 60.7 5 of the detection, majority of which were imported from
Thailand. As per reports, 465 oxycodone-related deaths were noted in the period between 2001-
2009. As commented by Nielsen et al. (2015), the Australians have found to be invariably drawn
towards the mood enhancers or the mood uplifters. This further gives way to the sale of some of
these restricted medications over the counter as normal medications.
The increased use of opioids has been seen to produce a number of side effects within the
population. Some of the common health issues which are addressed over here are sedation,
dizziness, vomiting, constipation respiratory depression and physical dependence. Some people
have been reported to have a reduction in pain symptoms once they have started using the
opioids. However, as commented by Karanges et al.(2016), the dependency over such narcotic
drugs often have strong neuropsychiatric effects. This results in some psychotic pain in the
patients once the drug source had been removed. Some of the less common side effects include
gastritis, hormonal misbalance and muscle rigidity. As commented by Islam et al. (2014), the
increased use of opioids may result in respiratory depression. This could be also referred to as
hypoventilation indicated by the increased concentration of carbon dioxide or respiratory
acidosis. Some of the side effects such as constipation and nausea are often difficult to control
and could only be reduced with the discontinuation of medicines.

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Conclusion
The current assignment focuses on the increased use of prescription opioids and the
adverse effects of the same on the health of the person. The use of some of the prescription
opioids has increased tenfold times within the present one decade. The rise in the use of such
restricted medications could be attributed to the fast ageing population and the need of acute pain
management. The opioids could not only result in adverse health effects including respiratory
distress. It could also be lethal affecting the major body organs and resulting in the death of the
patients. However, dependency on opioids can result in the incessant purchase of such
medications through illegal channels. Therefore, proper patient screening along with sufficient
medical education about the plausible side effects could help in reducing the opioid dependency.

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References
Blanch, B., Pearson, S. A., & Haber, P. S. (2014). An overview of the patterns of prescription
opioid use, costs and related harms in Australia. British journal of clinical
pharmacology, 78(5), 1159-1166.
Compton, W. M., Jones, C. M., & Baldwin, G. T. (2016). Relationship between nonmedical
prescription-opioid use and heroin use. N Engl J Med, 2016(374), 154-163.
Hollingworth, S. A., Gray, P. D., Hall, W. D., & Najman, J. M. (2015). Opioid analgesic
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Islam, M. M., Conigrave, K. M., Day, C. A., Nguyen, Y., & Haber, P. S. (2014). Twenty‐year
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Karanges, E. A., Blanch, B., Buckley, N. A., & Pearson, S. A. (2016). Twenty‐five years of
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Miller, A., Sanderson, K., Bruno, R., Breslin, M., & Neil, A. L. (2017). The prevalence of pain
and analgesia use in the Australian population: Findings from the 2011 to 2012
Australian National Health Survey. Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.
Nielsen, S., Lintzeris, N., Bruno, R., Campbell, G., Larance, B., Hall, W., ... & Degenhardt, L.
(2015). Benzodiazepine use among chronic pain patients prescribed opioids: associations

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Schaffer, A. L., Buckley, N. A., Cairns, R., & Pearson, S. A. (2016). Interrupted time series
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