Causes and Effects of Opioid Use: Impact on Public Health and Society

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the causes and effects of opioid use. It identifies factors contributing to increased opioid prescriptions, such as the lack of consensus on alternative pain management drugs, patient demand, for-profit clinics, pharmaceutical advertising, and inadequate supervision of medication consumption. The essay details the adverse effects of increased opioid use, including addiction, increased mortality rates, drug tolerance, and various side effects like hormonal imbalances, sedation, and potential respiratory and cardiac problems. The author cites multiple research studies to support the claims and concludes by emphasizing the need to address both the causes and the consequences of the opioid crisis to improve public health outcomes. The essay highlights the need for effective strategies to manage chronic pain and reduce the risks associated with opioid use.

Running head: CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF OPIOID USE
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Causes and Effects of Opioid Use
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Introduction
Like any other drug, there exist a lot of research that has been carried out to determine,
the causes and side effect of prescribing opioids. One of these studies reveals that more
Australian is dying from the use of the drug than those from the use of heroin. In most countries,
the opioid is a legal drug prescribed to manage chronic pain (Vachon-Presseau et al., 2016). The
drug is effective and does not have any side effects when used in low doses but can have
devastating consequences when used in high quantities. Thus, this paper elaborates on the causes
of the increase in the prescription of the drug and some of the effects that come as a result.
Causes of increase in the prescription
One of the causes of increased prescription of the drug is lack of consensus in regards to
the appropriate drug that can be used for relieving chronic pain. For any drug to be barred or
increase its usage, policy makers and drug specialist have to approve the drug or disapprove it.
About opioids, this group of people has not effectively come up with a drug that can manage
chronic pain instead of opioids (Hertzog, 2017). Thus, as far as they do not come up to a
consensus on the right drug, the prescription of the drug will continue to be on the rise.
In addition to that, there is a growing demand from patients. Most patients prefer the drug
for many reasons. For the case of adolescents, they like the euphoric feeling of the drug, making
it a factor of preference for the drug to other drugs. Thus, this demand has seen an increase in
prescription of the drug. Moreover, there are concerns about the rise of for-profit clinics that are
not necessarily following standards of practice before prescribing drugs to patients (Deyo, Von
Korff, & Duhrkoop, 2015). Therefore, this enables drug addicts to find an easier route of
accessing the drug instead of buying expensive illegal drugs.

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Moreover, there is the rise in pharmaceutical companies that are advertising opioids as
the best effective drug to relieve a person from chronic pain. This is another cause of increased
prescription of the drug as there are quite a good number of people who are going to fall victims
of the idea of the advertiser (DePriest et al., 2015). Additionally, advertising enables people
without knowledge of the drug to conclude that the right drug is now available in the market.
Lastly, there are no effective mechanisms to supervise consumption of medicines, especially in
drug treatment programs. Therefore, creating a situation where people can prescribe and use
medicines without restriction or with minimal restrictions. Opioids, being one of the drugs that
creates a euphoric feeling, become popular under this circumstances, and this is another factor or
cause of the increasing prescription of the drug.
Effects of increased prescription of Opioids
Opioid as a drug has many side effects which have attracted concerns from various
bodies including the World Health Organization calls for the generation of an alternative (Jones
et al., 2015). However, with the increase in prescription of the drug, there come side effects. First
and foremost among the side effects that the drug generates is increased number of addicts. The
drug is known to cause dependency when used in large quantity. With the increase in
prescription of the drug, more people have come to misuse the drug to the extent of a having a
population of addicts of the drug and creation of rehabs to cater for the same addicts. In addition
to that, increased use of the drug has seen an increased number of deaths related to the use of the
drug (Kolodny et al., 2015). It is worth noting that abusers of opioids also indulge themselves in
abuse of other substances like alcohol and illegal drugs which have side effects on health status.
Consequently, there are quite some deaths attributed to the opioids.

CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF OPIOID USE 4
Another effect that increased prescription of the opioids creates is tolerance of the drug.
This denotes the ability of the body to fail to respond to treatment or effects of a drug. An opioid
is helpful for pain management; however, increasing prescription of the drug is causing another
problem which is rendering the drug ineffective (Vowles et al., 2015). This is a serious case
which is affecting most users and needs to be taken care of since there is still no effective drug to
administer to people experiencing chronic pain.
In addition to that, increasing prescription of opioids causes the side effects to people
who are prescribed the drug. This includes lungs, heart problem, and dry mouth. Additionally,
the drug is known to cause hormonal imbalance in males (Jones et al., 2015). To elaborate on
this, opioids have significant influence in reducing testosterone levels in males thus lowering
their sex drive. On the other hand, the use of the opioid is related to sedation which is a condition
where a person falls asleep or feels sleepy most of the time. In its worst-case scenario, this may
lead to accidents and fall from high heights. In regards to problems associated with lungs and
heart, the drug has the potential to slow down the brain ability to monitor breathing, thus, has a
significant influence on breathing. These are some of the effects of increasing prescription of
opioids.
Conclusion
Therefore, it is evident that there are causes that are leading to the increased prescription
of opioids which in effects has consequences as a result. Some of the causes of this increase
include but are not limited to demand for the drug from patients. Another one is the rise of
pharmaceutical companies advocating for the drug. There is also lack of consensus among
experts on the right medicine for pain management and lastly, is increased number of for-profit

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clinics that prescribe the drug. On the other hand, the effects of this increase include increased
death, the rise of addicts, tolerance of the drug and many other side effects of the drugs in the
population of users.

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References
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Deyo, R. A., Von Korff, M., & Duhrkoop, D. (2015). Opioids for low back pain. Bmj, 350,
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Hertzog, D. L. (2017). A Case Study of Law Enforcement Officers' Perceptions on Mitigating
Opioid Overdoses in Pennsylvania(Doctoral dissertation, Northcentral
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Vowles, K. E., McEntee, M. L., Julnes, P. S., Frohe, T., Ney, J. P., & van der Goes, D. N.
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