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Narcotic Abuse
Narcotic Abuse Overview
Pain is one of the most common reasons people seek medical treatment. Doctors can prescribe several different drugs to relieve pain. The most potent pain-relieving drugs are narcotics.
In the United States, narcotics are widely prescribed. When prescribed for medical conditions, narcotics are often prescribed to treat pain. They are often given after or offered along with less-potent or less-effective pain relievers.
However, narcotic use is considered abuse when people use narcotics to seek
feelings of well-being apart from the narcotic's pain-relief
applications.
- Morphine and other natural derivatives of the opium poppy (such as codeine
and heroin) are called opiates. Drugs such as heroin and methadone are
called semisynthetic drugs. Some drugs, including endorphins, occur naturally
in the body, producing a morphinelike effect. Opiates, synthetic drugs,
semisynthetic drugs, and drugs created naturally by the body comprise the class
of drugs known as opioids or narcotics.
- The most commonly abused narcotic is heroin. Other narcotics include methadone, meperidine (Demerol), morphine, codeine, hydromorphone (Dilaudid), fentanyl, hydrocodone, and oxycodone (Percocet, Percodan).
Narcotics have many useful pain-relieving applications in medicine. They are used not only to relieve pain for people with chronic diseases such as cancer, but also to relieve pain after operations. Doctors may also prescribe narcotics for painful acute conditions, such as corneal abrasions, kidney stones, and broken bones.
When people use narcotics exclusively to control pain, it is unlikely that
they become addicted or dependent on them. A patient is given a dosage of
opioids strong enough to reduce their awareness of pain but not normally potent
enough to produce a euphoric state.
The difference between dependence and addiction
Adequate pain control is the goal for the medical use of narcotics. Thus, patients or health care professionals should not allow fear of addiction to interfere with using narcotics for effective pain relief. Differentiating dependence from addiction is important.
- People receiving maintenance opioid therapy for extended periods of time
may require increased doses to alleviate their pain. They may develop tolerance
to the drug and experience withdrawal symptoms if the medication is abruptly
stopped (this is dependence).
- Addiction is elevated narcotic abuse that becomes compulsive and
self-destructive, especially concerning an opioid user's need to obtain the
drug for non –pain-relief purposes.
- If circumstances allow, the dose for people using narcotics over an extended period of time for medical purposes is slowly lowered over a few weeks to prevent withdrawal symptoms. People who are weaned off narcotics and are pain free rarely return to or become abusers of narcotics. Narcotics used for short-term medical conditions rarely require weaning since stopping the medication after a brief period rarely produces adverse effects.
Narcotic Abuse Causes
Narcotic drugs produce their effect by stimulating opioid receptors in the central nervous system and surrounding tissues.
The abuse of narcotics is a result of the euphoria and sedation that narcotics produce within the central nervous system. Abusers of intravenously injected heroin describe the effects as a “rush” or orgasmic feeling followed by elation, relaxation, and then sedation or sleep.
WebMD Medical Reference from eMedicineHealth
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