Are you addicted to energy drinks and prescription pain killers? UC Davis is studying addiction to painkillers and also how doctors need to be trained to monitor patients using prescription painkillers. Opioids are the most abused prescription drugs, according to recent University of California Davis studies. Some detox procedures cost $20,000 for a one-hour detox. Check it out in the video that discusses a nursing student and single mother's experience. The uTube video discusses the rapid type of detox program. But the patient might go back to the same lifestyle, work stress, and environment.
On another note, check out the uTube video on addiction by nursing student on uTube. There's one problem with college students on painkillers and another problem of single mothers who also are students and work to keep the family together. Work and life stress might lead to pain, which may lead to taking prescription drugs, usually painkillers--to the point of addiction.
UC Davis did a study on who uses prescription painkillers, and concluded that the doctors need additional training on dealing with those addicted to painkillers, not people who need to take the edge of pain for short-term use of the drugs, for example, after surgery.
Why are so many children addicted to prescription painkillers that are trickling down to younger and younger age groups? There's a problem about prescription painkiller addiction and also food addiction, and doctors are in need of more training in how to monitor patients on prescription painkillers. If they are throwing away old medications, why are so many prescription painkillers landing up in the hands of school kids?
See the UC Davis Newswatch video, "Doctors Need Training on Managing Pain Meds," reporting on UC Davis's study of local pharmacies targeting the topic of who fills the most prescriptions for painkillers. Also see the video, "Doctor Shopping for Painkillers a Problem." Pain is the most common reason that a patient goes to see a doctor.
Food also is used sometimes, like a drug, in order to make an individual feel like a better person, more important, good about oneself, or even higher in self esteem. And the four most addictive foods are sugar, chocolate, meat, and cheese. But drug addicts also get 'hooked' by prescription drugs, rationalizing that if a doctor ordered the drug for them and wrote a prescription, it must be in their best interest to make them healthier.
How does this type of conclusion occur? According to an August 20, 2010 University of Buffalo, NY news release, "Drug addicts get hooked via prescriptions, keep using 'to feel like a better person,' research shows," research from the NIH/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, just published their research on how people become addiction.
You can become addicted to foods also. And the foods you crave most could be just the foods to which you're allergic or have adverse reactions to, but keep craving the foods in spite of how they make you feel hours later.
If you want to know how people become addicted and why they keep using drugs, ask the people who are addicted. Thirty-one of 75 patients hospitalized for opioid detoxification told University at Buffalo physicians they first got hooked on drugs legitimately prescribed for pain.
Thirty-one of 75 patients hospitalized for opioid detoxification told University at Buffalo physicians they first got hooked on drugs legitimately prescribed for pain.Another 24 began with a friend's left-over prescription pills or pilfered from a parent's medicine cabinet. The remaining 20 patients said they got hooked on street drugs.
However, 92 percent of the patients in the study said they eventually bought drugs off the street, primarily heroin, because it is less expensive and more effective than prescriptions. They continued using drugs because they "helped to take away my emotional pain and stress," "to feel normal," "to feel like a better person." Results of the study appear in the current issue of Journal of Addiction Medicine.
Also see another study, "Increased Alcohol Consumption, Nonmedical Prescription Drug Use, and Illicit Drug Use Are Associated With Energy Drink Consumption Among College Students." Did you know that the more energy drinks consumed by college students, the more they are likely to drink more alcohol, use more non-medical prescription drugs, or even use illicit drugs? How is that related to energy drinks?
It's because the energy drinks contain stimulants such as caffeine and other similar substances that speed up an under-aroused nervous system. The goal is energy with a kick that the individual with an over-aroused nervous system would avoid as it might cause anxiety or panic attacks to some (but not all so-called 'nervous' people). Under-aroused people usually take more risks and are sensation-seeking personality types.
Over-aroused people (nervous systems) usually take less risks and seek relaxation, meditation, serenity and harmony through soothing, slow-beat music. They don't seek sensations, but instead seek a feeling of relaxation. Alertness is obtained through getting enough sleep, eating foods that don't make them feel shaky, and stretching exercises such as yoga, Tai Chi, and Qi Kung. They want to avoid adrenaline/insulin rushes.
The college-age population not bothered by anxiety feelings from sensation-seeking makes up a large number of the youthful population. A substantial and rapidly growing proportion of college students use energy drinks.
Energy drink users tend to have greater involvement in alcohol and other drug use and higher levels of sensation seeking, relative to nonusers of energy drinks. Prospectively, energy drink use has a unique relationship with nonmedical, recreational use of prescription stimulants and analgesics.
More research is needed regarding the health risks associated with energy drink use in young adults, including their possible role in the development of substance use problems. According to the recent study published August 20, 2010, "Drug addicts get hooked via prescriptions, keep using 'to feel like a better person,' research shows," the information will be used to train medical students and residents at the University of Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and practicing physicians to screen for potential addiction among their patients, and to perform an intervention or refer for treatment before an addiction becomes life-threatening.
Look at all the celebrities you hear about in the news increasingly addicted to prescription drugs they get from their doctors. The study focused on how they first got hooked. How certain personality types, which may be genetic get hooked on prescription drugs is that they first start using them for pain control
In the study, a little more than half -- 51 percent -- said they first used the drugs for pain -- after surgery, for back pain or after an injury, and 49 percent said because they were curious and/or someone they were with had the drugs.
Those who became addicted from using drugs legally prescribed for pain were more likely to be older, female, have a college degree and more likely to take their drugs orally, rather than nasally or via injection, according to the study.
How do people get prescription drugs other than from their doctors? Usually a friend lends them a pain pill. Some college students have pill parties. Why are kids using prescription drugs--even Viagra?
Prescription drugs are available in high schools, "at the prom" and used by athletes "to make it through the game," and later to get high on weekends and during the off-season, according to the users that gave their responses in the study.
When asked if any doctor had ever asked about a substance use problem before writing a prescription, of the 53 participants who answered the question, 74 percent said no.
How can your doctor stop you from become addicted to prescription drugs? You can start by warning patients of side effects. Why aren't doctors, for example, in Sacramento, monitoring patients closely when they're on prescription pain killers? Are doctors telling patients to throw out prescription medicines to prevent addiction?
In Sacramento and Davis burglars that enter homes usually head first to the medicine cabinet to steal prescription drugs, usually painkillers that then can be sold on the street. Next comes the computer and other electronic devices as part of stolen property.
The rise in stealing prescription drugs from homes is notable. What type of painkillers are taken from house-break-in situations in Sacramento? It's usually the prescription painkillers that are difficult to get. And if the people stealing them aren't addicted, then they sell them on the street, sometimes to college students.
Prescription painkillers aren't only for kids. You have middle-aged celebrities addicted to painkillers. It's in the news. See the article, Vicodin Addiction: UPN 13 Investigation. Online there's a number of websites devoted to which celebrity is addicted to what painkiller prescription drug. What doctors are monitoring them?
See the article, Painkillers - Blog Toplist. You also can check out Key Warning Signs of Prescription Painkiller Dependency.
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