Opioids: From Healing to Harm

~ Use with care— the line between medicine and misuse is thinner than you think.

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What Is Opioid Misuse?

People often use certain substances, including opioids, to manage pain, improve mood, or relieve various mental and physical symptoms. While opioids can be effective for these purposes, they also carry a high potential for misuse. Misuse can include more frequent use than recommended or prescribed, done to produce a euphoric or recreational effect. Over time, repeated misuse can lead to serious problems, including loss of control over use, physical and psychological dependence, and significant impairment in daily functioning.

The American Psychiatric Association states 11 criteria for substance use disorder. Endorsing two or more constitutes a diagnosis.

The Eleven criteria for substance use disorder

Effects and Consequences:

General use of prescribed opioids are sometimes coupled with side effects of sedation, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, constipation, respiratory depression, physical dependence, and tolerance. There may also be impairment of cognitive and psychomotor functioning. Chronic opioid users may not experience the same impairments due to their higher tolerance and desensitization. Instead, there are additional neurocognitive deficits, such as impairments in verbal working memory, impulsivity, and cognitive flexibility.

Many opiate users begin their use for legitimate, genuine pain such as chronic pain and cancer pain patients. Over time, some people may go on to misuse these drugs which may lead to further negative impact on the individual’s health. Respiratory depression, or slowed breathing, can occur due to the sedative effects of the drug and may result in overdose and death. Another component of opioid misuse is the tendency of the affected individual to engage in other risky activities such as crime and theft to obtain money for their drugs.

Short and long-term side effects of Opioid Abuse

Access and Prescription Patterns

Many of those with opioid disorder usually take additional pills that were not prescribed to them or higher doses than needed. A major issue yet to be tackled is the source from which the people obtain the pain killers. Of the approximate 11.5 million people that misused opioids in the last year, 53% obtained them from a source other than their prescribing physician, such as from relatives or friends, much of the time receiving the opioids free of charge. Only 37.5% of people who indicated having misused pain killers in the last year acquired them from a health care provider. This transfer of prescription drugs from legal to illegal use is called drug diversion.

Most people who misuse opioids do so for reasons beyond pain relief. Common motivations include wanting to “get high,” relax, improve mood, sleep better, experiment, or manage emotions.

Prevention Strategies

·      Universal prevention: Programs aimed at the general population to reduce the risk of opioid misuse across society.

·      Selective prevention: Focuses on groups with higher-than-average risk—such as patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain, or relatives of people who misuse opioids.

·      Indicated prevention: Targets individuals who are already misusing prescription opioids to prevent escalation into riskier behaviours like injecting drugs.

Preventive measures to control Opioid misuse

Conclusion:

Opioids misuse is extremely harmful to our body and should only be consumed in prescribed amounts. The side effects of its abuse are vast and detrimental to a person’s life. It will take the combined effort of community members, healthcare professionals, policymakers and researchers in order to prevent and treat opioid misuse.

References:

Bolshakova M, Bluthenthal R, Sussman S. Opioid use and misuse: health impact, prevalence, correlates and interventions. Psychol Health. 2019 Sep;34(9):1105-1139. doi: 10.1080/08870446.2019.1622013. Epub 2019 Jun 8. PMID: 31177850; PMCID: PMC7456364.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7456364/#ABS1