When the medicines such as common painkillers, stimulants and sedatives are used in excess without the physician’s prescription this phenomenon is known as prescription drug abuse.

Survey conducted in 2007 by the National Institute on Drug Abuse reveals that, prescription drug abuse crops up in more than 20 percent of U.S. college students as well as in non-college seniors. Most popular for the prescription drug abuse are codeine-based painkillers such as Oxycodone, stimulants such as Dexedrine and those containing Hydrocodone.

Common central nervous system (CNS) acting drugs for the treatment of physiological problems include barbiturates e.g. pentobarbital sodium, and benzodiazepines such as diazepam, bromazepam and alprazolam.


Prescription drug abuse rarely occurs in those patients who use abused painkillers, sedatives or stimulants to treat a medical condition on regular basis. But it is hard to differentiate between such patient how need heavy dose to control pain and the person who is abusing painkiller.

Immediately inform your doctor when you feel, anyone in your family, including yourself, may be abusing prescription drugs.

Causes

According to survey, prescription drug abuse has very much increased since the drugs have become easier to get.

For instance, U.S. prescriptions for CNS acting drugs have increased from around 5 million in 1991 to 35 million in 2007. Prescriptions for opioid painkillers have amplified from 40 million to 180 million in the period of 1991 to 2007.

Many families have a drawer filled with the bottle of old prescription drugs containing leftover drugs. Most of the teens believe that, prescription drugs are a safer alternative to street or illicit drugs.

Complications

Because the medicines linked with prescription drug abuse stimulate the brain’s reward center, it’s easy to become addicted to them. Addicts keep on using their selected drug even when these drugs makes their lives worse — just like nicotine addicts continue smoking cigarettes even when it harms their health and they want to quit it too.

Use of drug with alcohol, particularly sedatives and tranquilizers, is even more dangerous than we imagine.

Prevention

To cut the availability of addictive drugs to teens, adults should keep such medications in a locked cabinet and dispose of any unwanted medicine. The federal government recommends flushing opioid painkillers down the toilet.

Doctors can play a vital role in the prevention of prescription drug abuse, by reducing the number of prescription of such drugs and by taking thorough histories and providing watchful follow-up for the people they’ve prescribed opioid painkillers, sedatives, tranquilizers or stimulants.

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