Virtually every medication presents some risk of undesirable side effects, sometimes even serious ones. Doctors consider the potential benefits and risks to each patient before prescribing medications, but even then if taken for long periods of time they can have an effect on your ability to see clearly. What makes it worse is that people who abuse drugs might not understand how these factors may affect them or that prescription drugs do more than cause a high, help them stay awake, help them relax, or relieve pain. Another problem is that many drug abusers take more than one drug at a time and this can cause serious consequences, one of which is death. Every 14 minutes someone dies because of prescription pills.
This is because teenagers and adults taking Ritalin, Dexedrine, and Aderall can become addicted. The addiction problems that surfaced were noted by The National Institute of Mental Health. Also, this institution released a statement recognizing how each doctor tries to find the best medication by working closely with his or her patients. (“Some Basic”) Some doctors use short-term tablets and others use longer-term tablets. Other medications that may be prescribed to a patient with ADD and ADHD are, “antidepressant, anti-anxiety medications and mood stabilizing medications” (Medications Used to Treat).
After detoxification it is imperative that the addict continues treatment, which may include counseling, self-help groups or a combination of the two. Counseling is typically executed with a psychologist or psychiatrist. This is the point when the addict may undergo behavior therapies. These therapies can teach the addict ways and methods to cope with the addiction and its symptoms; for example, cravings, temptation to relapse, and what to do if the addict does relapse. The counseling will be more successful if it involves the addict’s friends and family as well [ (Drug Addiction, 2007)
Chemical dependency, which includes illegal narcotics, alcohol, and drugs prescribed by doctors, can be disguised as symptoms of mental illness. These mental illness symptoms can last long after the drug use was stopped. This makes it difficult for chemical dependency professional to determine if this drug use has caused mental disorders. These examples will show the similarities of symptoms of mental illness, and drug abuse. During the drug use or detoxification, depression after a cocaine withdrawal, can lead to a depression diagnoses.
Many of the drugs that are abused by our youth were manufactured and marketed to Americans by big pharmaceutical companies. These drugs are supposed to be used to lessen pain, but more times than not they are prescribed with little regard to the risks they pose. This is where the problem lies, doctors throwing prescriptions to people for small injuries which in turn into a dependency problem. ”Drugs like fentanal, codene, oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone (which is used to help treat people with opioid addictions) together are linked to 75% of prescription drug overdoses each year. These dangerous drugs are all over our streets in urban and in rural parts of the U.S.
2. For combat-related PTSD, there is more evidence that Prozosin can be particularly helpful. Although other medications like Cymbalta, Wellbutrin, and Effexor are sometimes used to treat. 3. Nevertheless other effective, helpful medications for managing PTSD include mood stabilizers, such as Lamictal, Gabitril or Depakote, as well as mood stabilizers that are antipsychotics like Resperidone, Syprexa or Seroquel.
Moreover, physicians tend to treat their patients for a specific condition without considering that their patient has probably been prescribed medications for other illnesses by other physicians. This results in a common situation among the elderly referred to as polypharmacy; one patient, taking several prescription medications combined with over-the-counter drugs or home remedies. PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS AND THE ELDERLY 4 Professor Kathleen Stassen Berger states
Emily said that over the past twenty years she has learned that physicians often overprescribe their patients for complaints of anxiety, stress, sadness, insomnia, and even everyday pain. They will prescribe too many pills per prescription and even too many refills. Another huge problem that we run into with prescription drug abuse is that the doctors don’t often look at what other doctors have prescribed to someone they are treating. Some guy could go to one doctor one week and get a bottle of Xanax, and go to a different doctor 3 days later and do the same thing because doctors often don’t get into things like that; they just trust that their patient will tell them. Well, if a person has an addiction problem, they are going to do everything they can to get what they want to
Muscle tension is also not uncommon. Dehydration is a common risk which forces users to drink water throughout their experience. However, users are also susceptible to hyponatremia, a result of drinking too much water also called “water intoxication”. Side effects also include nausea, vomiting, loss of balance, dizziness, and even vertigo. Rarely users will experience liver toxicity.
It is then very common for patients to restart the medication. "This is chasing one's tail by medicating withdrawal side effects, which often results in needlessly prolonging exposure to the drug." (Healthy Place) Not fully understanding antidepressants in the first place or the problems associated with withdrawal is causing doctors to leave their patients on the drugs for