English 219: Technical and

Professional Communication

Opiate Addiction:
Whats the Solution?
An Analytical Report

Taylor Austin

PROFESSOR AMSTUTZ
22 April 2016

Austin 1

Introduction
There are situations in life that cause people to be in pain, such as: dental procedures,
injuries, surgical procedures, muscle aches, etc. In order to relieve the intensity of the pain, health
care physicians may prescribe patients opiate medications. Unfortunately, with opiate medications,
a person may develop a tolerance. This means that the person will need more and more medication
in order to achieve the same pain relieving effect. The development of this tolerance is why many
people can have an addiction to opiate drugs. If physicians prescribe these medications to help
with the aftermath of a surgery, then how can doctors work with their patients to reduce their opiate
addictions? The purpose of this report is to determine whether or not there are solutions to opiate
addiction.
After researching different options to fix opiate addiction, I argue in this report that the
best way to fix opiate addiction is to prevent it from happening in the first place. At the end of this
report, I recommend that health care physicians work closer with their patients. I will offer
examples on how to achieve this recommendation. If new actions are not taken to fix opiate
addictions, then opiate drug abuse may rise; resulting in many unwarranted deaths.

Methodology
In order to determine whether or not opiate addictions have a solution, I needed to pull on
multiple resources. Before I started any deep research, I needed a concise definition of an opiate
drug. After learning the definition, I needed to gather background information on opiate addiction.
I gathered the information by consulting a pharmacist, analyzing a pharmacy subscription

Austin 2

magazine, and reading articles online. While researching information, many of the results skewed
to opiate abuse. Since my research question is very focused, this limited me from adding the extra
information.

Results of Study
According to Websters New World Dictionary, an opiate is a drug (as morphine, heroin,
and codeine) containing or derived from opium and tending to induce sleep and to alleviate pain.
Examples of common opiates include: codeine, hydrocodone, Vicodin, morphine, oxycodone,
hydromorphone, and fentanyl. In order to withstand the pain after a car accident or a surgery, a
patient will take an opiate medication to produce a sense of wellbeing.
The Usage
As stated earlier, opiates are prescription medications used to relieve pain. Depending on
the situation, young children all the way to elderly adults may be taking an opiate medication. For
example, young children with cancer must go through surgeries in order to get treated. As a result
of the surgeries, young children will sometimes be taking opiate medications. There are also
hospice care patients, these are patients that are considered to be chronically ill, terminally ill or
severely ill. These patients, in their final months, will have been dispensed opiate medications in
order to deal with their bodily pains. Another example of opiate usage is after a major accident,
such as a car crash. Many times, in order to tend to the pain associated with a car accident or the
surgery post car accident a doctor will prescribe the patient an opiate medication. Many patients
will continue to feel the pain in their bodies months, maybe even years after the accident (Torres,

Austin 3

Personal Interview). This thought of patients still feeling the pain years after an accident may link
to the concept of opiate addiction.
The Numbers
Health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for
painkillers in 2012, enough for every American adult to have a
bottle of pills (Melemis, Addictions and Recovery). The
number of prescriptions for painkillers is rising yearly because of
opiate addiction. Figure 1 demonstrates the steady increase of
opiate medications being dispensed from retail pharmacies. When
a patient develops a tolerance to a medication, they feel that they
need more medication to achieve the same level of pain relief. As

Figure 1

Opiate Prescriptions Dispensed By Retail

Pharmacies. N.d. Google Images, n.p

stated earlier, this leads to opiate addiction. Once a person feels that they need more they will go
to extreme lengths to get more medication.
One example is when a patient is prescribed Percocet 5/325 after a leg surgery. Percocet is
a combination of oxycodone and acetaminophen (Tylenol). The doctor may write a prescription to
have the pharmacy dispense a quantity of #30 tablets to be taken one time daily for 30 days. The
patient may go against the doctors directions and take two tablets daily to compensate for their
developed tolerance. Now, the patient runs out of their thirty tablets sooner than they should have.
In this situation, the pharmacy, by law, cannot dispense more Percocet 5/325 until the thirty days
have expired. The patient, with opiate addiction, will be so desperate to get this medication they
will buy another persons prescription medication.
Another example is when a patient will see multiple doctors so that the patient can have
several prescriptions of opiate medications written in their name. An estimated 80 percent of

Austin 4

prescription painkillers are prescribed by 20 percent of prescribers. The majority of scripts come
from primary care and internal medicine physicians. Very few pain prescriptions originate from
physician specialists (Opiate Addiction).
A final example of patients going to extreme lengths is when patients forge prescriptions
in an attempt to have the pharmacy fill the prescription. As of 2010, opiate addiction statistics
show over 12 million Americans reported using prescription pain medications for non-medicinal
purposes without having obtained an actual prescription (Treatment Options).
The Problem
Opiate addiction is a trend that is gradually rising. This trend is not favored, however, more
individuals are said to have addiction today than a decade ago. To have an addiction to oxycodone,
hydrocodone, morphine, or other opiate medications means that an individual may be abusing the
medication. If a person is said to have an addiction, the person may experience withdrawal
symptoms when the person stops using. The person may also be obsessively thinking about getting
or using the medication. The person may also have used more medication in a day, than what was
prescribed by the doctor.
The Consequences
There are many consequences that can occur as a result of being addicted to opiate
medications. One consequence is
experiencing withdrawal symptoms
if the medication is suddenly
reduced or stopped. Symptoms of
withdrawal can include restlessness,
muscle, bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea,

Figure 2

Opiate Withdrawal. N.d. Google Images, n.p.

Austin 5

vomiting, and involuntary leg movements. The Figure 2 diagram lists all the symptoms associated
with opiate withdrawal. Another consequence can be a change in behavior because of this new
dependence on a medication. The more severe consequences of opiate addiction are brain damage
and death. If opiate medications are abused, then they can cause a person brain damage that can
lead to a coma. Also, if a person were to take high doses of opiate medications this can lead to an
overdose or death.
The Solutions
Within recent years, doctors, pharmacists, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA),
and other health physicians have been working to regulate the use of opiate medications. By
working to regulate the use of opiate medications, the goal is to lower addiction and overdose rates.
To achieve this goal, health care providers have come up with a few solutions.
The first solution to regulate the use of opiate medications is to have pharmacies fill out a
PNP form on all opiate medications. This is a process to prevent patients from double doctoring
and having an excess amount of a medication at one time. A PNP form is an electronic form that
documents when an opiate medication or non-narcotic medication is filled at a pharmacy. This
allows other pharmacies and doctors to know when and where a patient got their medication filled.
For example, if a patient were to have two prescriptions for oxycodone and drop one off at
Walgreens and drop the other form off at CVS, the PNP form would prevent the patient from
getting the medication twice.
Another solution to reduce opiate addiction within
patients is by the use of naltrexone, suboxone, and methadone.
Figure 3 displays suboxone, this medication is prescribed more
than naltrexone or methadone. These are medications that are

Figure 3

Suboxone Film Packet. N.d. Google

Images, n.p

Austin 6

regulated by physicians to help patients addiction levels. Not every doctor can prescribe these
medications. Doctors and patients must be a part of a program or clinic to get one of these
medications. Since these medications are doctor specific, patients are more regulated on how often
they receive one of these medications. At my store, for example, there is a patient that drops off a
prescription for suboxone every Saturday. The patients doctor has decided to write a prescription
that will last the patient seven days. This is an inconvenience for the patient, but the result is that
the patient is more regulated on this medication opposed to a constant dependence on an opiate
medication.
The doctors or physicians use naltrexone, suboxone, and methadone to stop addiction to
opiate medications. However, naltrexone, suboxone, and methadone are highly addictive
themselves. The benefit of using these medications is that the patient can taper off of these
medications unlike opiate medications (Treating Prescription Drug Addiction).

Discussion of Results
Based upon the research, there are five things to take note of. One, opiate addiction stems
from being prescribed the medication. Two, the number of prescriptions for painkillers is
increasing rapidly due to opiate addiction. Three, people with opiate addiction will perform
desperate tasks to receive medications. Four, opiate addiction can have serious consequences on a
persons body or health. Finally, number five, there is not a direct solution to opiate addiction.

Austin 7

Recommendations
In conclusion, since there is not a direct cure for opiate addiction, I recommend that health care
professionals work with patients on preventing the addiction all together. I recommend the
following actions:

Prescribing physicians preview the consequences with their patient prior to writing a
prescription.

Prescribing physicians write out a ten-day supply of the medication opposed to thirty;
patients can return to doctor if they need more.

Patients should only be able to get prescriptions for opiate medications from their primary
care physicians.

If these recommendations are taken into consideration, then the rates of opiate addiction will
subside resulting in fewer overdose cases.

Austin 8

Works Cited
Guralnik, David B. Webster's New World Dictionary. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1982.
Print.
Melemis, Steven M. "Addictions And Recovery Website: Opiates." Addictions And Recovery.
N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2016
"Opiate Addiction." - Signs, Symptoms, Treatment & Recovery. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2016.
Torres, Paula V. "Interview with a Registered Phar." Personal interview. Apr. 2016.
"Treating Prescription Drug Addiction." Treating Prescription Drug Addiction. N.p., Nov. 2014.
Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
"Treatment Options for Prescription Drug Addiction." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.