subject: What You Must Know About Opiate-based Painkillers [print this page] A lot of people don't even think that pills prescribed by a doctor can be addictive. Painkillers are the most common drugs that people unsuspectingly get addicted to. The human body naturally deals with pain by releasing serotonin or dopamine that gives the body feelings of pleasure or comfort, painkillers bring that feeling along quicker than normal. It takes the neuropathic pathways to work with the brain to secrete and deliver natural pain killing hormones. With potent painkiller medicines, many people get a feeling of numbness as anxiety symptoms and tenseness drifts away
With extented use, patients become more tolerant and find that they need to take an increasing number of pills to have the same relief. There has been a huge problem with the easy availability of codeine based painkillers which happen to be highly effective and dangerously so since they can be purchased over the counter in most countries around the world. Codeine is a dangerous synthetic opiate, along with harder drugs like heroin and morphine. Substance abuse can be found almost everywhere in society.
Opiates are the most obsessive substances and can prove fatal when taken in high dosage which often happens when people are induced to take more in order to have the euphoric feeling reproduced. An opiate addict will feel pain when he has not taken the drug, so the real use of opiate based pain killers stops being the pain relief but it becomes vital for feeling euphorically normal. The patient might not be aware that he is addicted or might try to hide the fact that he is, because of the fear that the doctor will stop suggesting that medication to him. Withdrawal symptoms can vary in intensity from pain, respiratory failure, to mood swings, depression and even death. Most codeine based pain relievers contain paracetamol which by itself is not necessarily addictive but can be bad for a person's liver.
There are some common things that prescription drug addicts often do to get the medications they need to feed their addiction. They might go from one doctor to another to get prescriptions and will ask for extra under various pretexts like going on holiday. The internet has made it harder to curb the problem of getting prescription medications without a doctor's consent and so most people go to the internet to get the drugs they need.
Doctors should be careful about prescribing pain relievers and should suggest drug rehab center as soon as they realize that their patients have fallen prey to addiction. It is essential that patients aren't vilified because generally they don't fully realize the problems that come with prescription drugs.
