Symptoms and Treatment of Opioid Addiction

01 Feb Symptoms and Treatment of Opioid Addiction

Opioids are a range of drugs or medications that include synthetic and semi-synthetic medicine made from opiate alkaloid derived from the opium poppy. Several of the most commonly prescribed opioid medicine such as Vicodin, OxyContin, Lortab, and Percocet, are used for managing acute pain. Opioids should be used carefully because when abused, they’re known to be highly addictive.

This is because they depress the CNS or central nervous system function as well as key physical processes such as your respiratory rate. Therefore, opioids can cause a devastating amount of fatalities when abused or overdosed upon. This type of drug can also result to addiction because of how highly addictive it is.

The Etymology of Opioids and Opiates

Opiates or opioids cover a class of substances ranging from OTC or prescription drugs like morphine, codeine, and fentanyl to illegal drugs such as opium and heroin. In terms of common word usage or connotations, most use “opioid” to refer to prescription or legal opiates, while the term “opiates” cover both legal and illegal types of opiates even though most link the word to the illicit variety of drugs.

Technically, “opiates” cover drugs that are naturally derived from the opium poppy and its active narcotic components. Meanwhile, “opioids” also includes semi-synthetic and fully synthetic drugs that are modified versions of these so-called opiate building blocks. People can interchangeably refer to “opioids” as “opiates” and vice-versa though according to nonstandard or casual reference.

 

Opioid Abuse and Addiction Statistics 

Here are the latest statistics regarding opioid use and abuse. 

• There’s an estimated 210 million opioid prescriptions dispensed back in 2010. Meanwhile, close to 12 million individuals confessed to opioid and opiate abuse by taking them for non-medical or recreational reasons.

• Also in 2010, the amount of opioid painkillers prescribed in that year alone was enough to medicate every American 24 hours a day for a whole month. 

• Nearly 18,000 people have passed away because of opioid medication overdose in 2015. Therefore, recognizing overdose symptoms can help you save your life or the lives of others that you know.

• The deaths from opioid painkillers outnumber the deaths linked from all illegal drugs combined (from cocaine to meth).

• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are studies revealing that as many as 3 out of 4 current heroin users used to be abusers of opioids prescribed to them. 

 

Teenage Opioid Abuse and Addiction Statistics 

In regards to teenage opiate abuse, teens typically use OxyContin and Vicodin as their opioids of choice. They’re the easiest prescription opiates that teenagers can access. Furthermore, younger users of these prescribed drugs will likelier use those particular brands because of their misconceptions regarding how safe these drugs are. 

In 2014, the National Institute on Drug Abuse offered the following stats regarding teen opioid abuse and addiction: 

• 8 percent of high school seniors were using Vicodin during 2013.
• 3 percent of high school seniors were using OxyContin during 2013.
• Only 1 percent of high school seniors used heroin in their entire lifetime. 

Teenagers are likelier to combine opioids with alcohol, which is also a depressant (thus doubling the depressant effects of both). This also leads to more dangerous side effects, including a higher risk of undergoing severe respiratory depression. 

What Are the Examples of Opiates or Opioids? 

The examples of opiates or opioids include the following: 

• Heroin
• Codeine
• Fentanyl
• Morphine
• Hydrocodone (also known as Lortab and Vicodin)
• Oxycodone (also known as Percocet and OxyContin) 

 

Risk Factors of Opioid Abuse and Addiction 

Taking opioids outside of the recommended dosage indicated on the doctor’s prescription can be quite risky or even outright fatal down the line as abuse worsens. This is because your risk of overdose is increased and the cycle of addiction is perpetuated until that happens. 

A number of other factors can also lead to overdose, which includes the following: 

• Tolerance: Once you abuse opioids, you’ll notice that you need increasing doses to achieve the desired effect you first got. This also happens after long-term use. The body develops tolerance the longer it uses this drug. Meanwhile, escalating doses can lead to an increase overdose risk. 

• Relapse: When you relapse into using opioids again after an abstinence period wherein your tolerance for the drug is rest, you might end up returning to your pre-abstinence dose. However, because your tolerance is reset, the dose you left off with can end up too high for your body to handle, resulting in overdose when push comes to shove.

• Mixing Drugs: Combining prescription opiates with other drugs can increase your overdose risk, particularly when combined with alcohol, which is another CNS depressant. The resulting dangers depend on whether you combined your opioid with stimulants, depressants, sedatives, sedatives, tranquilizers, anti-anxiety medication, and the like.

Additionally, when you combine opioids with alcohol, you can suffer from respiratory dangers since both are depressants. What’s more, in drugs such as Vicodin, the ingredient acetaminophen is present, so combining that brand of opioid with alcohol can lead to severe liver toxicity.

• Methods of Use: How you ingest your drugs can lead to a rapid onset of effects. For example, if you snort or inject your opioids, you’ll have a higher overdose risk than using the slower, metabolic methods like simply swallowing a pill. The fast onset of effects leads to your body becoming more tolerant to the drug because it’s exposed to more of it at a faster rate. 

 

Signs and Symptoms of Opioid Abuse and Addiction

Opiate addiction indicators are aplenty, but a major one involves continued substance use that can cross the line towards outright abuse. An addicted person might continue using and abusing the substance even in the face of negative repercussions in place for doing so because they couldn’t help themselves and they’re already hooked on the effects of the prescription opiate in question. 

The physical signs that someone’s abusing opioids include the following symptoms:

• Confusion
• Constipation
• Slowed breathing
• Constricted pupils
• Loss of consciousness
• Intermittent nodding off
• Noticeable elation or euphoria
• Marked sedation or drowsiness

 

Other signs of opioid abuse include the following behavioral changes and consequences of being addicted:

• Sudden financial problems
• Social withdrawal or isolation
• Dramatically changing or shifting moods
• Pill bottles end up filling up their trash bins
• Shopping for doctors in order to get multiple prescriptions of opioids 

 

The withdrawal symptoms from opioids can be quite like flu symptoms, so watch out. These include the following:

• Fatigue
• Anxiety
• Diarrhea
• Sweating
• Headache
• Inability to sleep
• Nausea and vomiting 

 

When the patient takes higher doses of opioids than their brain and body can take, they might end up overdosing, which can be life-threatening. There are 3 key symptoms to look out for when a person experiences an overdose with opioids (also known as the opioid overdose triad). They include the following: 

• Pupils that have become pinpoints
• Breathing that has slowed or stopped
• Non-responsiveness or unconsciousness 

 

Respiratory depression caused by opioid abuse is one of the most fatal symptoms. This is because it can result in inadequate blood oxygenation or hypoxia, which in turn can cause you permanent brain damage or outright death. Another thing of concern with opioid abuse is slowed or stopped heart rate, which is also quite dangerous. 

Aside from opioid overdose symptoms, you should also watch out for these signs and symptoms of abuse: 

• Pale face
• Vomiting
• Limp body
• Clammy skin
• Purple or blue color of the fingernails and lips

If an overdose is suspected to happen or if any of these symptoms are present in a known abuser of opioids, seek emergency medical assistance ASAP. 

What to Do If You Overdose on Opioids

The first step to dealing with an opioid overdose is to immediately call an emergency number to get immediate medical assistance. It could mean the difference between life and death.

• A Dangerous Condition: Overdosing on opioids can lead to a dangerous condition that can cause permanent mental and physical damage as well as death if medical treatment is not administered immediately. Don’t wait to seek help in order to save an overdosing person’s life, which can include your own. 

• Monitored Closely in a Safe Place: While waiting for emergency aid to get to the overdosed individual, he should be monitored closely and placed in a safe place while upright and awake. If the person has stopped breathing or is quite weak, a trained person should perform CPR on him. Once the medical crew arrives, report all your observations.

• The Opioid Antidote of Naxolone: After the person is under medical professional care, their vital signs (temperature, blood pressure, breathing, and heart rate) will be monitored and treated as required. When dealing with severe cases, administering naloxone is called for. Naxolone is considered an opioid antidote that reverses many of a prescription opiate’s most dangerous effects.

• Best Chance of Survival: If you’re overdosing on opioids or opiates, your best chances of survival lie in the hands of medical professionals. Medical oversight is required when treating an opioid overdose. Never treat this condition without a doctor or emergency personnel involved. At best, bystanders can do CPR on the overdosing person before help arrives. 

 

The Effects of Opioid Abuse and Addiction 

In regards to the effects of opioid abuse, it can get muddled or end up misleading because they may only concentrate on short-term impact.

For instance, opioids usually cause the following short-term effects (that also includes symptoms of withdrawal):

• Sedation
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Delayed reactions 

 

It’s therefore often left unmentioned or outright neglected that there are long-term symptoms of abuse as well. These include the following: 

• Gastric problems
  • Constipation
  • Intestinal ileus
  • Bowel perforation
• Significant respiratory depression
• Weakened immune system function
• Cumulative hypoxic end-organ injury
• A wide range of medical issues secondary to intravenous administration
  • Embolic events
  • Systemic infection
  • Localized abscesses
  • Contraction of blood-borne illnesses 

 

The Treatment of Opioid Abuse and Addiction 

Recovering from opioid or prescription opiate abuse typically starts with the following questions linked to the nature of your addiction. Ask yourself the following questions and present the answers to your rehab doctor: 

• How long have you taken the opioid?
• How do you usually get your opioid supply?
• When was the last time you took the opioid? 

 

The questions above assist the clinic in deciding what treatment approach is most appropriate. The main options for opioid abuse and addiction treatment include:

• Inpatient rehabilitation
• Outpatient rehabilitation
• Detoxification programs 

 

Detox can be incorporated into inpatient rehab as a precursor to rehab or done separately. Meanwhile outpatient rehab can be utilized for primary care and/or aftercare for addiction treatment. 

Let’s take a more in-depth look into these treatment options. 

• Detoxification Programs: Detox involves withdrawing from the drug in question, often in a slow manner while using stabilizing and maintenance medication under medical supervision. This is to avoid severe or even life-threatening withdrawal symptoms from abrupt cessation of opioid usage. It’s also usually the precursor to the actual drug rehab process. 

If you’re undergoing detoxification from powerful opiates, you might be prescribed the medications of buprenorphine or methadone to make your transition from dependency to abstinence much more manageable. To maintain your safety, detox should be finished on an inpatient basis. You require monitoring from doctors to keep you safe from the dangers of opioid withdrawal symptoms. 

• Outpatient Rehabilitation: Following detoxification, most will be referred for continued treatment to either inpatient or outpatient rehab. Which one you’ll end up in depends on a number of factors. As far as outpatient therapy is concerned, many patients who wish to continue their work or schooling while undergoing rehab can do so with this type of rehab. 

Outpatient rehab typically comes in the form of 12-step programs that are cut from the same cloth as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. They can also avail of outpatient treatment if they’re opioid usage isn’t too excessive just yet, they require the presence of family support, they want to continue going back home every day after attending scheduled rehab meetings, and they wish to undergo a more economical treatment plan.

• Inpatient Rehabilitation: A patient suffering from opioid addiction should avail of inpatient or residential rehab if he can afford it (since this includes room and board on top of treatment) of if he has ample amounts of resources or insurance coverage to make it possible. He should also undergo this rehab in case he has had previous attempts at recovery. You can also avail of medical or rehab tourism in another country to make this type of rehab more affordable for you. 

Residential rehab has a more focused and secluded method of taking care of opioid addiction. It’s beneficial in the way it keeps you from the triggers or environment that pushed you towards abusing opioids in the first place. It involves staying at a rehab facility from 30 to 90 days or 1 to 3 months under the watchful eyes of doctors, therapists, and counselors. His time there will be devoted to activities that promote recovery such as group therapy, individual therapy, and the like. 

While undergoing inpatient or outpatient therapy, the counselor or therapist will be talking to you in order to unlock what triggers your addiction in the first place. They also have programs designed to help you develop coping mechanisms to resist opioid usage or the temptation of many other drugs while seeking out healthy support systems from family and/or friends. 

Rehab can also help you reconnect with your loved ones. Just remember that outpatient treatment is the type of rehab you attend meetings for so that you don’t have to put your life on hold while in rehab. However, if you’re recovering from severe opiate addiction, going to a residential treatment center in the form of a halfway house or sober living facility might be called for. 

Whether you require attending a weekly or daily 12-step program or peer support group or having a retreat in a wellness center, rehab is the perfect chance for you to become sober and rebuild your life in a safe and supportive environment. 

The Spread of Opioid Abuse and Addiction 

In the United States, prescription opiate or opioid addiction is one of the biggest drug problems the nation has. Opioids are surprisingly easy to access by many Americans. Scarily, opioid abusers are likelier to develop heroin addictions down the line compared to non-opiate abusers. This is because heroin itself is an opiate that offers a similar high for a much cheaper cost. 

Long-term drug usage puts anyone at risk of addiction, even if the drug in question is prescribed. Many of those who use opioids tend to develop a tolerance to them, which is something that can trigger the addiction cycle. This means that the same amount of opioids will no longer have the same effect later on compared to when you were first exposed to it.

Once tolerance develops, the user routinely takes more and more of the drug to get that initial effect or the desired response (whether it’s getting high or achieving pain relief). The rising dosage places a person at great risk for overdose and addiction when all is said and done. 

Lanna Rehab and Opioid Addiction Treatment in Thailand 

Call the Lanna Rehab Wellness Center Thailand through their 24/7 hotline and book a stay at their luxury accommodations. This is the place to be when it comes to treating opioid addiction to prescription drugs like morphine, codeine, and fentanyl or even opiate addiction to illicit drugs like heroin and opium. 

The center knows how to treat opiate and opioid abuse from various opiate drugs. This rehabilitation facility includes a special package deal that offers free consultation, personalized care, medicine-assisted detoxification, the latest state-of-the-art equipment, and international-grade doctors, professional therapists, experienced counselors, various sponsors, and so forth.