Inspire Change Wellness Guide to Avoid Slipping Into Prescription Drug Add | Page 5

Due to their effectiveness in managing pain in the body, opioids are usually the go-
to drugs for most health care providers and pharmacists. Opioids are prescribed for
both short-term and long-term management of pain. Health care providers are aware
of the risk that comes with prescribing opioids. If taken in a high dosage other than
specified, the drug can easily lead to an addiction. This is also the case when one
consumes the prescription drugs to feel good or calm down.
The reason why opioids are among the most abused prescription drugs is that they
are easily accessible. Previous research shows 20% of patients who walk into a
physician’s office with non-cancer pain symptoms or both acute and chronic pain-
related symptoms received an opioid prescription. In 2012, there were a total of 259
million prescriptions of opioid painkillers in the U.S. This figure means that if the
drugs were to be handed to households, every home in the U.S. would have a bottle
of opioid pills sitting in their medicine cabinet.
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