Why are prescription pain medications addictive?
Prescription pain medications like opioids are a major cause of addiction. Nora Volkow, MD, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health, explains why.
Transcript
In the addiction to prescription medications of which the main problem has been opioids,
this is a product that emerged because of the health care system not being engaged in or involved
or have the knowledge about substance use disorders. [MUSIC PLAYING]
So you have an overprescription of opioid medications with the belief that they are-- actually
they are very potent medications against pain. And we don't have many alternatives to treat pain.
And severe pain, when untreated, can be very devastating. I think with a sense of security that these drugs
are safe if you prescribe them by someone that has pain that they will not become addicted. And rapidly, what doctors found from the data
that's emerging is people are becoming addicted even when they have pain and that opioids are very potent as addictive drugs.
And, therefore, if you don't properly prescribe them or monitoring them, you can actually escalate their use.
And unfortunately, this is facilitated by the fact that, if you give an opioid, you rapidly become tolerant.
And what does that mean? If I have pain, they give me an opioid dose. It means that I require higher and higher doses in order
to be able to have analgesia. And the higher the dose that I get, the greater the risk that I become addicted.
And the higher the dose I get, the greater the risk that I could overdose.
substance use disorder
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