Essay on Oxycontin: A Drug Used to Relieve Pain of Chronic Diseases

Oxycontin is a type of drug which functions as a pain reliever, especially to people who have been affected by chronic diseases such as cancer for an extended period. This narcotic alters with the nerves in the body to make them react differently to pain and as a result, inducing the calmness in the body. A medical condition such as cancer brings with it a lot of pain, especially during its final stages. This can make it unbearable for the patient to survive hence the prescription of the medication. Unappropriated use of the drug might, however, lead to unanticipated results such as addiction or death due to overdose.

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Alcohol, on the other hand, is a type of drug which is used by people differently in the effort of inducing a specific effect in the body. Low content of the drug in the body is most likely supposed to stimulate the body, thus explaining why a lot of people opt for the drug. Excessive consumption of the drug might induce depressive feelings in the body (Hwang, C. S., Chang, H. Y., & Alexander, G. C. 2015). Therefore, the reason for the use of the individual entirely depends on the likely result, thus determine the level of content consumed in the body. People drink to improve their negative feelings or increase their positivity. Some consume the drug to deal with the anxiety in them or improve their self-confidence. Therefore, this recreational drug, which is readily available in various regions, might lead to its dependency over along period.

Oxycontin, which contains the oxycodone ingredient in them, tends to alter with the nerves in the body and the brain to suppress the feeling of pain. However, their other side effects related to the drug, such as euphoria or sedation, and as a result, one ends up getting an addiction towards the drug. Alcohol, on the other hand, when used as a recreational drug, stimulates the mind of the user, and as a result, a positive mood of high self-confidence might be noted (Cicero, T. J., & Ellis, M. S. 2015). While trying to get out of alcohol dependency, oxycontin is a medication drug that, when administered by the health officer, should be followed as prescribed. By doing this, the alcohol-dependent behavior is gradually washed away from the individual, and after a while, one might not need to use prescription medicine any longer.

While medically using oxycontin to treat alcoholism, some questions need to be asked to understand the appropriate ways of control. The first and crucial question is that of the dosage. It is important to carefully understand when and how much to consume to avoid overdoses. Combining alcohol and oxycontin without prescription might cause lethal effects in the body (Hajare, R. 2018). Therefore, on requires to know from the prescribing doctor what other treatment options they have in the effort of managing the problem of alcoholism. Involving another drug to solve an addiction towards another might be a hard task, especially while dealing with distant patients. Therefore, psychoeducation is essential for the patient to understand the prescription. First, the patient should be psychologically prepared to quite the recreation drug completely with an honest report to the health officer in charge (Kalyanam, J., Katsuki, T., Lanckriet, G. R., & Mackey, T. K. 2017). They should understand the dangers that come with carelessly mixing the two drugs. Also, it is vital to psychologically educate the patient on the dosage of the oxycontin with a full explanation of the relative consequences involved with oxycontin addiction. This should prevent the patient from jumping from one addiction to another.

References

Cicero, T. J., & Ellis, M. S. (2015). Abuse-deterrent formulations and the prescription opioid abuse epidemic in the United States: lessons learned from OxyContin. JAMA Psychiatry, 72(5), 424-430.

Hwang, C. S., Chang, H. Y., & Alexander, G. C. (2015). Impact of abusedeterrent OxyContin on prescription opioid utilization. Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, 24(2), 197-204.

Hajare, R. (2018). An Attempt to Eradicate Alcohol Dependency from Adult Men in Service Privately Managed Pharmaceutical Institutions in India. Pharma Sci Analytical Res J, 1(1), 180001.

Kalyanam, J., Katsuki, T., Lanckriet, G. R., & Mackey, T. K. (2017). Exploring trends of nonmedical use of prescription drugs and polydrug abuse in the Twittersphere using unsupervised machine learning. Addictive behaviors, 65, 289-295.