In America today, there is the raising concern over the use and abuse of prescription painkillers. Although this may be true, the main purpose of prescription painkillers is to relieve pain caused by injury and/or illness. While prescription painkillers benefit people who are suffering from pain, doctors need to self should-regulate the amount of prescription painkillers given because of the increase risk of an overdose, the greater risk of addiction, and patients fall victim to the illegal drug trade just to settle their addiction.
Regulate Doctors
First, doctors need to self should-regulate the amount of prescription painkillers given because of the increase risk of an overdose. Equally Important, …show more content…
On the positive side, according to a spokeswoman for the trade association America's Health Insurance Plans states, “many plans do cover specially made painkillers that deter abuse, and if they don't, insurers would most likely have a process in place for patients to appeal” (Schroeder, 2015, para. 14). On the negative side, there are doctors that are abusing their doctorial positions and creed “to do no harm” by overdosing patients with prescription painkillers. Specifically, Dr. Hsiu-Ying "Lisa" Tseng, from Los Angeles, who overdosed and killed three of her patients because she wrote large amount of prescription painkillers to people who did not fall into the guidelines of a patient needing painkillers ("California doctor," 2015, para. 1). Similarly, Dr. Iraj Derakhshan Risk of Addiction, had to face a medical board hearing for over writing prescriptions for painkillers to a patient for headaches until the patient became addicted (Ebert, 2015, para. 1). Additionally, due to my disability, doctors have in the past …show more content…
Given that over use of a prescription painkiller can not only cause medical conditions but also produces a high risk for addiction. A recent article in the in the U.S. Newspaper talked about how study conducted resulted in the decade a decline in painkiller addiction, however, the article also talked about how most people on strong painkillers are more than likely addicted by now (Mozes, 2015, para. 1). When I realized that I was becoming addicted to morphine, fortunately, unlike many others from the news article, I was able to seek treatment for my addiction and pain management through exploring alternative treatments such as, Radiofrequency Ablation. Most compelling study that is interesting from a study at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, shows that 1 out of 4 people admit to taking painkillers, 70 percent of people have at some time been on painkillers and 20 percent have taking painkillers that are not prescribed for them (Dallas, 2015, para.