The improved access to health care provided by the Affordable Care Act enabled millions of Americans to seek regular treatment from their doctors. As patients, we want to believe our doctors have our best interest in mind when they prescribe medications. When patients report feeling pain or dealing with health issues, doctors are quick to write prescriptions to help.
In the early 90s, pharmaceutical companies were quick to promote the use of opioids to treat patients. They convinced doctors and users alike that these medications were safe, effective, and presented no chance of addiction. This could not be farther from the truth.
Doctors are listening to the pharmaceutical companies and prescribing opioids at an alarming rate. Unfortunately, the help they are giving is doing more damage than good. One of the biggest problems in the United States today is opioid abuse. Doctors are all too quick to write prescriptions for patients without weighing the problems that could arise.
In the year 2016, over 2.1 million individuals in the United States begin using prescription opioids from their doctors. Around 30% of patients prescribed opioids misuse the medication. This equates to 11.5 million individuals (2016) in the United States. Over 12% of opioid recipients develop a use disorder as a result.
Opioids are not generally safe for users and can cause serious health complications in even the healthiest patients. In fact, studies from 2016 showed that 17,087 opioid prescribed individuals died from these medications. An additional 19,413 deaths resulted from synthetic opioids, like Fentanyl.
Now, we are seeing the government crackdown on prescription opioids at an alarming rate. Individuals who were once prescribed opioids for pain conditions are having their prescriptions cut down or regulated.
As a result, patients are unable to get the medication they need. A lot of individuals find street drugs like heroin are a lot easier to get a hold of and they are much cheaper and, as a result, they begin using heroin to ease their pain. In 2016, over 170,000 individuals used heroin for the first time, adding to the increasing population of over 948,000 Americans. In addition to gaining heroin users, we also lost 15,469 individuals to heroin overdoses.
The opioid use epidemic continues to grow from day-to-day across the United States. We see innocent people fall victim to these tragic circumstances. Quite often, they lose hope and feel they have nowhere to go.
At Asana Recovery, we meet people every single day who are in this situation. Dealing with an opioid abuse problem is extremely difficult to do. It is draining on a person, both physically and mentally, and often comes with high costs.
Overcoming an opioid addiction requires an adequate detox treatment. We offer a reliable detox that is staffed around the clock by medical professionals that work with patients to ensure they are safe and comfortable throughout the process. After detox, a long-term inpatient treatment program offers the best chance of recovery with the fewest possibilities of relapse.
Call us at (949) 438-4504 to get started today.
