The misuse of prescription drugs takes a life every 19 minutes.  The government spends millions of dollars trying to prevent illegal drug consumption, but in reality prescription drugs kill more Americans than all illegal drugs combined. 

Painkillers depress the central nervous system, slowing down breathing and affecting the brainstem’s responsiveness to carbon dioxide (CO2).  Long-term abuse can cause the body to stop breathing entirely.  When mixed with alcohol, another depressant, the results are fatal. 

A recent study focused on painkiller dependency found that 49% of people addicted to painkillers could reduce their addiction by taking Suboxone for a minimum of 12 weeks.  Suboxone reduces withdrawl symptoms and relieves cravings.  Unfortunately, when patients stopped taking Suboxone the success rates drop to only 8.6 percent. The study also found patients who received intense addiction therapy had little success in curing their addictions.

Naltrexone is another drug used to treat prescription painkiller abuse, but is only effective for patients who have been clean long enough for the drug to leave their system.  As science evolves, the general census among researchers is that the addiction is a brain disease where long periods of abuse have altered the brain’s chemistry in the pain and reward centers.  With this new way of thinking, the idea of therapy being the end all treatment for addiction is waning. 

There are millions who use pain medication without addiction or death, but there are over 1.9 million Americans currently hooked on prescription pain medications.  Every year, 30,000 of those Americans die from their addiction.  Do you know anyone addicted to prescription painkillers?  How do you think we should raise awareness on this issue?