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Opiates Research Paper

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Our nation is suffering from an epidemic like we have never seen before. It is blind to nationality, race, and social class; it effects everyone from the nicest neighborhoods in Beverly Hills to the poverty-stricken town of Brownsville, Texas. You can witness it on street corners and pain clinics, or in abandoned houses and sketchy alleyways. It discriminates against no one; from the young to the old and from the famous to the not-so-famous. Opiates are killing people at an alarming rate in this country and in order to figure out how to fix the problem, we must first figure out why it is happening. Through studies and scientific research, we can conclude there are several underlying reasons a person may fall victim to this silent killer; predisposition to addiction as well as individual and environmental factors. In order to understand why or how a person becomes addicted to opiates, we must first understand what opiates are and what they do inside the brain. Opiates are narcotic medications derived from opium, which is found in …show more content…
When the body is put in a stressful situation, cortisol levels rise in response to stress which causes the body to release additional dopamine. In an addict or someone who has previously abused opiate medication or heroin, the part of the brain that produces dopamine is usually damaged and the brain does not produce as much as a normal brain would. The lower levels of dopamine produced, combined with damaged cortisol pathways that are unable to absorb dopamine, lead to lower levels of dopamine in the body. Because of this, an addict is unable to cope with stress without using opiates to calm their nerves. This creates a vicious cycle for someone who is either trying to get sober, or who is already in recovery because the cravings can cause a relapse. In this way, the brain becomes chemically dependent on opiates to do what it would usually do naturally. (Kosten and

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