...Technological Advancements in Pain Management Dishon Abbs 10/18/2010 Gabi Vosteen BIO 181 Lab Technological Advancements in Healthcare Throughout the world, many people live with pain every day. Some have never sought medical treatment, and others have received low quality and ineffective treatment. The approach to treating pain and illness depends on the culture and geographical location of the professional appointed to treat pain. In Western Tradition, physicians are considered to be experts on treating illness and pain by utilizing chiropractic manipulation, acupuncture, physical therapy and synthetic medicines. In Navajo tradition, medicine men are the experts on curing illness and pain with religious ceremonies and the use of natural herbs and remedies. Today, the most advanced practice in the health industry is pain management because of the combination of herbal medicines created by Navajos, and synthetic medicines created by Western Scientists. The study of medicine all began in the 1700s when Christopher Columbus came in contact with Indian people in the 1700s. The Indians and Europeans traded food, weapons, shelter and worked together, in a sense, to discover land and natural resources. Shortly after, Small pox, measles, and tuberculosis broke out and killed many people. This encouraged Western Scientists and Navajo People to try and discover cures for infectious diseases. Western Scientists engineered micro-organisms that would search and destroy harmful...
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...The article, “Do No Harm: CDC Guideline for Opioids and Chronic Pain” by Frieden basically reiterates the CDC guidelines mentioned previously. However, Frieden believes with safer prescribing the opioid epidemic could resolve. Today, with 249 million prescriptions being written, which is enough to grant all American adults with their own bottle. With so many prescriptions being written, it's no surprise 40 adults die each day from prescription opioid. There is no other known drug used for nonfatal conditions which kill users so often. When prescribing opioids the risks and benefits are not weighed. In fact, most doctors were taught opioid could not produce an addiction. Furthermore, doctors are either choose to ignore or are ignorant of the fact that opioids are not proven to control chronic pain long-term; other...
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...means. As a result, there has been a massive increase in both the number of addicts and overdoses. Though as of late the opioid crisis has been receiving media attention, little has been done to inhibit the problem. Although the roots of the opioid crisis are multifaceted, pharmaceutical...
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...HurtingHealing & Rough Draft Peggy Matthews COM/172 6/9/2014 Mrs. Clarke Healing & Hurting Rough Draft Marijuana and opiates help when there’s pain you cannot naturally fight. But when abused they both get you higher than a kite. Medical Marijuana and opiates are used for pain relief, but are widely used for substance abuse. What is Marijuana? Is it an illegal drug? Or is marijuana a medical breakthrough? The United States Government contradicts itself everyday with this issue. The United States Government allows all states to pass bills if they so choose to, allow medical marijuana to be used as treatment for patients with chronic pain and recreational use. The other states are absolutely against the legalization of medical marijuana, saying “it is immoral”. What is the history behind Marijuana? I am going to take you on a journey ten thousand years ago in ancient civilization. Marijuana also called Cannabis was used for fiber. The humans in this time period also used the hemp seed for food. It was only natural that they discovered the medical properties of the plant. Cannabis was actually used for a list of reasons such as hemorrhoids, insomnia, headaches, pain, and even childbirth. But that was some time ago. In the 1970’s scientist were able to extract the THC from the plant. Thus making a synthetic version of the plant, and calling it Marinol. Marinol was approved from the Government and the FDA to be prescribed to patients. It was used to treat anorexia...
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...As stated by Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders American Psychiatric Associate. (2014), “similar to the risk generally observed for all substance use disorder, opioid use disorder is associated with a heightened risk for suicide attempts and completed suicides”. The assessments that were given showed that Marifel was at a high risk of suicide, the family showed a history of drug addiction (based on the genogram), and Marifel was willing to accept and accomplish the therapy based on her PTSD that was determined, drug abuse, and suicide. A diagnosis concerning the mental state could not be evaluated based on the information that was given however, there is the suspicion that a mental health disorder could be given. This will be accomplished after the client has had further evaluation from other health care persons. This will be performed on the client because there may have been a possible brain injury or biological disorder that has developed in the client. Peoples whose brains do not function properly often show problems in psychological functioning...
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...Controlled Substance Prescription The inappropriate use of controlled substance (CS) particularly opioid analgesics is alarming and has been associated with illnesses and deaths across the globe. Although most are prescribed for genuine reasons and taken in responsible ways, there is considerable over-prescription, particularly of pain medications known as opioids. Coincidentally, the opioid is not the only drug being abused and overly prescribed. Antidepressants, stimulants, and tranquilizers fall into this category; just to mention a few. The increase in prescriptions of these medications has been linked to the frequency of abuse (Chen et al., 2014). According to the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health provided by the Substance...
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...A medication called Opioids is another form of treatment that relieves pain. It can reduce the feeling of pain by blocking the pain signals from reaching the brain. There are times when doctors prescribe opioids for treatment. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC recommends that patients should receive the lowest effective dosage, and that opioids should be combined with nonopioid therapies, such as physical therapy. When using opioids to relieve pain there are many side effects that go along with it. Some of the side effects include overdose, depression, and addiction. When a patient no longer use opioids they can go through the symptoms of withdrawal. Opioids can affect a person’s brain, because they are attached to proteins...
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...true for alcoholism is not true for addiction to opioids. We now know that recovery rates from opioid addiction are markedly improved when medications such as methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone are used. Both SAMHSA (http://bit.ly/1MkwtHP) and the President of the United States (http://huff.to/1OJ132D) are calling for greater access to medication-assisted treatments with methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone. Still, there is fierce resistance to this change. Many drug courts and rehabilitation treatment programs seem unmovable to allow addicts access to medications that will improve...
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...The availability of fentanyl causes an increase of opioids on the street, for anyone to access. The article uses Dr. David Juurlink, the head of the clinical pharmacology discussed this within the article. Toxicology is the study of living organisms and the effects the chemicals of toxic substances have on them (CITE). I think the Jaimet properly used Juurlink as a source, as he has a background with drugs, has a strong understanding on fentanyl going from being prescribed to on the street. The author utilizes this to prove that the shift from prescription to street is a problem. Another source Jaimet uses is harm reduction researcher, Bernie Pauly states that the use of opioids is getting out of hand, and affects all of society; not just the users. Pauly uses this evidence to successfully educate nurses about opioid risk, then discusses ways to decrease the harm of opioid use this includes; creating supervised injection sites, drug prescription, and substance abuse therapy, also free access to at home drug tests. As a nurse, I agree that this is the best way to decrease the number of overdoses, and overall safer drug...
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...and lack of knowledge about pain management have been evident for approximately two decades. Because nurses are often the cornerstone of pain management, nurses' knowledge in this area is especially important. This paper explores indications of progress in the level of nursing knowledge about basic aspects of pain management. The literature is reviewed and findings from recent (1995) surveys of nurses' knowledge are compared with results of similar surveys conducted beginning in 1988. Improvements in nurses' knowledge of pain assessment, opioid dosing, and likelihood of addiction seem to have occurred. However, knowledge deficits continue. Fewer than one-half of the nurses surveyed understand that the patient's self report of pain is the single most reliable indicator of pain and that the nurse should increase a previously safe but ineffective dose of opioid. Findings from surveys on addiction reveal that the longer the patient receives opioids the more concerned nurses become about causing addiction. Nevertheless, results of current knowledge surveys of nurses suggest that educational efforts probably have been beneficial and should continue. To maximize the impact of educational efforts, content in basic and continuing education courses should be prioritized and critically evaluated for relevance and accuracy, especially content related to addiction. Early in the education of nurses, responsibility for pain assessment and use of analgesics...
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...there is an extremely big difference between Suboxone (Buprenorphine) and heroin, or any other full agonist opioid for that matter. Hydrocodone (Vicodin,Lortab), Hydromorphone (Dilaudid), OxyContin, Oxymorphone (Opana), and diacetylmorphine (heroin) are all full agonist opioids, which means that they bind to the endogenous opioid receptors, especially the mu-receptor, with high affinity (binding strength) and high efficacy (strength of drug) and therefore the more a person takes of these opioids the more pain relief they receive, the more respiratory depression they experience, and so on. This is evident in that if an individual abuses these drugs, their tolerance increases, which requires a higher dosage of the drug to reach that same "baseline". Suboxone on the other hand is a partial agonist,...
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...Opioid addiction is a serious chronic relapsing but treatable disorder. Treatments approaches must be tailored to address each client’s drug abuse patterns, psychiatric and social problems, the primary care provider will choose along with client the best treatment. There is no right or wrong medications, only the right and wrong ways to use them. The treatment course will depended on duration of addiction, prior treatment experience, co-morbid medical and psychiatric conditions, and preferences for medication treatment. Medications can only change physiology, but new behavior can change lives. Many treatment programs that provide pharmacotherapy (Methadone or Suboxone) also requires that client participate in group therapies such as Narcotics Anonymous (NA) or weekly therapies with psychologist or psychiatrist. The addiction affects a person in so many ways and treatments must address the needs of a whole person to be successful. The goal of treatment counselors is to meet the individual medical, physiological, social and vocational to help with their recovery from addiction. Client and clinician should discuss the ongoing support options that will best fit the client’s needs. Here are some examples of these therapies: * Cognitive Behavioral Therapy seeks to help patients to recognize, avoid, and cope with the situations in with they are most likely to abuse drugs. * Group Therapy helps patients face their drugs abuse realistically, come to terms with its harmful consequences...
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...the tab” Opioid Overdose”, the CDC mentions how the United States is under an Opioid overdose epidemic. They mention, in 2015 more than 33,000 people were killed from Opioids, including prescription opioids, and heroin. This is the most death ever recorded. The CDC states, “nearly half of all opioid overdose deaths involve a prescription opioid”. To better protect the public’s health and hamper opioid overdose deaths, the CDC is first improving data. Meaning, they are enhancing “ data quality and timeliness to better track trends, identify communities at risk and evaluate prevention strategies” (CDC). Next, they are strengthening state efforts, which includes enhancing productive interventions. Finally, the CDC is equipping health care...
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...Every day more than 115 people in the United States overdose due to the misuse and addiction to opioids; a crisis that affects the economy and public health. Opioids have been used as a way to manage pain; but what comes with these drugs is addiction and dependence. The history of opioid use has been originated from the early 1900s as Civil War Veterans were treated for pain, ultimately, getting hooked on painkillers. The Opioid epidemic is currently the deadliest drug crisis in American History. Overdoses are killing more people than guns and car accidents, spiraling a national health emergency. The idea of prescription restrictions and pain management strategies isn’t a topic that everyone agrees on; however, some doctors and patients have...
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...The issue in question involves the overuse of prescribed opioid medication and the unnecessary overdose death rates that accompany it. Drug overdose is a big ongoing issue throughout the United States. The medication that is supposed to help with pain causes more harm than healing. A temporary fix creates a more permanent problem, “death” rather than a permanent solution. With proper guidelines and stricter regulation on dosage, usage, and physician prescribing, the chances of overdosing and death due to overdose could be decreased over time. The programs in place now are not as effective as they should be, this is seen with the increase in the rate of overdose from prescription drugs. Ayesha Sajid et al. states, there was a twofold increase...
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