Introduction:
Opioid crisis is an unprecedented public health calamity that has blighted numerous societies worldwide, although predominantly those in America. This crisis is characterized by the abuse of both Rx and over-the-counter opioids causing very high incidences of dependence, poisoning, and mortality. Opioid medications, which have caused this crisis, are produced and sold by pharmaceutical companies that bear major responsibility for its solving. Opioid crisis is one of the most severe health problems which concerns different countries throughout the last several decades. In this article, we will discover the origins of opioid crisis, the roles and maneuvers of the companies developing and spreading opioids, as well as potential measures to decrease harms of the given epidemic. It has been long understood that opioids play a central role in the prescription medication.
I. The Origins of the Opioid Crisis
Opioids are alkaloids derived from opium poppy, for pain management have been in use for many years. The first opioid of Morphine was as popular in the American Civil war as it is today’s headache Woodward 75. Within the countries, the official pharmaceutical and drug producers in the late of the twentieth century came up with synthetic opioids such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, referred to as much safer and effective as compared to the natural opioids.
The Rise of Prescription Opioids
The upsurge in opioid prescriptions was due to the early 1990s campaign by pharmaceutical companies who started promoting opioids to the populace as non-addictive painkillers for chronic pain. Purdue Pharma launched OxyContin in 1996, and it coalesced with the others. It would also seek to market the drug as safe while at the same time playing down on the substance’s addictive features and directing the public’s attention toward the many conditions that the drug was prescribed for. Consequently, the prescriptions of opioids spiraled and were felt in the society through improper prescription misuse and addiction.
It was against this backdrop that regulations were extended and the medications became hard to prescribe. Thus, the usage of cheaper and more available illicit opioids namely, heroin and synthetic referred to as fentanyl escalated among many people. This caused an exponential change to the worse thus compounded the situation by raising the number of overdose deaths.
Learn more: https://www.pharmafocusamerica.com/articles/pharmaceutical-role-in-opioid-crisis?divya
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