Report Shows Opioid Abuse is on the Rise

There are reportedly more cases of chronic pain sufferers and prescription drug addicts than ever before. Is one inhibiting the other? Learning to treat both is a double-edge sword. An online news article talks about the details in a recent Espicom report that elaborate on how pharmaceutical companies, medical professionals and law enforcement agencies are combating the growing problem. Because therapy for chronic pain can have side effects and sometimes no results, more people are turning to prescription meds.

Prescription drug abuse, regardless of the brand, has reached epidemic heights. There are an estimated 1.5 billion people who suffer the effects of chronic pain worldwide. For individuals in this predicament, care is required 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This need requires a longer-lasting prescription. Opioids answer that demand with its extended-release formula. The number will continue to climb as shifts in the population age and become afflicted with osteoarthritis and other conditions.

Pharmaceutical companies are then faced with the continual increase of prescription pain medication demands. In an effort to improve safety and the efficiency of pain medication, drug companies have focused on the reformulation of current therapy. There are many different modes of delivering the drugs including opioids and NSAIDs.

Patent protection for these drugs will also soon be gone and big name drug manufacturers will see a larger market in competition from generic drugs. This will ultimately create a decline in price for prescription drugs. The lower cost of these meds could see many different reactions. Drug addicts will now have the means to afford their habit or the violent crime associated with obtaining the once expensive drugs will decrease. Only time will tell the effect this will have on the abuse of opiods.