Prescription Medication abuse increase in the last 10 yrs Research Paper

Prescription Medication abuse increase in the last 10 yrs - Research Paper Example ing all types of strategies to sell their products and they are not bothering about whether the sold medications are used for positive or negative purposes. This paper briefly analyses the prescription medication abuse with the help of all the independent variables mentioned above. â€Å"In the United States, physicians are faced with two opposing dilemmas in the treatment of pain – the potential for drug abuse and diversion, and the possible under treatment of pain. While controlled prescription drugs such as narcotic analgesics, anxiolytics, antidepressants, stimulants, and sedative-hypnotics, play a legitimate role in managing chronic pain and other conditions, the illicit use of prescribed medicines is increasing at epidemic proportions† (Manchikanti, MD, 2006, p.335). Prescription medication abuse is one of the largest segments of drug addiction in United States and it is second only to the marijuana abuse. It is difficult to collect the statistics of prescription medication abuse because of the difficulty in identifying whether the medication is used for curing the diseases or misused for getting some temporary psychological thrill or pleasure. The drug abusers often submit the prescriptions of the doctors to obtain medicines prescribed for some chronic diseases like psychoses. Most of the narcotic medicines are used for changing the moods of the psychologically disordered persons which may have side effects. The drug abusers often give false details to force the doctor to prescribe the narcotic medicines or pain killers which contain potentially harmful ingredients. â€Å"Cocaine (35 percent), marijuana (34%), and methamphetamine (17%) accounted for the substantial majority of Los Angeles-based illicit drug items analyzed and recorded by the National Forensic Laboratory Information System (NFLIS) for January–June 2008† (NIDA, 2009, p.49) ‘Misuse of a medicine can be referred as incorrect use of a medication by patients, who may use a drug for a