Impact of Opioid/Drug Overdoses

A General Look at Opioid/Drug Overdoses:

What is drug overdose?

Overdose (OD) happens when a toxic amount of a drug(s) overwhelms the body which endangers someone’s life. People can overdose on alcohol, Tylenol, opioids, or any other mixture of drugs (Harm Reduction Coalition, n.d.).

What are opioids?

Opioids can be considered as prescription medications used to treat pain like morphine, codeine, methadone, oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl, hydromorphone, and buprenorphine. Also, there are other opioids that are illegal drugs such as heroin and illicit potent opioids (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2018).

The General Prevalence of Problem

Drug and Opioid involved overdoses have been an ongoing issue nationally and locally. Within the United States, heroin, natural and semisynthetic opioids, and methadone were involved in the increase of drug overdose rates from 2018 to 2019. In 2019, there were 70,630 drug overdose deaths and 70.6% of them involved opioid use (Hedegaard, Miniño, & Warner, 2020). As for Hawaii, there were 213 drug overdose deaths which resulted in a death rate of 14.3 per 100,000 persons in 2018 (Hedegaard, Miniño, & Warner, 2020). Also, Hawaii’s poison death rate was 11.4 deaths per 100,000 persons in 2015 (Hawaii State Department of Health, 2017).

Risk Factors of an Overdose:

  • Taking greater quantities of substances than the body can handle
  • Mixing drugs and alcohol, depressing the central nervous system and compromising breathing
  • Preexisting health conditions
  • Not knowing what has been added or cut into the drugs
  • Using alone (Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, 2020)

Impacts of Long Term Opioid Use

Opioid use is usually safe when used correctly. However, long term use, not following a doctor’s instructions, and misusing opioids can lead to an increase in opioid tolerance, dependence, and addiction. Long term use of opioids is likely to build one’s drug tolerance in which the body gets used to the effects of a drug over time. This is a natural thing that happens but may put the user at a greater risk as the dosage needed may increase. In terms of drug dependency, when the body becomes dependent on a drug it can cause withdrawal symptoms when a drug is not used anymore. The withdrawal symptoms include sweating, nausea, vomiting, chills, diarrhea, shaking, pain, depression, insomnia, and/or fatigue. As for addiction, it’s a disease that affects the brain and behaviors. Someone may have control at first, but the brain changes over time that could develop a powerful urge to keep using the drug (American Academy Of Family Physicians, 2020).

References:

American Academy Of Family Physicians (2020). Opioid Addiction. Familydoctor.org. https://familydoctor.org/condition/opioid-addiction/?adfree=true.

Hawaii State Department of Health. (2017, February). Poisoning Death Rate. Hawai‘i Health Matters. http://www.hawaiihealthmatters.org/indicators/index/view?indicatorId=1280&localeId=14.

Hedegaard H., Miniño AM., Warner M. (2020, December). Drug overdose deaths in the United States, 1999–2019.  NCHS Data Brief. (394). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db394.htm.

Hedegaard H., Miniño AM., Warner M. (2020, January).Drug overdose deaths in the United States, 1999–2018.  NCHS Data Brief. (356). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db356.htm.

Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. (2020). Risks for Relapse, Overdose and What You Can Do. drugfree.org. Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. https://drugfree.org/article/relapse-overdose/.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2018). SAMHSA Opioid Overdose Prevention TOOLKIT. https://store.samhsa.gov/product/Opioid-Overdose-Prevention-Toolkit/SMA18-4742.

What is an overdose?. (n.d.). Harm Reduction Coalition. Retrieved March 17, 2020, from https://harmreduction.org/issues/overdose-prevention/overview/overdose-basics/what-is-an-overdose/.