Alcohol is one teratogen that could greatly have an effect on the woman’s pregnancy. People may not know of its danger and still allow a woman to drink alcoholic drinks during her pregnancy, but the result of this would be carried by the baby for the rest of his or her life. Alcohol is one of the known causes of mental and physical birth defects specifically in the United States. Though, this is only a possibility, the rate is high.

There is an incident where a pregnant woman consumes alcohol, a disorder called Fetal Alcohol Syndrome would take place in the embryo. Alcohol crosses the placental barrier and can stunt fetal weight, create distinctive facial stigmata, damage neurons and brain structures, and cause other physical, mental, or behavioral problems. The main effect of FAS is enduring central nervous system damage, especially to the brain. Developing brain cells and structures are underdeveloped by prenatal alcohol exposure, often creating a collection of primary cognitive and functional disabilities including poor memory, attention deficits, impulsive behavior, and poor cause-effect reasoning, as well as secondary disabilities for example, mental health problems, and drug addiction.

There are different indications that can appear when one is diagnosed to have fetal alcohol syndrome. These indications include low birth weight, small head circumference, developmental interruption, organ dysfunction, facial abnormalities, including smaller eye openings, flattened cheekbones, and indistinct philtrum (an underdeveloped groove between the nose and the upper lip), epilepsy, poor management, poor socialization skills, such as difficulty building and maintaining friendships and relating to groups, lack of imagination, learning difficulties, including poor memory, inability to understand concepts such as time and money, poor language comprehension, poor problem-solving skills, behavioral problems including hyperactivity, inability to concentrate, social withdrawal, stubbornness, impulsiveness, and anxiety.

As said earlier, damage of the central nervous system is the main feature of fetal alcohol syndrome. Central nervous system damage can be evaluated in three areas such as structural, neurological, and functional deficiencies. Structural impairments may include microcephaly (small head size) of two or more standard deviations below the average, or other abnormalities in brain structure. During the first trimester of pregnancy, alcohol impedes with the migration and organization of brain cells, which can make structural deformities within the brain. During the third trimester, damage can be caused to the hippocampus, which plays a role in memory, learning, emotion, and encoding visual and auditory information, all of which can create neurological and functional CNS impairments as well.

When structural impairments are not observable, neurological impairments are assessed. Neurological problems are expressed as either hard signs, such as epilepsy or other seizure disorders, or soft signs. Soft signs are broader, nonspecific neurological impairments, such as impaired fine motor skills, neurosensory hearing loss, poor gait, clumsiness, poor eye-hand coordination.

Functional impairments are assessed when structural or neurological impairments does not exist. Functional impairments are deficits due to prenatal alcohol exposure (rather than hereditary causes or postnatal insults) in observable and measurable domains related to daily functioning, often referred to as developmental disabilities.

No evidence exists that can determine exactly how much alcohol ingestion will produce birth defects. Individual women process alcohol differently. Other factors differ the results, too, such as the age of the mother, the timing and regularity of the alcohol ingestion, and whether the mother has eaten any food while drinking.

Alcohol easily goes through the placental barrier and the fetus is less equipped to eradicate alcohol than its mother, so the fetus tends to obtain a high concentration of alcohol, which remains longer than it would in the mother’s system. That explains why the child is the one largely affected when in fact it is the mother who consumes the alcohol. This such a sad truth.

As they say, we all are crazy. We all have that craziness within us. It is just a matter of how we manage our differences and extremities that we are able to handle our craziness. Moreover, many ask if mental illnesses really do exist. The English-speaking world has not always used medical language to explain the behavior we now label as symptomatic of mental illness. Illlustrations were sometimes framed in quite different terms, such as possession. What we now call mental illness was not always treated as a medical problem. Non-English-speaking nations in the West have had changes in their linguistic usage and their treatment of the mentally ill roughly parallel to Anglophone countries. Anthropological work in non-Western cultures suggests that there are many cases of behavior that psychiatry would organize as symptomatic of mental disorder, which are not seen within their own cultures as signs of mental illness.

However, nowadays, it has been talked about that mental disorders are really existing mental conditions that may be a reason of disturbance in a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a reduced ability for coping with the ordinary demands of life.

Mental illnesses can affect persons of any age, race, religion, or income. Mental illnesses are not the outcome of personal weakness, lack of character or poor upbringing. Mental illnesses are curable. Most people diagnosed with a serious mental illness can experience relief from their symptoms by actively participating in an individual treatment plan. In addition to medication treatment, psychosocial treatment such as cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, peer support groups and other community services can also be components of a treatment plan and that assist with recovery. The availability of transportation, diet, exercise, sleep, friends and meaningful paid or volunteer activities contribute to overall health and wellness, including mental illness recovery.

Unfortunately, society may be responsible for one’s failure in recovering form a mental illness. When the person is cured inside a medical institution, he or she is given ample treatment and is treated as if they are normal. They are given proper care and attention so as to promote recovery. However, when they go out into the real world after some time, society, upon knowing their past, would most likely mock them and treat them differently. Society would look at them as someone who still has the mental disorder and resultingly, it would make them feel worse and thus, could trigger an incidence of the mental illness once again.

The feelings of inadequateness would cause problems for a person with mental disorder. He would think that he I not valuable to live in this world given that he could not function properly anymore. However, support from family and friends would be a great help for the patient to view life differently and positively. Thus it is the role of the family to provide the patient with love and care so as to sustain his recovery.

Victims of sex and love addiction has a found a way to help their illness. Sex and love addiction was born. This was created by a former Alcoholics anonymous member. Though, he had been sober, he was unfaithful to his wife for a period of time. He founded sex and love addiction anonymous as an effort to discontinue his compulsive sexual and romantic behavior.

The organization encourages members to identify their own “bottom-line behaviors.” The organization recognizes these behaviors as “any sexual or emotional act, not regarding its initial impulse may be, which leads to loss of control over rate, frequency, or duration of its occurrence or recurrence, resulting in spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, and moral damage of oneself and others.”

In addition, the Sex and Love Addiction Anonymous uses the 12-step program and the 12 traditions in helping their members recover from the addiction. The good thing with the organization is that since everyone is a victim, they are empathic about each other’s experiences and feelings. Thus, they claim to understand what the other person is going through and are able to offer support through sharing and meetings. As quoted, “we found in each other what we could find nowhere else: people who knew the depth of our pain. Together we found hope and the care of a loving Higher Power. Our commitment is to help others recover from sexual addiction, just as we have been helped.”

The twelve step-Program of Sex and Love Addiction Anonymous states that:

1. We admitted we were powerless over sex and love addiction – that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with a Power greater than ourselves, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to sex and love addicts, and to practice these principles in all areas of our lives.

Meanwhile, these are their Twelve Traditions:

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon S.L.A.A. unity.

2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority — a loving God as this Power may be expressed through our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

3. The only requirement for S.L.A.A. membership is the desire to stop living out a pattern of sex and love addiction. Any two or more persons gathered together for mutual aid in recovering from sex and love addiction may call themselves an S.L.A.A. group, provided that as a group they have no other affiliation.

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or S.L.A.A. as a whole.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to the sex and love addict who still suffers.

6. An S.L.A.A. group or S.L.A.A. as a whole ought never to endorse, finance, or lend the S.L.A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, or prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

7. Every S.L.A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

8. S.L.A.A. should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

9. S.L.A.A. as such ought never to be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

10. S.L.A.A. has no opinion on outside issues; hence the S.L.A.A. name ought never to be drawn into public controversy.

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, TV, film, and other public media. We need guard with special care the anonymity of all fellow S.L.A.A. members.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

In the 1970s, cocaine was expensive and considered a “status” drug. The beginnings of cheap crack increased the ease of access of this substance, and crack has become the drug of choice for many drug users, especially for inner-city disadvantaged youth. This has been the beginnings of the growing crack addiction. Crack’s convenience, ease of concealment, wide availability, and low cost has increased its use. The fact that crack is smoked rather than snorted has contributed to its popularity.

Moreover, drug addiction is not only occurring to people on the streets. It is not new to us that celebrities have their “shining moments” when it comes to substance abuse. They may look pleasant and very much happy in front of cameras, but their deepest secrets are yet to be revealed. A number of celebrities have already been into rehabilitation to fight their crack addiction, heroin, or even alcohol addiction.

Long before Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears hogged the headlines with their wild child antics, there was Drew Barrymore. At the age of nine, Drew was already smoking cigarettes. She was an alcoholic at 11, a marijuana smoker by 12, and a cocaine addict by 13. She went to rehab twice and even tried to commit suicide when she was 14. Right now, that is all in the past. Her wild child days behind her, Barrymore has grown into a sober, responsible and productive woman. Aside from starring in a slew of hits, she has also become a producer, forming the production company Flower Films with friend and partner Nancy Juvonen in 1995. Her company is responsible for hits like Charlie’s Angels and 50 First Dates. Quite a turnaround for a woman with a childhood as messed up as hers.

There are actually two sides to this Oprah-Winfrey-was-a-drug-addict story. On one hand, there’s the memorable TV moment in the 90s when she tearfully told in her own talk show that she had smoked crack cocaine while in her 20s, but never said anything about dependence on the drug or anything else. On the other hand, there’s the more latest allegation made in a tell-all book by a previous boyfriend that Oprah was actually a customary cocaine user in the 80s, and was in fact under the influence during her show tapings.

Whatever the truth is, it is clear that Oprah has now overcome whatever her drug demons of the 70s and 80s were. As of September 2008, Forbes has listed Oprah to acquire wealth worth over $2.7 billion. CNN and Time Magazine called her “arguably the world’s most powerful woman”. She is quite the success story, sordid drug past or not.

Any kind of substance addiction, be it crack addiction can happen to anyone in all walks of life. Life is largely unpredictable. On a certain point we are having a good laugh with friends living the good life, the next time we know, we are shaking and craving for a drug we never thought we couldn’t seem to live without. People may be aware of the effects of drugs if abused, yet they still give in to curiosity, probably, or to pressure and thus end up living miserably. However, there is still hope for every addict in this world. Life doesn’t end in addiction. It ends when one gives up.

Life Threatening Risk: Cocaine Laced with Levamisole

** ALERT **

We always do our best to provide information and help to all of our readers from an unbiased and non judgmental standpoint. In that spirit, we want to make sure that if you or someone you care about is using Cocaine or using Crack that they be aware of the following information and they should seek professional medical help immediately.

Alcohol and other drug programs across California should be on the lookout for a dangerous substance levamisole that is showing up with increasing frequency in illicit cocaine powder and crack cocaine, most recently in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Levamisole is a veterinary anti-parasitic drug and it severely reduces the number of white blood cells in humans leading to an acute condition called agranulocytosis that should be treated at a hospital. Ingesting cocaine mixed with levamisole suppresses immune function and the body’s ability to fight off even minor infections. People who snort, smoke, or inject crack or powder cocaine contaminated by levamisole can experience overwhelming, rapidly-developing, life threatening infections.

Agranulocytosis manifests the following symptoms:

infections that won’t go away or get worse very fast, including sore throat or mouth sores; skin infections; abscesses; thrush (white coating of the mouth, tongue or throat); pneumonia (fever, cough, shortness of breath)

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) began alerting medical professionals, substance abuse treatment centers, and other public health authorities in September about the risks.

Used in veterinary medicine, levamisole is currently approved for use in cattle, sheep and swine as an anti-parasitic agent. Formerly used in human medicine for treating autoimmune diseases and cancer, it is no longer approved for human use.

SAMHSA is working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Food and Drug Administration, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and other federal and international organizations, as well as state agencies to monitor the levamisole issue. CDC will publish a case report analysis in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and will work with state health departments to systematically collect information on cocaine-associated agranulocytosis cases. Information from this effort will be used to guide treatment and prevention initiatives to address the public health concern.

According to the DEA and state testing laboratories, the percentage of cocaine specimens containing levamisole has increased steadily since 2002, with levamisole now found in more than 70 percent of the illicit cocaine analyzed last July. In addition, a recent analysis in Seattle, Washington, found that almost 80 percent of individuals who test positive for cocaine also test positive for levamisole.

ADP is asking all providers to report suspected and confirmed cases of agranulocytosis associated with cocaine abuse to their local health departments. Cases can also be reported to local Poison Control Centers (1-800-222-1222), which may assist in clinical management and additional reporting. For further medical/technical information, contact Nicholas Reuter, SAMHSA Nicholas.reuter@samhsa.hhs.gov

This Cocaine Related Health Alert was sent to us to help keep you informed. The SAMHSA stands for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). If you or a loved one need help with cocaine addiction or abuse please call the number on this site, or if you require medical attention contact a medical professional right away.

In determining the effects of suboxone to it’s users, numerous studies have been made. Suboxone tablets have been studied in 575 patients, Subutex tablets in 1834 patients and buprenorphine sublingual solutions in 2470 patients. A total of 1270 females have received buprenorphine in clinical trials. Recommending doses are based on statistics from one trial of both tablet formulations and two trials of the ethanolic solution. All trials used buprenorphine in combination with psychosocial counseling as element of a comprehensive addiction treatment program. There have been no clinical studies conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of buprenorphine as the only component of treatment.

In a double blind placebo and active controlled study, 326 heroin-addicted subjects were by chance allocated to either Suboxone 16 mg per day, 16 mg Subutex per day or placebo tablets. The main study comparison was to assess the efficacy of Subutex and Suboxone independently alongside placebo. The fraction of thrice-weekly urine tests that were negative for non-study opioids was statistically higher for both Subutex and Suboxone, than for placebo.

Since suboxone is a blend of two presently marketed medications, buprenorphine and naloxone, it gives a combination of a weak narcotic (buprenorphine) and a narcotic antagonist (naloxone). The later is supplemented to stop addicts from injecting the tablets intravenously, as has happened with tablets only containing buprenorphine; because it has naloxone, Suboxone is extremely likely to generate intense withdrawal symptoms if misused intravenously by opioid-addicted individuals. Buprenorphine is a partial agonist at the mu-opioid receptor and an antagonist at the kappaopioid receptor. Naloxone is an antagonist at the mu-opioid receptor.

Like most addictions, suboxone or subutex addiction is quite unavoidable. The drug is not supposed to be used occasionally. It should be used as a permanent treatment method and thus, may become harmful if usage is stopped too quickly. Like heroin, suboxone could result to a “euphoric” feeling. It cannot be denied that the person who is continuously taking the drug has a very high risk of becoming dependent and addicted to the drug. It has a system that copies the actions of naturally occurring pain-reducing chemicals called endorphins. Endorphins are found in the brain and spinal cord and lessen pain by combining with opioid receptors. However, opioids also act in the brain to cause feelings of euphoria and hallucinations. This greatly explains their addictive inclination among people who are taking them in a long-term basis.

Moreover, in taking suboxone, one should be very careful. As much as possible this should be taken with great supervision by a medical expert. This medicine may cause drowsiness. If affected, do not drive or operate machinery. Drowsiness will be made worse by alcohol, tranquilizers, sedatives and sleeping tablets such as benzodiazepines. Taking these in mixture with buprenorphine can also cause potentially dangerous problems with breathing and so should be avoided while taking this medicine. The liver function should be often monitored while receiving treatment with this medicine.

Drugs like these are very useful and helpful in battling with drug addiction. However, there has not at all been a substance that has been found to be an effective medication for addiction that is at the same time non-addictive. Science may have been in the route of trying to find the perfect drug that would provide us with the two benefits.

Drugs, therefore, must be taken with caution and appropriate supervision from medical professionals. In addition, it is the accountability of the person himself to look after his in-take of a drug. He should be the first to control the substance, not the other way around.

In Narcotics Anonymous, the only requirement is a desire to stop using drugs. Moreover, since it is group-oriented, each member tries to help each other. There is a customary meeting for members to help each other stay clean, clean which means a complete abstinence form all mood and mind altering substances. There are no fees necessary when one joins a nonprofit organization.

Narcotics Anonymous provides a place for drug addicts to recover aside from rehabilitation centers. Typically, addicts initially join narcotics anonymous after reaching a “bottom” in their life, a point at which life feels completely unmanageable, characterized by “unemployability, dereliction and destruction” and centered around the getting and using and finding ways and means to get more drugs. Every Narcotics Anonymous member reaches a different bottom, which can be wherever the addict chooses to stop using. In practice, it is drug use and the intense consequences associated with its abuse that convey most addicts to their bottom many of them sliding along ‘this bottom’ for many years often cannot find their way out.

Regular meetings are the basic unit of Narcotics Anonymous fellowship. Assemblies are held in a variety of places such as church meeting rooms, libraries, hospitals, community centers, parks, or any other place that can accommodate a meeting. “Open” and “closed” meetings are the two basic types of meetings practiced in Narcotics Anonymous.In open meetings, everybody is welcome while in closed meetings, addicts and individuals who think they have drug problems are the people who can only attend.

Meeting formats vary, but most of the time it comprise time devoted to the reading aloud of Narcotics Anonymous literature regarding the concerns implicated in living life clean which is in print by and for members of Narcotics Anonymous. Many meetings also include an “open sharing” part, where anyone attending has the opportunity to share. There is usually no direct criticism during the ’share’, thus only one person ever speaks at any given time during this portion of the meeting.

Each group has only one primary purpose that is to carry the message to the addict who still suffers. Therefore, the newcomer is considered to be the most important person in any meeting. Hope is the essential message of Narcotics Anonymous. The basic assurance of narcotics anonymous is that an addict, any addict, can stop using drugs, lose the desire to use, and discover a new way of life. Through the twelve step program and the twelve traditions, the members are given hope for a new life worth living and fighting for.

Every individual has many potentials which translates to every life should not be put to waste. He or she may fail, as in becoming enslaved by worldly things such as drugs, but a person is also capable of standing up from the fall and looking forward once again. Thus, the Narcotics Anonymous, focusing on those who are victims of drug addiction, speaks to these people of how wonderful life still is and that addiction does not mean the end, it is just a transitional stage for a new and better life.

Narcotics Anonymous are now based in different areas in the world. The organization is trying to make a difference. These groups have but one message to pass on, that in times of darkness, such as falling into the pit of drug addiction, you are not alone in this battle. The Narcotics Anonymous is there to support you and help you stand up and fight for your life.

Moreover, spirituality is the belief that admission to self that God does have control of your life and that it is possible to turn to God with your problems. It is God’s spirit that can provide for you the strength and courage to face your problems. It is the admission that you do not have to burn yourself out struggling to solve all your problems on your own. It is the openness to let go of your sense of over-responsibility and let God have some influence over the problems. Spirituality is also the recognition that humans consist not only of physical matter but also have a spiritual dimension that needs daily care in order to survive.

here are three foundational characteristics of spirituality are faith, hope, and love. Faith is what allows the person to believe that a supreme being is helping them in times of trouble, sorrow, and pain. Faith is the belief that God will never desert or forget you during your time of need. Furthermore, spirituality is easily identified in people who have hope and trust in God’s mercy, wisdom and justice. Their hope enables them to “let go and let God.” Their hope enables them to hand over their sense of over responsibility, guilt, rescuing and enabling to God’s hands. Their hope enables them to take a “tough love” stance in order to get aid for the troubled persons in their lives. There is also spirituality when one gives love, concern, and generosity to other people. With spirituality, people are altruistic and giving in their approach to the world. They are able to make a difference in people’s lives.

The border between spirituality and religion rises a conflict. The two terms may be sometimes used by people interchangeably, yet one should be clarified with its distinction. Religion is an institution established by man for different reasons- exert control; instill morality, stroke egos, or whatever it does. On the other hand, spirituality is born in a person and develops in the person. It may be kick started by a religion, or it may be kick started by a revelation. Spirituality extends to all facets of a person’s life. Spirituality is chosen while religion is often times forced.

On a personal note, I do believe that spirituality has more weight than religion. As what was said, religion is most of the time forced, thus, usually, people practice religious rituals out of obedience to the religious tradition. But, true spirituality is something that is found deep within oneself. It is a way of loving, accepting and relating to the world and people around. It cannot be found in a church or by believing in a certain way.

A few days later I woke up in the hospital with a very limited range of movement. My head was cloudy and pumped full of morphine. From my waist down felt like the pins and needles of having you limbs fall asleep. My mother and father were sitting next to me. My mother began to cry as she told me I would be confined to a wheelchair for a while because my spinal cord had been badly damaged. I knew when she said, “a while” she meant the rest of my life. I told her not to cry, that it would be o.k. She kissed my forehead.

My father stood tall in the corner of the room, with a scared look in his eye that I had never seen on him. He sat down at the corner of the bed and told me how much he loved me and how happy he was that I was alive. The nurse soon came in and told them to come back in the morning after the doctors did some tests.

The next few days were excruciating. The burning feeling below my waist got worse and worse with each passing day. Morphine was my only savior.

I was released from the hospital two weeks later with plenty of prescriptions. The pain would never go away. I went back to college in a wheelchair, but school soon dropped out of the picture because the drugs were too heavy on my mind. I collapsed into a dark depression and not long after, replaced my morphine prescription with heroin. Heroin, she was exactly what the name describes. She was my heroin. I no longer thought about life without legs. Or the things I could no longer do. The pain I was to endure for eternity melted away with the mere sight of a rig. I hid the heroin habit from my parents pretty well for a long time. They were so used to seeing me depressed and on drugs that they barely noticed the shift in my pain medicine.

Heroin became my only goal in life. For years after I first got my wings, I would wake up from a nod and call my “friends” to come pick me up and take me to the park. I would spend hours in the park panhandling, mainlining, and watching children play with youthful legs.

One morning around 3 a.m., I woke up on my parent’s dining room floor covered in vomit and a needle in my leg. My mother was on the phone and my father was sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. They thought I was dead. When I groaned, my father looked at me with the most defeated eyes I had ever seen. Heroin, my heroin, the relief of all my pain and hopelessness, had become my death knell. The ambulance picked me up and I spent another two weeks in a hospital before being shipped off to a treatment center.

I have been off heroin for six months now, thanks to this place. If my mom and dad are reading this, I just want to say I’m sorry. I never meant to cause you so much pain or cost you so much money. I have failed you. But Mom and Dad, if you can find it in your souls to forgive me, I will do everything in my power to repair all the damage and become the son you once had. I love you.

However, if we come to realize, addicts also come from those who normally participates in the cycle of society. These addicts that we so called could be your own babysitter, the newspaperman, the bagel man, or even taxi driver who drives you everyday to work. Like almost everyone, these people are those who purchase prescribed drugs in pharmacies. Yes. Prescription drugs could be as as any banned drugs. People who buy drugs at the pharmacy could be as addicted to certain drugs as to those who discretely buy illegal drugs from drug dealers in the corners of every street.

Prescription drug serves its function when it is prescribed by the doctor to the patient in order to take care of any health-related problems. Other than that, what we did not perceive coming was that these prescription drugs have the probability to be a reason of dependency and addiction. Last 2007, Americans who abused prescription drugs has reached 7 million. Furthermore, it has been known that prescription drug addiction do not only exist in America but also in other parts of the world.

It is quite safe to say that nobody is safe from addiction because even those who are being prescribed by professionals can get prescription addiction. On the other hand, we should recognize that if taken properly, these drugs need not be addictive. It is when we take more than what is prescribed that we are more likely to be a candidate for prescription drug addiction.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, there are three types of commonly abused prescription drugs. These are opioids, depressants, and stimulants.

Opioids are given to individuals who suffer chronic pain. But besides alleviating pain, these drugs could also cause feelings of euphoria. Opioids work by binding to opioid receptors found in the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract.

Depressants are used to treat anxiety problems, acute stress, and sleep disorders. As depressants, they make the brain to function slowly. Long terms and large doses of depressants could lead to tolerance and thus, the body would need larger doses to reach the “relaxing” feeling being brought by the drug. These results to addiction.

Stimulants, on the other hand, do the opposite of depressants. These drugs increase brain activities, increasing energy, awareness, and alertness, and are used to treat attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and narcolepsy. Stimulants cause the heart rate to increase as well as respiration which can be interpreted by the user as euphoria.

One is diagnosed to be addicted to the drug when one needs larger amount of a drug to produce the same effects. Most likely, when their physicians discontinue prescribing the drug, they go “doctor shopping”, asking friends to get drugs for them. Now, that patient becomes an addict. Usually, elder people are the ones vulnerable to prescription drug abuse. They did not will it. Regrettably, they just have a tendency to be prescribed with more medications than the younger ones. The major cause of the increase in the incidence of prescription drug abuse is still unknown. However, it cannot be denied that convenience of the drug could be a contributing factor.

Treating prescription drug would vary depending on the kind of drug the patient is addicted to The needs of the individual should also be taken into account. The two main courses of drug addiction treatment are behavioral and pharmacological. Behavioral treatment supports patient to discontinue drug use and educate them how to function normally even without the drug. Counseling should go hand in hand so as to guide and follow up the patient for any improvement. Medication could also be of great help most especially with opioid addiction.

There is no drug that is free from addiction. To treat this addiction, one needs a good combination of behavioral and pharmacological treatment.