Last updated : December 23, 2024
For the past few decades, America has had a serious problem with opiate pain medication abuse. What began as an effective way for people to manage chronic pain has turned into a nightmare of addiction and overdoses. For many American’s the allure of the high from opiate based painkillers was too much to let go of once they had begun regular use. After several weeks or more of having to take the drugs, people would become dependent upon it and have withdrawal symptoms if they tried to stop. Although pharmaceutical companies have tried to alter the medications to prohibit their abuse, they have been largely unsuccessful.
Even though opiate painkiller use has been a problem, pharmaceutical companies continue to create new products for doctors to prescribe. Last year, a new opioid pain medication hit the market called Zohydro. This new painkiller mimics the extended release of OxyContin and is intended to be for pain management for patients that are in hospice care or suffering from malignant pain due to cancer. Since its release, people in the medical community have been in an uproar claiming that Zohydro will create another painkiller addiction epidemic.
Opioid addiction
Opiate painkillers were developed to enhance the body’s natural reaction to pain. The goal was to speed up the process of getting the right chemicals to the neuroreceptors throughout the body in order to reduce pain more effectively than regular pain medicine. However, one side effect of these drugs is the increase of dopamine production.
The brain sees the chemical dopamine as a type of reward. It makes people feel happy, and in large amounts, gives people an intense high. Because medications like Zohydro and OxyContin manipulate these chemicals in the body, people can become addicted to the intense feelings of happiness that they can provide.
Because the release of dopamine in the brain begins to feel like a reward, people will naturally get used to the original sensations the drug causes, and eventually need to up the amount they take to get the same feeling. Once a person has been using opioid painkillers for an extended period and built up a tolerance, they can cross the line into addiction. The ease in which someone can become dependent and eventually addicted to these types of medications is what makes them a danger to those that use them.
What makes Zohydro different?
There are many different types of opiate painkillers on the market, but Zohydro can come with a dose of up to 50 milligrams which is five times the amount of other prescribed time release opioid medications. On top of having a much higher dose than the average prescribed painkiller, there is nothing to prevent drug abusers from crushing up the pills to get the entire dose at one time. Zoegenix, the makers of Zohydro, realize this problem, but so far their only solution is to put a combination lock on the pill bottles. With such a high dosage and no protection in place to deter drug addicts from abusing the pills, it is easy to see why Zohydro has the medical community concerned about a second wave of opiate painkiller addiction.
With painkiller addiction and related deaths still proving to be a serious problem in America, the introduction of a medication like Zohydro presents a serious problem for the medical community. Even with restrictions in place for time-release medications like OxyContin, drug abusers are still finding ways to have access to the painkillers and misuse the drugs. Although Zoegenix is putting forth efforts to make the use of the drug safer, it is clear that there are bigger issues facing the medical and pharmaceutical community regarding opiate painkillers.
