Everybody knows what addiction is. It is a continuing intense need for a certain something: alcohol, food, cigarettes – you name it, you can get addicted to it. It is the unnecessarily strong need to have the item you are craving for. When you talk about drug addiction, the usual idea that pops into our minds are those drugs that can be obtained through drug dealers and are illegally bought and sold. What some people do not know is that drugs or medication that we ingest to help us feel better or to cure certain ailments are emerging as substances that can also be abused. These are often mood-altering drugs like sedatives or pain killers that give people that feeling of being detached from the world or being in a state of euphoria. These drugs are either taken in tablet form, via injections, or as pills. Whatever form they take, prescription drugs are now becoming a rising force to be reckoned with in the fight against drug addiction.

What Prescription Drugs are People Getting Addicted To

There are quite a number of prescription drugs that can be abused by their users and are available with a written prescription. While some may be a refillable prescription, there are prescriptions that can only be used once and require a new prescription for every purchase. These drugs are divided into five categories by the DEA or Drug Enforcement Agency and are called Schedules.

The first group of these drugs includes those that are illegal and have no medical indications whatsoever. This list carries such notorious drugs like ecstasy, heroin, PCP, LSD, and marijuana, among others. These are some of the most dangerous drugs around.

The second group that the DEA compiled includes drugs like codeine, morphine, amphetamine, methadone, methamphetamine, and even cocaine. These drugs have some medical usages and can only be obtained by a written or typed prescription. Prescriptions for these drugs have to be signed by the doctor prescribing it and are non-refillable prescriptions. These drugs exhibit a very high potential for addiction with severe mental and physical dependence as the effect it may have on a user.

The third of drugs listed by the DEA includes medications like Vicodin, Butisol, Plegine, as well as Anabolic Steroids of any kind, codeine, and even testosterone. These drugs can result in a medium to low physical dependence and a rather high mental or psychological dependence for the person. Prescriptions can be either issued orally or written down and is refillable in a six-month time frame for up to five refills.

The fourth division of the list that the DEA generated includes drugs that cause a somewhat limited psychological or physical dependence, although they are still potentially addictive and dangerous. Some of the drugs in this list include Valium, Ativan, Xanax, Doral, Luminal, and a whole lot more. While these may be categorized as lower drug types in the list of addictive drugs, they can still carry a certain amount of repercussions with the constant intake addiction to them causes.

The final list of drugs in the DEA’s watch-list for addictive medication include Lomotil, Codeine combined with other non-narcotic medicines like Robitussin and Actifed as well as Buprenorphine that are found in Buprenex and Temgesic. These drugs do not require a prescription to obtain them and have a pretty low level of addiction potential.

What are the Signs of Addiction?

One of the signs of having an addiction to a certain prescribed medication is the person’s inability to stop himself from using the medication. Some of the more tell-tale signs of a person being addicted to these drugs include the sudden feeling of confidence, belligerence, extreme changes in activity which could include prolonged hours of sleep after bursts of hyperactivity, and even hallucinations or wild imaginings. Taking a person off such medications and seeing them go through certain withdrawal symptoms like excessive sweating and shaking can also alert you to a person’s being addicted to the drugs they have been taking.

While people might say that addicts are people with a weak will, there are actually people whose brains react differently to drugs than others, making them more prone to addiction than others. Another reason why some people get addicted to their prescribed medication is also due to the re-arranging of the way the brain runs after a prolonged use to the substance. This “re-wiring” of the brain alters the way the mind processes logic and makes it hard for a person to listen to reason.

Who Are Prone to Becoming Addicts?

While we may believe that everybody is susceptible to becoming an addict, there are a few factors that make some people more susceptible than others when it comes to becoming a drug dependent. Some of these factors include fatigue or overwork, alcohol dependency, a condition that requires pain-killing medication and a family background or history of addiction. It has also been noted that younger people, women and the elderly are also very prone to drug dependency and addiction.

How to Treat Drug Addiction?

Drug addiction is a serious problem that requires treatments to not only take the person away from his dependency but to also cleanse him of the drugs still coursing through his body. Such treatments are available for those people who want a change in their lives for the better and for those who want to be able to live their lives without having to look towards these chemical substances to help them cope with the pressures of everyday life.

Some of the available treatments that people can use include medical detoxification or detox and in-patient treatments. Detox usually helps a person overcome their addiction by getting them to give up these substances voluntarily or going cold turkey and coping with it in an institution that monitors their withdrawal symptoms. In-Patient treatment lasts longer and is done in an exclusive treatment facility that not only gets the patient to stop using these drugs but also educates them to the further dangers of continuing usage. There are also other treatments for drug dependents aside from these two more common ones.

These treatments are designed to help individuals cope with their addictions while slowly cleansing their bodies of the remaining toxins the drugs have left behind. Treatments are also dependent on what fits each individual; therefore, choosing a treatment that can maximize the person’s detachment from their dependency is essential to a person’s fast recovery.

Hydrocodone Prescription, Dosage & Administration:

Hydrocodone is an orally active, narcotic analgesic and antitussive. Being a narcotic analgesic, it is prescribed for the relief of moderate to severe pain & being a antitussive, it is prescribed as a medicine used to suppress or relieve coughing.

Hydrocodone comes both as a tablet and also in liquid form & thus can easily be taken orally. 5 mg of hydrocodone is equivalent to 30 mg of codeine when administered orally. Earlier hydrocodone and morphine were considered equipotent for pain control in humans. However, it is now considered that a dose of 15 mg of hydrocodone is equivalent to 10 mg of morphine. Hydrocodone is considered to be morphine-like in all respects and thus, final dosage is adjusted by physician according to the severity of the pain and the response of the patient.

Hydrocodone Abuse:Vicodin i.e. hydrocodone in combination with acetaminophen, is a commonly abused version of hydrocodone in United States and Canada. Vicodin, as with all narcotic analgesics, can be habit forming—causing dependence, tolerance, and withdrawal symptoms if not used as it is prescribed. The presence of acetaminophen in hydrocodone-containing products deters many drug users from taking excessive amounts.

Effects of Hydrocodone Abuse:

Some of the common side effects of drug abuse include dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea, drowsiness, euphoria, vomiting, and constipation. Some of the lesser common side effects are various allergic reactions, blood disorders, mood swings, mental fogginess, anxiety, lethargy, difficulty in urinating, ureter spasms, rashes and irregular or depressed respiration etc.

Physical Dependence on Hydrocodone:

Opioid analgesics such as Hydrocodone may cause psychological and physical dependence. Physical dependence results in withdrawal symptoms in patients who abruptly discontinue the drug. Physical dependence usually does not occur to a clinically significant degree until after several weeks of continued opioid usage, but it may occur after as little as a week of opioid use.

Commercial Status in United States:

There are over 200 products containing hydrocodone in the U.S. When sold commercially in the US, hydrocodone is always combined with another medication due to a separate federal regulation. In its most usual forms, hydrocodone is combined with acetaminophen. Such commercial hydrocodone products which are combined with acetaminophen are known by various trademark names such as Vicodin & Lortab. Hydrocodone also can be combined with aspirin (Trade name: Lortab ASA), ibuprofen (Trade name: Vicoprofen), & certain antihistamines (Trade name: Hycomine).

Pure Hydrocodone tablets or capsules are not offered currently by any USA drug company. The cough preparation Codiclear DH is the purest available US hydrocodone item, containing guaifenesin and small amounts of ethanol as active ingredients.

With such a huge number of Hydrocodone containing products, the possibility of misuse and addiction remains substantial. As a result, Sales and production of this drug has increased significantly in recent years & so has its diversion and illicit use. To limit abuse of opioid drugs like Dilaudid it is necessary to properly assess the patient, employ proper prescription practices, periodically re-evaluate the opioid therapy, and properly dispense and store the drugs.

Hydrocodone Testing:

Hydrocodone may not cause a positive result in a standard opiate urine test. Many opiate tests test only for morphine (which both codeine and heroin break down into). This is true for both home/business kits and laboratory testing.

However, there are several specialized home and laboratory testing kits available that specifically detects hydrocodone (& hydromorphone, its metabolic product). So test results usually depend on the particular type of test that is used and whether or not laboratory verification is done. If a home drug test is given and the opiate test shows a positive result (due to hydromorphone use), laboratory verification might not result in a positive test because the lab may only test for morphine.

Chemically, Demerol is 4-Piperidinecarboxylic acid, 1-methyl-4-phenyl-ethyl ester hydrochloride.

Demerol Prescription, Dosage & Administration:

Demerol, a narcotic analgesic, is prescribed for the relief of moderate to severe pain. Dosage is adjusted by physician according to the severity of the pain and the response of the patient. The oral solution is often a pleasant-tasting, nonalcoholic solution containing 50 mg of meperidine hydrochloride per 5ml teaspoon. The tablets usually contain 50 mg or 100 mg of the analgesic. It is delivered as its hydrochloride salt in tablets, as a syrup, or by intramuscular or intravenous injection although it is less effective orally than on parenteral administration (as by intramuscular or intravenous injection).

Demerol Abuse:

Demerol contains meperidine, a mu-agonist opioid with an abuse liability similar to morphine and is a controlled substance. Abuse of Demerol poses a risk of overdose and death. This risk is increased with concurrent abuse of Demerol with alcohol and other substances. Intramuscular or intravenous abuse of crushed tablets can be expected to result in local tissue necrosis, infection, pulmonary granulomas, and increased risk of endocarditis and valvular heart disease. In addition, such sort of drug abuse is commonly associated with transmission of infectious diseases such as hepatitis and HIV.

Effects of Demerol Abuse:

The major hazards of Demerol, as with other narcotic analgesics, are respiratory depression and to a lesser degree, circulatory depression; respiratory arrest, shock, and cardiac arrest etc.

The most frequently observed adverse reactions include lightheadedness, dizziness, sedation, vomiting, nausea, & sweating. These effects seem to be more prominent in ambulatory patients and in those who are not experiencing severe pain. In such individuals, lower doses are advisable. Some adverse reactions in ambulatory patients may be alleviated if the patient lies down.

Miscellaneous:

There is a category of drugs called MAO Inhibitors. Drugs in this category include the antidepressants phenelzine & tranylcypromine. If you are taking these antidepressants or have used them in last 2-3 weeks, inform your physician well in advance because when taken with Demerol, these MAO Inhibitors can cause unpredictable, severe, & occasionally fatal reactions.

The narcotic antagonist, naloxone hydrochloride, is a specific antidote against respiratory depression which may result from over dosage or unusual sensitivity to narcotics, including meperidine. Therefore, an appropriate dose of this antagonist should be administered, preferably by the intravenous route, simultaneously with efforts at respiratory resuscitation.

Demerol Testing:

A diverse array of techniques is available to test for drug abuse and Demerol or Pethidine/meperidine containing compounds are no exception. As with other drugs, some amount of Pethidine/meperidine remains unchanged while rest of it forms different metabolites.

These unchanged Pethidine or meperidine compounds and their metabolized products can be detected using any of the following methods:

•Urine based Pethidine/meperidine/metabolite testing

•Hair follicle based Pethidine/meperidine/metabolite detection

•GC based Pethidine/meperidine/metabolite detection

•Mass spec based Pethidine/meperidine/metabolite testing

•Pethidine/meperidine/metabolite-specific antibody based diagnostic kits

Methadone Prescription:

For around 30 years this synthetic narcotic drug has been used to treat opioid addiction, specifically heroin & morphine addiction. It is frequently administered orally. A large number of patients require around 80-120 mg/dl of methadone, or even more, to achieve desired effects. However, most of the clinics typically start patients at a lower dose. Taken once, methadone may suppress the narcotic urge for around 24 to 36 hours, of course, on a case specific basis.

Effects of Methadone – Use & Abuse:

The principal effects of methadone treatment are to relieve opioid craving, suppress the abstinence cravings, and block the euphoric effects associated with heroin. Heroin results in the release of an excess of dopamine neurotransmitter in the body which causes an urge to consume opiate continuously which can keep the opioid receptors in the brain occupied. Methadone occupies this receptor and suppresses that urge to consume heroin. This permits heroine addicts to change their behavior and to discontinue heroin use. Methadone maintenance has been found to be medically safe and non- tranquilizing. It is also indicated for pregnant women addicted to heroin.

Although Methadone reduces the cravings associated with heroin use and suppresses the urge to consume heroin, but it does not provide the same euphoria that heroin does. Consequently, the patient remains physically dependent on the Methadone or any opioid for that matter, but is freed from the uncontrolled, compulsive, and disruptive behavior seen in heroin addicts.

As compared to narcotics like heroin, morphine, hydrocodone, Oxycodone etc., methadone has been found to be much safer when used as directed by physician. If properly used, it has not been found to harm any of the body’s vital organs viz. brain, liver, lungs, kidneys etc. even after long term usage. Some patients experience minor symptoms such as constipation, water retention, drowsiness, skin rash, excessive sweating, and changes in libido.

However, If not used properly or when abused, Methadone can cause slow or shallow breathing and dangerous changes in heart beat that may not be felt by the patient. Methadone has also been infrequently reported to cause cardiac conduction problems although very few fatalities have been documented due to this. Sadly, abuse of Methadone is increasing rapidly owing to its long-slow-releasing properties and much due to its low cost. A month’s supply of methadone typically costs around $50 in the United States, compared to many hundreds of dollars for other opioids. This makes it a substance abuse potential.

Methadone Testing:Laboratory testing for Methadone or any of its unique known metabolites may be done by antibody based screening like ELISA. Liquid Chromatography may be performed where TLC may help in low cost preliminary analysis. A MS/GC approach may also prove helpful for further validation purposes.

Needless to say, all these tests may be done either on blood samples or urine samples or even on hair follicle samples. However, for periodic monitoring purposes many rapid screening kits are available commercially for home use.