OxyContin

OxyContin is the brand name for oxycodone, which is a narcotic medication used for reducing pain. OxyContin is a time release medication, meaning that it is designed to release the drug little by little into your system in a controlled manner over a certain amount of hours as opposed to hitting you all at once. OxyContin is an opiate drug and usually has anywhere from 10 to 80 milligrams of oxycodone which can provide up to twelve hours of relief from pain. What gives OxyContin its value medically is that it lasts really long therefore making it appealing for the typical patient that requires 24/7 pain relief.

In the handling of severe pain OxyContin definitely serves its purpose, however beyond proper use of the drug it can be dangerous in a lot of ways. The improper use of OxyContin has basically lead to an “OxyContin abuse epidemic”. In other words, OxyContin pills are getting in the hands of people who are using them illicitly and abusing the drug for the sake of a high. Because OxyContin is addictive, this has gotten to be a widespread problem. Sometimes these users who abuse OxyContin are crushing the pills, then swallowing, snorting or injecting it. By crushing the pill, the drug’s time release process will no longer work, and it hits the user’s system all at once. This obviously makes the drug a lot more potent and many users describe the high as a very intense euphoria not unlike heroin. On the street OxyContin goes by several nicknames, like Blues, Oxys, OxyCotton or Hillbilly Heroin. While oxycodone itself has been abused for at least three decades, OxyContin escalated this general problem by a long shot since it came into the picture in 1996.

Aside from being extremely addictive (especially when abused), OxyContin is a bit insidious because while taking it the user often mistakenly thinks that they can handle more and more. The drug doesn’t always imbue warning signals on the body when its had more than enough. For this reason, the drug can actually precipitate respiratory failure.

OxyContin Abuse as Part of a Broader Problem

The prevalence of OxyContin isn’t necessarily a rarity in terms of the broader problem at hand, being the widespread use of prescription pills for non medical purposes. Prescription pill abuse happens to be an extremely fast growing problem right now. Despite attempts at cracking down on this, statistics show that 2,500 American kids abuse a prescription painkiller every single day. The kicker with that number is that it’s revealing instances which these kids abuse these pills for the first time. In other words, the amount of American kids abusing these pills in general on a daily basis outnumbers that by a lot. This is compounded by the fact that in the US there are over 15 million people abusing prescription drugs. That surpasses the amount of people in the US abusing cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants and heroin combined. In terms of drug overdose, prescription drugs cause the largest percentage of deaths. To make matters worse, opioid painkillers are the most commonly found drug accounting for the drug overdose deaths in the United States. Well, to hone in on a big factor of the problem, OxyContin is definitely the most widely abused opioid painkiller.

With general prescription pill abuse getting progressively common in the United States, its no wonder that OxyContin is especially one of the most popularized drugs of choice. This is probably because OxyContin has a very high content of oxycodone in comparison to the other oxycodone-containing pills it competes with. The issue of abuse for OxyContin is reflected in several statistics:

According to the Substance Abuse and Health Services Administration, there were 182,748 emergency room visits in the S. resulting from abuse of oxycodone products (mostly OxyContin) in 2010.
OxyContin abuse and addiction is expensive, costing Americans roughly $400 billion every year.
According to the American Journal of Psychiatry at least 5 percent of all drug addicts used OxyContin to start with.
More than 86 percent of people who abuse OxyContin said that they bought the drug illegally, as opposed to being prescribed for it.
78 percent of OxyContin addicts relapse. This is pretty high in relation to other types of drug addictions.
A 2010 survey done by the National Institute on Drug Abuse revealed that 1 in 20 high school seniors abused OxyContin in that past year.
Addiction statistics are revealing that there are more first time abusers of OxyContin than of marijuana or cocaine.
In one county in the S. it was estimated that addiction to OxyContin had made up for 80 percent of the crime there.

The Price to Pay for an OxyContin Addiction

OxyContin is one of the worst types of addictions somebody could get wrapped up in. Not only is the rate of relapse real high, but a lot of times people that intend to only use the drug until their prescription runs out end up dragging it out, eventually getting hooked on it. A big reason for this is that OxyContin gives the user a potent high that leaves them wanting more, rendering them more edgy each time the high wears off. It’s a lot like heroin in that way, and in fact a lot of users have substituted heroin or opium for OxyContin because it reacts almost the same on the nervous system and brain. This is why it’s important that doctors are especially careful when they treat patients that have a history of alcohol or drug addiction or some history of addiction in their family.

Some short term effects that abusing OxyContin can cause are warm flushing of the skin, heavy arms and legs, mood swings, vomiting, nausea, itching, slowed breathing rate, drowsiness and/or confusion, dry mouth, sweating, weakness, dizziness and sleepiness. Aside from addiction, which is a given, some long term effects of abusing OxyContin are depressed lung function or lung damage and problems with the heart, liver and kidneys. Some other detrimental effects from OxyContin addiction are impairment of mental and physical abilities, irregular breathing, anxiety, depression, seizures, low blood pressure, suicidal thoughts and headaches.

When somebody goes through the stage of withdrawing from OxyContin on their road to recovery, they’re expected to experience several vile symptoms. This is what makes OxyContin addiction a pretty heavy thing in comparison to some other common addictions. Getting through withdrawal is normally the hardest part. These withdrawal symptoms are:

Lightheadedness
Sedation
Rash
Dry mouth
Seizures
Agitation
Anxiety
Muscle aches
Insomnia

There are going to be rough patches and bouts of depression when somebody stops taking OxyContin after having been addicted to it. Unfortunately this is the price to pay for an OxyContin addiction, but after the first few months are over then things start to naturally get a lot easier. The sooner the addict quits the pill popping, the better, as severity of all these effects and symptoms listed are obviously affected by the severity of the addiction itself. Like any addiction, it’s always harder in the beginning stages. But after getting over the initial hurdle (about three weeks), the process is like a snow ball effect, getting easier in time.