Opana is a very addictive and toxic pain killer and is the brand name of Oxymorphone. This drug is popular because it is the replacement for OxyCotin drug. Regulated by the FDA in 2006, Opana slowly rose in consumption and popularity among drug addicts as a satisfactory substitute for OxyContin. This popularity began to increase in the abusers when the manufacturer of the drug announced that they are going to launch a more advanced version of OxyContin drug which would be more tamper-resistant. When the number of cases of Oxymorphone abuse, theft and purchase rose incredibly, the professionals became cautious about the prescription of the drug in the patients. After that Opana drug is getting more and more popular in the community of addicts.
Opana is one of the prescribed opioid painkillers for drug abusers. In 2013, about 207 million prescriptions were filled for prescribed opioid pain relievers, according to the National Drug Abuse Institute. Usually, this particular pain relief is intended to manage mild to extreme pain levels; thus, opioid variation is greater.
Reasons for substance addiction range from genetics to physical and behavioral instability, and more. Any abusers have more than one aspect at stake influencing their drug addiction. In one survey, the National Council on Alcoholism and drug Use estimates 90% of opioid addicts used medications to change their mood.
Who Are Abusers of Opana and for What?
Those who had used OxyContin earlier in their life are true abusers of Opana. This is because OxyContin drug is difficult to get through formal ways but it is an approved drug is easily available. According to NIDA, as per reports of 2010 about 1.9 million people were addicted to pain killers including Opana.
According to NIDA, a study of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders from 2014 found that past-year utilization OxyContin indicates a pattern that could increase with age, with 1% of 8th graders, 3% of 10th graders, and 3.3 per cent of 12th graders showing use of the opioid.
90 per cent of opioid abusers in one study reported by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence reports using the drugs to alter their mood. Opana abuse falls into the category of deadly opioid abuses, but still, this drug is enjoying popularity in medical prescriptions. According to some reports of the National Institute on Drug Abuse published in 2013, Opana has been prescribed 207 million times as a pain reliever drug.
One of the most disturbing questions I have ever heard about opana is, “How do you know who abuses it?” This question is so severe that I seriously considered stopping the book and committing suicide. I had been given the book “Opiate Addiction: A Comprehensive Guide to Help You Stop Using” by Gary Craig, Ph.D, and Robert Weiss, MD. They have a long history in drug and alcohol addiction recovery and even more extended history in teaching about the disease of addiction. I looked up their website, and it looks very professional and has all of the references I need, plus the book is loaded with tons of excellent information on the nature of addiction and how it affects your life.
The number of older adults who abuse opioids opana is increasing all the time. According to USA Today, data from 2012 indicates that an estimated 336,000 senior citizens misuse or become addicted to prescription pain relievers.
The chapters are concise, and I enjoyed reading them. Dr. Craig starts with an explanation of addiction’s biology and how the chemistry of addiction varies between different people. He then goes into a good discussion of the physiology of the brain and how addiction recovery works.
Some things that caught my attention were the descriptions of the callous mentality of those who are addicted. I have never met anyone like that, and I don’t think I would want to, but I suppose they exist. I also liked how Dr. Craig described the psychological aspects of drug addiction. He said people start with a clear idea, and they become addicted. In his book, he says that they think like addicts and act like addicts. He says you are a victim if you have an alcoholic loved one in your home because he or she will exploit and abuse you.
The physical effects of opana are horrifying. He says they will leave you with what I call the Afterburn effect because you will be so depressed after coming home from work spending all day crying yourself to sleep. He says one person in five will have an addiction problem and the normal reaction to this is to bottle it up and not go anywhere. However, if you have a support group, if you can talk to them about your feelings, ask questions about your addiction, and if you know where to look for help, you can recover and live a productive and happy life.
There is some evidence that opana increases dopamine levels in the brain, which means that users may experience euphoria feelings. However, they experience these feelings to be short-lived, so it’s unknown if the euphoria stays through the drug’s effect on the brain. The drug has also been shown to increase heart rate and blood pressure, so if you are a person who is currently experiencing any of these symptoms, it would be advisable to consult your doctor before taking Opana.
Opiate drugs affect the brain through their chemical structures. These structures include opiate receptors, opiate oxidase (ORO) proteins, and mu-opioid molecules. These opana compounds are all involved in the opiate drug interaction, and receptors determine how the drug gets into the brain and how it acts. When the receptors are broken down The opiate drugs move out of the body and are excreted through urine, feces, and the skin. Opiates are then stored in the user’s tissues until it is time to withdraw from the opana medication.
WebMD states that more than 100 million individuals suffer from severe pain in the USA and when they visit professional doctors they prescribe them at least one opiate from the family of pain killers like Opana.
Others are afflicted with a certain kind of discomfort. According to the Huffington Post, people suffering from some type of mental illness are in numbers of 42.5 million in the United States, and one-third of them misuse drugs or alcohol, according to the National Alliance for Mental Illness.
Opana Addiction: What Does It Look Like?
When you know that everyone from teenagers to seniors uses opioids, you’d think that abuse would manifest differently in a 16-year-old girl than it does in a 75-year-old. However, in cases of poly-drug trafficking, the main distinction in abuse signs is the prevalence of other drugs.
The Majority of People Who Abuse Opana Will Show Some of The Following Symptoms:
- Poor judgment
- Constipation is a common complaint among people.
- Poor decision-making
- Breathing that is slower
- Slurred speech
- Extreme fatigue
- Euphoria
- Vomiting and nausea
Abusing Opana has far-reaching effects that even drug addicts are unaware of. Many that misuse Opana ER (extended-release) as an IV drug run the risk of blood-borne infections including hemolysis and thrombocytopenia, according to the Blood Journal. Medpage Today speculates that the ER reformulation is to blame, noting only two cases of blood-borne infections by Opana patients in the four years prior to the shift, and 53 after — accounting for around 5% of all Opana-related side effects.
Respiratory depression, which may lead to death, is one of the immediate threats of drug abuse. The rising trend of Opana abuse has resulted in a substantial increase in harmful effects associated with its use. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Office of Diversion Control, 4,599 people were treated in American emergency rooms for problems pertaining to Opana abuse in 2010, and that rose dramatically to 12,122 in 2011.
How Can I Find Help?
To treat any problem with opana, the opioid abuser must avoid abusing the drug and begin detoxing. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 169,868 patients were admitted to rehabilitation centres around the country which were non-heroin drug abusers in 2012. A methadone or buprenorphine treatment regimen was chosen for many of them. The opioid addict should substitute one of the two treatment medications for Opana in these long-term treatment options. The abuser will gradually detox over the course of a year or more, avoiding the unpleasant side effects that would otherwise arise during recovery if not for the medicated treatments.
Studies on opana compared the two prescription medications show that methadone is the most effective of the two. According to the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies of Health, only 26 patients stayed after six months in one trial — 13 on methadone and 13 on buprenorphine — and none of those on methadone had relapsed, opposed to five in the buprenorphine community.
However, there are some disadvantages of using methadone. Methadone therapy is generally more expensive and comes with limitations. Opana patients must visit a clinic or physician’s office daily for their dosage, making methadone maintenance programs far less flexible. Buprenorphine should be used as a regular medication at home.
Therapy and support groups are recommended in conjunction with detox care, which is supervised by professional doctors, irrespective of which recovery module you select. Accepting that you need assistance is the first step toward receiving it. You’ve made it this far; now is the time to contact us and hear more about how to recover from Opana dependence and addiction.
Ben Lesser is one of the most sought-after experts in health, fitness and medicine. His articles impress with unique research work as well as field-tested skills. He is a freelance medical writer specializing in creating content to improve public awareness of health topics. We are honored to have Ben writing exclusively for Dualdiagnosis.org.