Prescription drug abuse is a rapidly growing health problem in the United States. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that an estimated 20 percent of the population in the United States has used prescription drugs for nonmedicinal purposes. The most commonly abused types of prescription drugs are narcotics, stimulants and depressants. Prescription drug abuse poses serious and potentially life-threatening dangers to the drug user and others.
Physical Dependence
Prescription drug abuse can lead to physical dependence, that is, a condition in which the body requires the drug to prevent symptoms of withdrawal. Prolonged use of narcotics, or opiates, commonly leads to physical dependence, reports the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Opiate withdrawal symptoms include muscle aches, sweating, runny nose, agitation, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal cramps.
Abuse of prescription central nervous system depressants, including barbiturates and benzodiazepines, also frequently leads to physical dependence. Barbiturate withdrawal may lead to seizures, delirium and hallucinations. Symptoms of benzodiazepine withdrawal are generally less severe than those associated with barbiturates.
Addiction
Prescription drug abuse can lead to addiction, which is characterized by intense cravings and an overwhelming compulsion to continue using the drug despite adverse effects on health, relationships, finances, work and other arenas of the user's life, explains the Mayo Clinic. Addiction frequently becomes the dominant focus of a drug user's life, with potentially dangerous effects on physical and mental health.
Accidental Injury
The desire to achieve an altered mental state motivates most prescription drug abuse. A drug-induced altered mental and physical state typically causes impaired judgment, coordination and orientation, which may lead to serious accidental injury to self or others. Driving while under the influence of prescription opiates or benzodiazepines is of particular concern because these drugs cause physical and mental effects that can impair driving skills, warns the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Accidental Overdose
Accidental drug overdose is a potentially life-threatening danger associated with prescription drug abuse. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 26,400 people in the United States died of accidental drug overdose in 2006, with narcotic pain medications responsible for more than 50 percent of cases. The number of drug overdose deaths caused by prescription narcotics was roughly six-fold higher than deaths due to heroin overdose.
Narcotics act on the brain to suppress respirations. People who die of an accidental narcotic overdose generally fall asleep or go into a coma and stop breathing. Central nervous system depressants also suppress respirations, potentially leading to lethal accidental overdose, especially when combined with alcohol. Accidental drug overdose deaths caused by prescription stimulants are often due to cardiac arrest or a fatal brain hemorrhage.
