Opioid Use and Abuse – The Opioid Epidemic

Opioids are drugs that were created to work on the nervous system to relieve pain. They were designed for short term use. Continued use of only a few weeks can lead to physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms when trying to stop.

In the late 1990s, the pharmaceutical companies who created these drugs reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers, and the medical doctors began to prescribe them at greater rates.

This assurance led to widespread use and misuse of these medications. It has now become clear that these medications could indeed be highly addictive.

Read the full article on Opioid Crisis