Health Promotion Strategies and Tactics

Prescription Drug Abuse: The Big Impact

Prescription Drug Abuse and Its Severity.

Student Name

COH 430

National University

Prescription Drug Abuse: The Big Impact

Prescription Drug Abuse: The Big Impact

Prescription drugs can cause serious adverse effects such as addiction, tolerance, physical

dependence, and death, so anyone taking prescription medication needs to fully understand the

severity of misusing them. What people see as a common and easy way to handle stress of their

everyday life. This paper will identify and bring to life the everyday issue that is in the world as

far as misuse and abuse of prescription drugs. I will use the Transtheoretical Model to help show

the way people think and how the behavior might be for them. I will also go over the

interventions for behavioral, environmental, and policy.

Prescription Drug Abuse

Prescription drug abuse is the use of a prescription medication in a way not intended by the

prescribing doctor. Prescription drug abuse or problematic use includes everything from taking a

friend's prescription painkiller for your backache to snorting or injecting ground-up pills to get

high. Drug abuse may become ongoing and compulsive, despite the negative consequences

(CDC,2016).

The issue of prescription drug abuse in the United States is so bad that now it is listed as an

epidemic. This is one of the biggest health behavior issues we have going on right now. This is

due to the fact that getting prescription drugs are not as hard as getting any other drugs. As of

2012 the number of deaths due to painkillers have increased to 17,000 a year. Currently there are

over 52 million Americans over the age of 12 that have used prescription drugs non-medically in

their lifetime. The reason there are so many instance where prescription drugs are an issue is,

Prescription Drug Abuse: The Big Impact

because over 54% of people get them for free from a friend or relative. Some of the risk factor

that are associated with drug abuse are family history of drug abuse. Past or present addictions

such as alcohol or tobacco also plays a major role. The lack of knowledge of the harm of taken

the prescription drugs is another huge one (Mayo clinic, 2015. )

Some of the health concerns that come with this addiction are severe liver and kidney

damage. An individuals’ body can only process a certain amount of something over a period of

time. With this being said if you take a lot of one drug your body will overload and shut down

and usually end up making you very ill, end up in a coma or possible death. Another issue that is

that sometimes the addictions gets worse because the body adapts and build a tolerance to the

drugs you are taking. Your body will build a higher and higher tolerance to the drugs which in

turn will result in you taking more to reach the proper “fix” that you need. These drugs will also

cause an issue with your work or school performance. They will decrease over time while you

are on these drugs. You also run the risk of possibly being in a motor vehicle accident because of

the effects that these drugs have on your body. One of the last thing that could potentially be a

problem is that this kind of addiction could lead to more consumption of alcohol as well. You

may also experience severe mood swings from either the prescription drugs or lack of you not

having them in your system. To further understand this health behavior, I will explain it by using

the Transtheoretical Model. I will then go into the interventions of behavioral, environment and

policy aspects of it.

The Transtheoretical Model

This model was founded and developed in 1977 by James O. Prochaska. This model is

based on the analysis of different theories which is how it got its name “Transtheoretical.” The

Prescription Drug Abuse: The Big Impact

first stage is precontemplation. In this stage the person doesn’t really see any problem with their

addiction. They think they are just helping themselves deal with life issues. The see it as they

aren’t doing anything wrong.

Next, this is contemplation. In this stage they may have had an incident where they took

too many pills and got severely ill or had some other eye opening event happen. This made them

sit back and think maybe this isn’t a good idea after all.

Another stage is preparation. During this stage they could start reading and doing some

research and seeing the severe adverse effects it could have on their body, their liver and kidneys

especially. The can now see the full effect of what their behavior is doing to them.

The next stage is action. In this stage they could either enter themselves into a rehab

facility or go and seek some sort of counseling to help them beat their drug addiction. They make

whatever efforts it takes to get their bad behavior out of their system and get back on track with a

healthy lifestyle.

Another stage is maintenance. In this stage they could reach out to friends or family to

help them maintain and clean a sober life. They could also find a support group that is battling

the same addictions they were battling in life. They could also take up a hobby or a sport.

Lastly there is termination. In this stage I feel like the individual has to have completely

accepted that they can never go back to abusing prescription drugs. They need to be able to fight

the addictions and cravings under their own power and remain sober. They need to have founded

a healthy lifestyle where they have goals to reach so they don’t have a possible relapse.

Prescription Drug Abuse: The Big Impact

Behavioral Interventions

The two behavioral strategies or methods for behavior would be education and a

rehabilitation program. I would say education because I feel like the lack of education is what

leads to some of the worse drug addiction problems. People don’t fully understand the toll they

are putting on their body. They think its nothing serious when in fact they are destroying their

bodies. Most people don’t notice the addiction till it is too late. They think the pills are just

helping them out with whatever it is at the time. This may be something from a surgery or some

other trauma that they endured which lead them to get prescribed the prescription. They start to

notice the effects and they like the feeling and before you know it they are hooked. They start

trying to get it from other people because they have grown so use to having them that that can

seem to get off them. I believe if they were educated and realized that the prescription was

intended for short term and the effects it can do to their body might help them open their eyes to

the severity of this behavior. Next is the rehab programs. I think this is something that is truly a

life saver. When people seek help and go to rehab they are taking a huge step in bettering their

lives and making the right choices to live a better life. When they decide to go into rehab they

will start to get the proper care they need to kick the bad behavior and in turn kick the bad habit

of abusing these drugs. Rehab in my opinion is a staple method.

Environmental Interventions

The two strategies or methods for environmental are the D.A.R.E program and providing

affordable access to clinics or facilities where people can be seen if they feel they have an

addiction and need assistance. When it comes to the D.A.R.E program I think they reaches a big

audience. I know mostly it is focused on children, but I believe you need to start with the bottom

Prescription Drug Abuse: The Big Impact

and work your way up. This falls into the same thing as education. When we can reach out to the

younger population and get them to understand what the effects of prescription drugs can do to

them is a good thing to get into their heads early. Some of the children may have a parent or

know a parent that they see always taking pills to help them get over their problems, but never

really understood why they did that. Now they are being taught the seriousness of this behavior

and why not to go down that path in the future. The affordable care I believe is a problem

because people could get the help they need, but they don’t have the finances to do it so they just

stick with their bad behavior. If they were able to see a doctor or someone to help them they

might not fall into the trap of being addicted to prescription drugs. They want to get the help, but

something they cost of care is just far too high for them. We need to work on this and we will

most likely see a change.

Policy Interventions

The two strategies or method for policy are drug testing for employees and the Children’s

Health Act. The drug testing to the workplace is a great method. There are a ton of jobs out there

that involve doing stuff they if under the influence could fatally hurt someone. The ability to

weed out the people that are on prescription drugs and still trying to work is a major one. We

need to look at the big picture that some people have jobs where people could be killed. We need

to be able to know that the people we are working with to our left and right are in the right state

of mind. The Children’s Health Act is a program that works to improve mental health and

substance abuse services for children and adolescents. This is great act, because being able to

help children while they are young and get them the needed medical attention they need before

they spiral out of control. Children that may have a substance abuse issue early on is a major

Prescription Drug Abuse: The Big Impact

concern, but having this act in place I believe is one of the best interventions out there to help

shape the future.

Conclusion

In conclusion, prescription drugs abuse is a major issue that the United States is facing

every day. The Transtheoretical model and interventions that I explained will give a better idea

on what is going through an individuals’ head when they are battling this behavior. Using the

transtheoretical model gives you a good insight on how an individual can beat this addiction they

face and how to make positive steps in their life to not relapse and obtain termination. This

behavior is a serious issue and I believe that now it been brought to light and could possibly

decrease the amount of people that fall into this horrible behavior. The interventions are ways to

help with behavior and get it under control before it starts to gets too out of hand. They are ways

to help improve the quality of life for the individuals.

Prescription Drug Abuse: The Big Impact

References

Intervention Drug Rehab Association Reports Significant Rise in Recovery Statistics. (2016, August

8). Mental Health Weekly Digest, 32. Retrieved from

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in&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA460137028&asid=a592954fb304f677e9d9c3cb57cb0ce2

Prescription drug abuse. (2015, September 19). from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-

conditions/prescription-drug-abuse/basics/definition/con-20032471

Prescription Drug Abuse Statistics. (2014, January 01). from http://claad.org/rx-drug-abuse-stats/

2015 Prescription Drug Abuse Statistics You Need to Know. (2016, September 16)., from

https://talbottcampus.com/2015-prescription-drug-abuse-statistics/

Understanding the Epidemic. (2016, December 16)., from

https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/

Prescription Drug Abuse: The Big Impact