Opioids: Addiction, Withdrawal and Recovery

A List of Common Opioids in Increasing Strength

These are some of the common opioids and their generic names. They are listed in order of increasing strength.

What are Opioids?

Opioids are a group of drugs that are used for treating pain.

Opioid vs Opiate

The term opiate refers to natural or slightly modified components of opium such as codeine, morphine and heroin. The term opioids was originally used for synthetic opiates such as Oxycontin and Fentanyl. But now is used for the entire class of drugs.

Opioid Addiction

Opioids produce a sense of well-being or euphoria that can be addictive to some people. Opioids are legitimately used for treating pain. When used for pain relief, many people develop tolerance, meaning they need more and more to get the same effect. Some people go on to develop an addiction to opioids. They begin to obsessively think about getting more opiates and in some cases engage in illegal activities.

A high dose of opioids can cause death from cardiac or respiratory arrest. Tolerance to the euphoric effect of opioids develops faster than tolerance to the dangerous effects. Therefore people often overdose by mistake because they are trying to get a higher high and take too much.

Do You Have an Opioid Addiction?

If you answered yes to at least three of those questions, then you have an opioid addiction.

Opioid Withdrawal

Opioid withdrawal can be extremely uncomfortable. The important thing to remember is that opioid withdrawal is not life threatening if you are withdrawing only from opioids and not a combination of drugs. (Drug and alcohol withdrawal is different for each drug. Alcohol withdrawal and benzodiazepine withdrawal are potentially dangerous)

Opioid Withdrawal Symptoms Include:

Stages of Opioid Withdrawal

Opioid withdrawal symptoms can last anywhere from one week to one month. The first phase (acute withdrawal) begins about 12 hours after your last opioid use. It peaks at around 3 – 5 days, and lasts for approximately 1 – 4 weeks. The second phase (post-acute withdrawal) can last up to two years. The symptoms include mood swings, anxiety, variable energy, low enthusiasm, variable concentration, and disturbed sleep.

The acute stage has mostly physical symptoms, and the post-acute stage has mostly emotional symptoms. The symptoms of post-acute withdrawal are less severe but last longer.

The Opioid Crisis (Epidemic)

The opioid crisis (epidemic) began in the 1990s with over-prescription of powerful opioid pain relievers. They quickly became the most prescribed class of medications in the United States, exceeding antibiotics and heart medication.

In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that “patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers.” [1]

But the facts are that 20 to 30 percent of patients who are prescribed opioids for chronic pain will misuse them. [2]

About 80 percent of people who use heroin began by first misusing prescription opioids.[3]

Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. There are more drug overdose deaths in America every year than deaths due to guns and car accidents combined. In 2016 there were more than 64,000 drug overdose deaths. Most of those deaths were due to opioid use. The opioid “fentanyl” was involved in more than 20,000 of those fatalities.

Fentanyl

Fentanyl is so strong that it can easily cause an accidental overdose. It is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. About two milligrams of fentanyl – equivalent to six or seven grains of salt – is a lethal dose.

There are many chilling statistics about fentanyl. Here is just one of them. In one-third of fentanyl overdoses, the individual died within seconds of taking fentanyl. They died so quickly that their body didn’t have enough time to begin to metabolize the drug, and no metabolites of fentanyl were found in the autopsy. [4]

How did fentanyl become such a big part of the opioid epidemic? Around 2010, heroin became so abundant that it suddenly became cheaper than many other drugs, and addicts started to switch from other drugs to heroin. In one survey, 94% of people in treatment for opioid addiction said they used heroin because prescription opioids were more expensive and harder to obtain. [5]

Next, drug cartels discovered how to make fentanyl cheaply. Heroin cannot be created entirely in a lab. It must first start as morphine. Huge quantities of fentanyl from China started flooding the market. Because fentanyl is easier to make and more powerful than heroin, drug dealers began to lace their heroin with fentanyl.

People taking fentanyl-laced heroin are more likely to overdose because they do not know they are taking a more powerful drug. Which brings us to the opioid epidemic and the crisis of opioid overdoses.

Fentanyl is now starting to find its way into prescription pills. Fentanyl pills are pressed and dyed to look like oxycodone. If you are using oxycodone and take fentanyl not knowing it is fentanyl, you will almost certainly overdose.

A new variation of fentanyl is finding its way into the drug trade. Carfentanil is 100 times stronger than fenatanyl, which makes it 10,000 times more potent than morphine.

Opioid Treatment Recovery Plan

What is Suboxone – Buprenorphine?

Suboxone is a medication used for withdrawing and detoxing from opioids. It is a combination of buprenorphine a mild opiate, and naloxone a medication that reverses the effects of opiates if taken intravenously.

Buprenorphine is unlike other opioids in that it does not lead to a greater high the more you take. Therefore it is commonly used to get people off more addictive drugs such as Oxycontin or heroin.

The reason for combining buprenorphine and naloxone is that it reduces the risk of intravenous use.

For More Information…

Visit buprenorphinetreatmentcenters.com or call 904-999-9064

References

1. https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-crisis 2. Vowles KE, McEntee ML, Julnes PS, Frohe T, Ney JP, van der Goes DN. Rates of opioid misuse, abuse, and addiction in chronic pain: a systematic review and data synthesis. Pain. 2015;156(4):569-576. 3. Muhuri PK, Gfroerer JC, Davies MC. Associations of Nonmedical Pain Reliever Use and Initiation of Heroin Use in the United States. CBHSQ Data Rev. August 2013. 4. Overdose Deaths Related to Fentanyl and Its Analogs — Ohio, January–February 2017. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)/ September 1, 2017 / 66(34);904–908 5. Cicero TJ, Ellis MS, Surratt HL, Kurtz SP. The changing face of heroin use in the United States: a retrospective analysis of the past 50 years. JAMA Psychiatry. 2014;71(7):821-826.]

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