The media has lied about opiods.
Most people who take opiods do not get addicted.
And most people who are addicted did not start with a legitimate prescription--they started using it as an illicit drug.
Most people who take opiods do not get addicted.
And most people who are addicted did not start with a legitimate prescription--they started using it as an illicit drug.
> Although published estimates of iatrogenic addiction vary substantially from less than 1% to more than 26% of cases, part of this variability is due to confusion in definition. Rates of carefully diagnosed addiction have averaged less than 8% in published studies, whereas rates of misuse, abuse, and addiction-related aberrant behaviors have ranged from 15 to 26%. A small (estimated at 4%) but growing percentage of persons who are addicted to prescription opioids transition to heroin
In short, people who have no history of addiction (and to a lesser extent comorbid mental illness) are unlikely to become addicted, but of course even a small chance is still worth considering.
The media isn't lying about the individual cases they mention. Yes, there are thousands of people like your friend. But I also think they built a narrative about these drugs being extremely addictive when the truth is much more subtle.
Perhaps you could like, read before you post incorrect statements, or so that your attempts at trolling won't be so easily shot down.
1. The narrative is that some poor guy took pain meds for a legitimate reason then ended up addicted. While this does occur, it's actually not very common.
> Among people who are prescribed opioids, addiction is relatively uncommon. The percentage of patients who become addicted after taking opioids for chronic pain is measured in the single digits; studies show an incidence from less than 1 percent to 8 percent. Most of the estimates are skewed toward the low end of this range, when those at risk (due to a history of substance abuse or, to a lesser but meaningful extent, a concurrent mental illness) are removed from the sample.
2. Most addicts had a history of drug abuse.
> People who abuse pills are rarely new to drugs. The federal government’s 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, for example, revealed that more than three-fourths of misusers had used non-prescribed benzodiazepines, such as Valium or Xanax, or inhalants. A study of Oxycontin users in treatment found that they “were not naive individuals with accidental addictions who were introduced to painkillers by their physicians as reported by the media … [Instead they had] extensive drug use histories.”
It's hard to bring this up without straying into classism or victim blaming. The reality is that most people without comorbidities and abuse history are quite safe, and these are drugs we need.
[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/what-ameri... [2] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1507771
My claims are actually backed by published research (cited within the Atlantic article if you want to check)... Maybe you could like read before you get shot down.