Opioid Use Disorder: What It Is, Symptoms & Treatment

If you are wondering how to treat opioid addiction and are considering rehab, it’s important that treatment is tailored to a person’s specific needs and focuses on treating the whole person. Treatment for opioid addiction has the potential to be very effective and may help to prevent relapse. However, they also have a high potential for abuse, addiction, overdose, and death. People who mix other mind-altering substances, including alcohol, have a higher risk of developing an addiction. This means that over time people who use opioids need to use higher doses or more potent opioids to get the same feel-good rewards.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 153 million opioid prescriptions were written in 2019. Opiate is used to describe opioids found in nature, like heroin or morphine. By Julie Scott, MSN, ANP-BC, AOCNP

Julie is an Adult Nurse Practitioner with oncology certification and a healthcare freelance writer with an interest in educating patients and the healthcare community. Explore a variety of healthcare news & stories by visiting the Health Lab home page for more articles.

How to identify, treat and prevent opioid use disorder

Helping the brain return to a state that isn’t dependent on opioids requires careful diagnosis and holistic treatment. OUD can impact many areas of a person’s life, including health, relationships, work and much more. With such a broad spectrum, it’s not surprising that OUD can look very different from person to signs of opioid addiction person. People can develop OUD whether they are initially prescribed opioids or start with illegal opioids. Nearly 75% of all drug overdose deaths in the U.S. involved an opioid in 2020. Overdose deaths that involve opioids have increased at an alarming rate in recent years — by more than eight times since 1999.

Think of it as a weeding out process that replaces negative behaviors with positive ones. This class of opioids is fully artificial and doesn’t contain natural opiates. Natural opioids, or opiates, don’t contain artificial substances and come from naturally occurring substances. Some plants, like the opium poppy, can produce nitrogen-containing chemical compounds.

Risk Factors of Opioids

Examples of Opiate abuse include taking the medication more frequently or in larger amounts than originally prescribed. Continued patterns of Opiate abuse can lead to a spiraling addiction, which is difficult to overcome without the help of medical staff in rehab. If you suspect a loved one is struggling with a dependence on Painkillers, it’s important to take action immediately before the situation becomes worse. The helpline at AddictionResource.net is available 24/7 to discuss the treatment needs of yourself or a loved one.

• Compared with men, women also are more likely to be prescribed opioid medicines, to be given higher doses and to use opioids for longer periods of time.
• However, they also have a high potential for abuse, addiction, overdose, and death.
• The agreements include a list of more than 100 suggested investments, many of which echo the approved uses in Kaptur and Hinson’s bill.
• The helpline at AddictionResource.net is available 24/7 to discuss the treatment needs of yourself or a loved one.
• Weight loss without any other cause, a decline in personal hygiene, and a shift away from caring about how they appear can indicate a problem when opioid use is a concern.
• Reach out for help now, so you can begin to build a better future today.
• That’s why knowing when to help a person seek treatment for opioid misuse (and find alternative pain management methods) is important.

“If you’re using more and more of a drug, yet your daily functioning is getting worse instead of better, that’s a sign of addiction,” Morrow says. It isn’t always easy to tell if a person has an addiction to opioids. However, only about 1 in 4 people with OUD receive professional treatment. This is because it’s easy to miscalculate and use doses that they previously tolerated. But these doses lead to overdose due to loss of tolerance from a break in opioid use.

Opioid Use Disorder Treatment

Weight loss without any other cause, a decline in personal hygiene, and a shift away from caring about how they appear can indicate a problem when opioid use is a concern. Explore some of the resources mentioned in this article to find out what may be best for you or the person you care about. Try to keep yourself calm and the person awake while waiting for emergency personnel to arrive.

However, opioid drugs have a high risk for addiction, especially when used for a long time. People can also become addicted if they misuse the medicine (opioid use disorder) or use the drug illegally. People struggling with opioid addiction often engage in risky behaviors to obtain the drug. This may include buying opioids from illegal sources, stealing to finance their habit or participating in dangerous activities while under the influence.

What Are Opioids?

If you or someone you know is living with OUD, there are plenty of options that can help when you know how to recognize the signs. These are lab-made opioids, which are mixtures of synthetic and natural opioids. Opioids refer to natural, semi-synthetic, and fully synthetic opioids. There are many different types of opioids, some available through a prescription while others are entirely illegal.