Addiction to painkillers causes health problems
September 6th, 2010 - 1:40 pm ICT by ANI ( 1 comment )Sydney, Sep 06 (ANI): A new Australian study has indicated that addiction to household painkillers is a serious problem with major health impacts.
Misuse of over-the-counter analgesics was the “third-most common category of substance abuse in Australia after cannabis and ecstasy”, with more than half a million Australians hooked.
Researchers detailed the cases of 27 people addicted to codeine and ibuprofen-based painkillers - typically Nurofen Plus - and the damage this caused to their health.
The side effects included gastrointestinal ruptures, renal failure, anaemia and severe hypokalaemia - low potassium in the blood that can cause an irregular heartbeat or paralysis.
An addiction expert and senior lecturer at Monash University’s School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Matthew Frei, said the patients commonly reported taking painkillers to treat a chronic ailment, and then falling into a pattern of daily use and multiple packets.
“A significant proportion of patients reported initiating use of over-the-counter … products for painful conditions, including back pain and headaches, and subsequently escalating the dose,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Frei as saying.
“A mean dose range of 34 to 47 tablets per day was reported in this case series,” he said, while adding that one patient was taking up to 100 tablets a day.
The research has been published in the Medical Journal of Australia. (ANI)
- Warning over health risks of addictive painkillers - Sep 05, 2010
- Ibuprofen linked to life-threatening potassium deficiency - Mar 20, 2011
- Ibuprofen could treble stroke risk - Jan 12, 2011
- Over-the-counter painkillers can become addictive within just three days - Sep 04, 2009
- Ibuprofen may help people suffering from migraine headaches - Oct 06, 2010
- Painkillers during pregnancy can make sons infertile - Nov 09, 2010
- Painkillers double risk of miscarriage: Study - Sep 07, 2011
- Painkillers shoot up death risk in heart attacks - May 10, 2011
- Ion channel responsible for pain discovered - Dec 18, 2010
- Human medication can be unsafe for pets - Feb 20, 2011
- Depression drug may ease pain from breast cancer treatment: Study - Dec 12, 2010
- Being pessimistic may lower painkiller's effectiveness: Study - Feb 17, 2011
- Patients warned off 'Dr Google' - Sep 26, 2010
- Common painkillers increase risk of heart problems: Study - Jan 12, 2011
- Oz kids as young as 10 taking cocktail of drugs, caffeine to boost sports performance - Aug 22, 2009
Tags: ailment, anaemia, australians, case series, codeine, half a million, health impacts, health problems, irregular heartbeat, low potassium, major health, medical journal of australia, monash university, morning herald, paralysis, potassium in the blood, renal failure, school of psychology, senior lecturer, sydney morning herald
September 6th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
$113 billion is spent on marijuana every year in the U.S., and because of the federal prohibition *every* dollar of it goes straight into the hands of criminals. Far from preventing people from using marijuana, the prohibition instead creates zero legal supply amid massive and unrelenting demand.
According to the ONDCP, at least sixty percent of Mexican drug cartel money comes from selling marijuana in the U.S., they protect this revenue by brutally torturing, murdering and dismembering countless innocent people.
If we can STOP people using marijuana then we need to do so NOW, but if we can’t then we need to legalize the production and sale of marijuana to adults with after-tax prices set too low for the cartels to match. One way or the other, we have to force the cartels out of the marijuana market and eliminate their highly lucrative marijuana incomes - no business can withstand the loss of sixty percent of its revenue!
To date, the cartels have amassed more than 100,000 “foot soldiers” and operate in 230 U.S. cities, and Arizona police are now conceding that parts of their state are under cartel control. The longer the cartels are allowed to exploit the prohibition the more powerful they’re going to get and the more our own personal security will be put in jeopardy.