Oxycontin Treatment

Oxycontin is a white, odorless, crystalline powder derived from the opium alkaloid. It is the brand name for a powerful painkiller called oxycodone hydrochloride. This drug is used as a mild to severe pain reliever for patients with chronic pain. Cancer patients are usually prescribed with this drug and it has been praised for its long lasting pain relieving quality.

Besides its pain relieving benefits, the drug could provide the body with a relaxing and euphoric feeling. This substance has a time-release structure that will last for 12 hours. This drug is safe and nondestructive provided that it is taken properly. However, the drug becomes abused and people are more likely developing an addiction to the drug. Abuse is done by chewing, crushing, or dissolving the pill into liquid form, and then eating the solution. When the drug is released, the effect is similar to heroin. Oxycontin addiction shows through chronic use and increasing tolerance so that more of the drug is needed to feel the same effects day by day. This will start making a person’s life to go on complications.

Addiction to this drug forces the person to take in more dosage otherwise they would experience physical pain. Oxycontin addiction also has side effects this includes insomnia, muscle and bone pain, sweats, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, stomach cramping, and muscle twitching. Severe side effects could be highly dangerous.

Oxycontin is a prescription drug and is use to lessen pain. However, when it is abused and used for the purposes it also elicits dangerous effects maybe not sooner, but later on as the euphoric effect subsides. That is why it is called addiction because the once the person takes in the drug and gets the high feeling, he/she is, in a way, reinforced to take in more of the drug so as to get the same feeling again. One former oxycontin dependent testified that within a very small amount of time of consuming the tablet, he felt like superman, he could work all day, go home, and play with his kids. He felt he could do everything he wanted. Common sense would tell us that the quick effects of the drug are very appealing. As time would pass, nonstop use of the drug would lead to dependence. The problem begins when you could not get away with the drug.

An oxycontin addict may admit that they have become dependent on the drugbut it’s the physical will to stop using the drug that is too complicated to deal with. Why is this so? One, an individual becomes very dependent on the drug then discontinuing usage would mean painful side effects. Yes, the drug may be man’s best friend but once you turn your back on it, it becomes a snake that poisonously bites it could kill you. Once the intake of the drug is stopped by an addict, he/she is more likely to experience withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal syndrome is characterized by dysphoria, the opposite of euphoria, which entails sadness, depression, anxiety, and craving. Nothing really lasts forever.

Treatment for oxycontin addiction is done with a medical professional. There are many ways to treat oxycontin addiction. This includes medication and behavioral and counseling approaches. Methadone can be used as an effective medication that eliminates withdrawal symptoms and relieves drug craving. Rapid detox is also one option to treat opioid addiction. Furthermore, medication is accompanied with counseling and behavioral therapy since addiction is not only biological but psychological.

The substance oxycontin is very helpful in taking away pains especially to cancer patients. However, once abused, one may develop oxycontin addiction and thus should be put admitted to a rehab for treatment.