Introduction
Over the past decade, a troubling trend has been observed in the U.S. healthcare context. Though the use of opioids as a means of alleviating severe pain has been viewed as an inevitable evil, opportunities to minimize the risks of developing a strong opioid dependency were created (Le and Rosen 211). However, recent evidence-based analysis indicates that the propensity toward developing an opioid addiction and the resulting deterioration of a patient’s life is still unavoidable in the specified scenario (Le and Rosen 213). Consequently, due to the active use of opioids as the means of alleviating strong pain, opioid dependency has been observed in a significant portion of the U.S. population (Blue et al. 2). By revisiting the existing approaches to promoting pain management in patients with major health issues, one will be able to avert the drastic outcomes of the opioid crisis in the U.S.
Discussion
The current strategies for managing the opioid crisis are not quite numerous, which can be attributed to the nature of the problem. Specifically, different stages of prevention, starting with the primary one, at which the number of prescribed opioids is minimized to the lowest possible amount, currently exist (Drake et al. 2). Despite being sufficiently reasonable, the described solution appears to lack efficacy in the long term since the opioids intake is expected to increase inevitably as a patient develops an addiction to the drug (Blue et al. 6). Thus, the existing prevention approaches appear to be lacking efficiency.
In turn, the frameworks geared toward harm reduction also fail to resolve the problem of the opioid crisis. Namely, designed to minimize the extent of the adverse outcome that regular opioid intake entails, the specified strategies fail to reduce the extent of opioid consumption and ultimately serve to contain the inevitable increasing extent of damage to the patient’s health (Blue et al. 5). Arguably, meditation and the consumption of alternative medicine are likely to yield a minimal result in managing pain; however, at the early stages of disease development, the specified options will allow patients to develop management strategies and mechanisms that will assist them as the disease progresses (Drake et al. 2). Therefore, the existing approaches to managing the opioid crisis could use substantial improvements.
When addressing the issue of the opioid crisis, one could suggest a solution that involves minimizing the extent of patient medicalization. Specifically, opportunities to alleviate pain with the help of self-management techniques involving meditation could be seen as a reasonable suggestion (Azizoddin et al. 3241). Being particularly useful, especially at the early stages of pain development, the specified options will allow reducing the harm and the risks of developing severe dependency. In addition, it is strongly advised to manage the issue of controlling the use of opioids to prevent instances of illicit use thereof from taking place. The specified option is particularly relevant in scenarios that involve the misuse of illegal opioids such as heroin and related drugs (Azizoddin et al. 3247). However, the specified suggestion implies that changes to the current policies and legal standards for opioid prescription must be introduced. Specifically, rigid control over the prescription of specified drugs must be established to curb the rates of illicit drug prescription (Drake et al. 2). The specified measures are expected to help manage the current extent of the opioid crisis in the U.S.
Conclusion
By incorporating strategies for pain management that will allow patients with major health issues to minimize exposure to opioids, healthcare experts will be able to address the epidemic of opioid dependency in the U.S. Specifically, pain management strategies involving meditation and the minimized use of opioids coupled with rigid control over prescriptions should be considered as the likely solutions to the observed concern.
Works Cited
Azizoddin, Desiree R., et al. “Cancer pain self‐management in the context of a national opioid epidemic: Experiences of patients with advanced cancer using opioids.” Cancer, vol. 127, no. 17, 2021, pp. 3239-3245.
Blue, Heather, et al. “Rural Emergency Medical Service Providers Perceptions on the Causes of and Solutions to the Opioid Crisis: A Qualitative Assessment.” Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, vol. 12, 2021, pp. 1-9.
Drake, Jasmine, et al. “Exploring the Impact of the Opioid Epidemic in Black and Hispanic Communities in the United States.” Drug Science, Policy and Law, vol. 6, 2020, pp. 1-11.
Le, Aurora B., and Jonathan D. Rosen. “It Is Time to Implement Primary Prevention in the Workplace to Ameliorate the Ongoing US Opioid Epidemic.” NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, vol. 31. no. 3, 2021, pp. 210-218.