What are some of the commonly abused prescription drugs?
Although many prescription drugs can be abused or misused, there are three classes of prescription drugs that are most commonly abused:
Opioids, which are most often prescribed to treat pain; CNS depressants, which are used to treat anxiety and sleep disorders; Stimulants, which are prescribed to treat the sleep disorder narcolepsy, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and obesity.
What are opioids?
Opioids are commonly prescribed because of their effective analgesic, or pain-relieving, properties. Medications that fall within this class - sometimes referred to as narcotics - include morphine, codeine, and related drugs. Morphine, for example, is often used before or after surgery to alleviate severe pain. Codeine, because it is less efficacious than morphine, is used for milder pain. Other examples of opioids that can be prescribed to alleviate pain include oxycodone (OxyContin), propoxyphene (Darvon), hydrocodone (Vicodin), and hydromorphone (Dilaudid), as well as meperidine (Demerol), which is used less often because of its side effects. In addition to their pain-relieving properties, some of these drugs - for example, codeine and diphenoxylate (Lomotil) - can be used to relieve coughs and diarrhea.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment