Opioids: decrease perception of pain, decrease reaction to pain as well as increase pain tolerance. The side effects of opioids include sedation and respiratory depression2. (Includes Morphine, Codeine, Heroine, Vicodin OxyContin and Methadone.)
However, what might be surprising is that these deaths are being caused by legally prescribed medication. The US currently consumes 80% of the worlds pain medication3, and what used to be prescribed only to cancer and end-of-life patients is now being used for common ailments such as back pain.
Abuse, addiction and access to these drugs have increased dramatically in the past ten years, but many blame the marketing campaigns of large pharmaceutical companies in the late 1990s and early 2000s for the current market conditions and this growing health crisis.
The largest and most well know of these offenders is Purdue, who launched a campaign in 1995 to convince doctors and patients that these heavy painkillers, which are incredibly addictive and were previously rarely used for moderate chronic pain, were as safe to use as Aspirin. They even released a promotional ad stating that addiction to prescription opioids was less than 1%. Sales increased for Purdue by just over 6500% over the next 13 years and a new market was created for opioids4.
Since Purdue’s original campaign may have been extremely successful, they later pleaded guilty in court for a misbranding of the drug “with intent to defraud and mislead the public.”5 However, the effects of the product itself have been more detrimental and long lasting to the American population than anyone could have expected.
As physicians and politician attempted to curb opioid use, it is important to continue the conversation about how companies represent themselves, how much we trust the messages of companies that have their own interest at heart and the long-term implication of short-term market expansion.
Companies are out to make money, even if their mission is to theoretically help you.