The Problem Of Narcotic Addiction Arising From Mere Attempt At Treating Pain
Why or when does a person experience pain? Does pain serve any useful purpose? These questions can best be answered by enumerating some of the functions of pain.
Primarily, pain is an adjustment which protects against injury. It also serves as an indirect aid in the repair and replacement of damaged tissue. But the most important function of pain is its informing a person that something is wrong in his body. Even the slightest of pain warns of some damage, which should then be attended to before more serious harm results.
In some cases, however, pain is either too severe or too persistent for a person to endure that he turns to drugs for relief. Drugs that relieve pain are known as analgesics, of which there are two basic types: the non-narcotic drugs (paracetamol, for example) that can be bought over the counter, and the more powerful narcotic drugs which must be prescribed by a doctor.
Of the different narcotic drugs, morphine is the one most widely used for pain relief. The two other drugs included in this group are codeine (known to be less potent than morphine) and heroin (a chemical modification of morphine). Morphine and heroin are recognized as two of the most commonly abused drugs.
Narcotics have unwanted characteristics. For example, it produces drowsiness which makes driving a car dangerous while on medication. Narcotics are also known to build up a tolerance; the danger here is that larger doses become necessary to produce the same pain-relieving effects.
As the tolerance for narcotics develops, the user can withstand doses of the drugs which would otherwise be fatal to non-users. The end result is narcotic addiction, which is a psychological and physical dependence. At this stage, the user becomes so dependent on narcotics that he suffers very intense withdrawal symptoms if deprived of them.
Narcotic addiction can also cause several other undesirable effects, including constipation, itching, nausea, and vomiting. The addict may likewise break out in hives, probably due to an allergic reaction or the direct chemical effect of the drug.
It is therefore important for a doctor to supervise the use of narcotic drugs for pain relief because of all the dangers associated with addiction to the drugs as explained above.
It is also important to understand that narcotic drugs tend to depress the reflexes that cause a