Causes of Pharmaceutical Drug Abuse
The causes of pharmaceutical drug abuse usually originate during one's teenage years. Although most people go to the doctor because of an illness and leave with a prescription for medicine that will help treat or cure the illness, some people go to the doctor with the sole intention of getting the prescription--not curing an illness. Rather, they feed their illness, or pharmaceutical drug addiction, by going to the doctor and receiving a prescription for medicine that they do not physically--only mentally--need. This happens after someone is prescribed medicine, usually repeatedly or for a long period of time but sometimes only once, and enjoys the feelings that the medicine implements on him or her. Because of this, the patient does not stop taking the medicine at the correct or appropriate time due to the fact that he or she does not want to give up the pleasure that the medicine provides. "The most common prescription drugs of abuse include opioid painkillers, anti-anxiety agents, sedatives, as well as stimulants" (Mount Regis Center).
The scientific cause for the actual addiction in itself is currently unknown to those who study prescription drug abuse, but there is information regarding the possibilities of the causes for the addictions people undergo.
The scientific cause for the actual addiction in itself is currently unknown to those who study prescription drug abuse, but there is information regarding the possibilities of the causes for the addictions people undergo.
- Genetic: Children born into families who already deal with addictions to prescription drugs or other substances are often more common to develop addictions of their own.
- Biological: Many prescription drug abusers become addicted to the medicine that they are prescribed for a real condition, such as back pain, and begin to enjoy the feelings that the medicines give them.
- Environmental: Children raised in a home with addicts more commonly become addicted to something, as well, later on in life. Likewise, children who begin to use early on in life often become addicts.
- Psychological: People who do not receive or refuse proper treatment for their mental illnesses often attempt to diagnose themselves and come up with a corresponding treatment, which is often drugs and/or alcohol. Their diagnoses often lead to addiction--sometimes pharmaceutical drug addiction.