The healthcare specialists advise healthcare practitioners strongly to decrease the amount of painkillers that they prescribe to their patients, especially in case of the female patients. This has become an important problem because more and more patients become addicted to opiate as a result of the use of painkillers.

Opiate Addiction in Women Increasing Due to Painkiller Usage

The sad situation

In 2010 about 950,000 women had to go to the emergency room with the suspicion of drug overdose by using painkillers. According to the specialists this isn’t a onetime thing and women can have a problem of this kind if they abuse or misuse painkillers for a longer period of time, resulting in addictions.

What are in fact painkillers?

Unlike the illegal drugs, like cocaine or heroin, the painkillers, such as oxycodone, fentanyl, and hydrocodone seem legit, even though they have the same abilities of causing an addiction when used for longer periods of time. In spite of that, people believe that if a drug is prescribed by a doctor, it is 100% safe.

Social attitudes

Even though painkillers can have the same addictive effects like other drugs, people have different attitudes towards them. At the moment women are more likely to have painkillers prescribed and to use them for long periods of time. Painkillers are commonly used to treat back pain, migraines, abdominal pain or even pain caused by cancer, which are more common in case of women than in case of men.

Gender differences

Another aspect to consider is that the weight of women is smaller than the weight of men, which makes them more susceptible to the negative effects of painkillers. In the same time women can also have several prescriptions from different doctors to fight various conditions, like anxiety and depression.

Effects of abuse

It is common for doctors to prescribe painkillers to women who suffered some kind of abuse or trauma in the past to fight their effects.

Social views

There are a lot of expectations regarding women from society’s point of view, which, in many cases push women towards painkiller use. In case an addicted woman gives birth, the baby can have the same addiction upon birth, and he or she can present signs of withdrawal.

Wake-up call

Since more and more women have problems with opiate addictions, doctors are becoming aware of the need for gender sensitive approaches to make sure that the medication they prescribe help and don’t harm their patients. Keep in mind that the studies conducted in this field are meant to help doctors make better decisions regarding the right medicine for their patience not criticize them for the decisions they made so far.