Prescription medications
Prescription Drug Addiction
Taken as prescribed, medications heal. Misused, they can be as dangerous as any street drug — and long-term abuse leads readily to dependency and addiction.
About this condition
Prescription drug addiction
Prescription drug abuse means taking a medication in a manner or dose outside what was prescribed, taking someone else's prescription, or taking a medication to get high. It has risen sharply over the past two decades — especially among teens and young adults — and it occurs across every social, economic, and ethnic group.
The medical consequences are severe: an explosion of emergency room visits, overdose deaths, and admissions to detox and rehab. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, overdose deaths involving prescription painkillers alone rose from 3,442 in 1999 to more than 16,000 in 2020.
Detox from prescription medications is provided through Midwest Detox at Ambrosia in West Palm Beach, where withdrawal is medically managed before treatment continues in residential or outpatient care.
Commonly abused prescription medications
Most prescription drugs can be abused, but three types account for the majority of misuse:
Depressants
Sedatives like Nembutal, Valium, and Xanax, prescribed for anxiety and sleep. They slow brain function; at high doses they can slow breathing dangerously, and long-term abuse leads to physical dependence.
Stimulants
Medications like Ritalin, Dexedrine, and Adderall, prescribed for ADHD. Misuse — often to boost academic performance or energy — can cause dangerously high body temperature and cardiac arrest.
Opioid painkillers
Morphine, codeine, OxyContin, Vicodin, and Demerol. They block pain and produce euphoria, but a large single dose can cause fatal respiratory depression, and people taking opioids for as little as 30 days have developed dependency.
Effects of prescription drug addiction
Commonly abused prescription drugs flood the brain's reward center with dopamine — the same mechanism as alcohol or illicit drugs. Short-term effects include drowsiness, changes in heart rate and body temperature, visual disturbances, nausea, respiratory depression, and in severe cases coma.
Long-term abuse brings tolerance, withdrawal symptoms between doses, rising overdose risk, changes in weight and appearance, and lasting harm to the heart, liver, and kidneys. Dependence and addiction are the most common long-term outcomes of all.
Preventing prescription drug abuse
- Ask your doctor or pharmacist about any medication being prescribed
- Read the pharmacy information and take the medication exactly as prescribed
- Keep prescription medications secure at all times
- Properly dispose of medications that go unused
How treatment works
Prescription drug addiction is treated like other substance use disorders, with a plan that accounts for the specific drug and the person's physical and mental health needs. The most successful programs combine detox with behavioral treatment: individual talk therapy, group therapy, relapse prevention, and aftercare planning that helps people change unhealthy thinking patterns, manage cravings, and avoid triggers.
Medication-assisted treatment (MAT), an FDA-approved, evidence-based practice, can relieve the most uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms during detox — it has proven especially helpful for people withdrawing from opioids.
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