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Dr. Pohl shares why people abuse prescription drugs.
Dr. Pohl:
Prescription drug abuse is an epidemic in our country. I think it’s a huge problem and some of the reasons are, these are drugs--I think I mentioned this in a previous question about opioids, in another question about opioids--these are drugs that really work. They are very effective at taking away pain–physical and emotional pain.
I believe we live in a culture where modifying mood is sort of an acceptable brand of intervention. I am not too big on that. You know, I think that we end up using medications to treat symptoms of our discontent with our life perhaps, and that’s physical and emotional pain.
As a consequence of this movement, if you will, of taking a pill to fix a feeling, “I can’t sleep. I am tired. I am uncomfortable. I am anxious,” we take pills and we end up getting in trouble.
One of the problems that is really the hugest is in our young people. Your kids, if you have any, are between 18 and 25 is the largest group of people who are abusing prescription pain medications and other prescription drugs and the source of those drugs is your medicine cabinet.
So, we have an epidemic among our kids. I think we have an epidemic in people who have symptoms that they are treating with medication. Consequently, numbers of prescriptions are going up and people are really getting into trouble.
About Dr. Mel Pohl, M.D.:
Dr. Mel Pohl, M.D., is a Board Certified Family Practitioner. He is the Vice President of Medical Affairs and the Medical Director at the Las Vegas Recovery Center (LVRC), the only private, freestanding, medically managed inpatient detoxification and addiction treatment facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Visit Dr. Pohl at the Las Vegas Recovery Center