Scratching Behavior

Harold Shipman’s murder weapon of choice was diamorphine ("Serial Killer, Dr. Harold Shipman, A.K.A. Dr. Death"). This is a medication used to treat pain in patients with severe pain, as well as, terminally ill cancer patients, However, it is lethal when given in an excessive amount ("Morphine Facts | Resources | Best Drug Rehabilitation"). Morphine was an excellent choice of a murder weapon for Shipman for multiple reasons. First, death from morphine toxicity would be difficult to determine without performing an autopsy on the body. The deceased patients would appear to the physical eye that they died of natural causes.

Desomorphine or “Krokodil” made major headlines in the year 2002. This was when there were reports in Russia that showed abusers of the street drug had horrible side effects that resembled skin melting. The nickname is derived from the fact that users skin presents as a crocodile like look. On the streets desomorphine is a cheaper substitute for heroin. What causes such negative affects is not really the drug itself, but

This painkiller is an opioid and it works by imitating endorphins, the natural painkillers in the body, which block pain signals to the brain. As per the Drug Enforcement Agency in America, it is 50 times as potent as heroin.

It’s the body’s way of seeking balance; it wants to compensate for the chemical reactions that are doping up the brain. Remove the drug…and those same processes (“slow down” and “speed up”) require time to balance out. Without morphine, you can expect to experience some commonly reported symptoms: anxiety, insomnia, or restlessness, nausea, vomiting, and stomach cramps, increased heart rate and breathing rate.” While Mrs. Dubose was cleaning herself from the drug, these are some of the many things she had to go through, towards her success. At any given time, she could have stopped and given up.

Methadone exists as two enantiomeric forms, R and S (Eap et al., 2002). The most commonly used form of methadone in maintenance treatment is the racemic mixture (RS- methadone) (Groman et al., 1997). It is the R-isoform that gives most of the opioid effects (Eap et al., 2002). Methadone exerts its analgesic and narcotic effects through the µ-OR subtype, and has antagonistic effect at the NMDA receptor (Trescot et al., 2008). The antagonistic effect at the NMDA receptor is believed to be advantageous in preventing induction of tolerance (Callahan et al., 2004).

Morphine flows through the novel Three Day Road. Many of the characters are seduced by the drug’s effects. Grey Eyes, the soldier responsible for swaying Elijah to try morphine for the first time, is an excellent example of how excessive to drug use had become during the great war. Xavier is first to comment on Grey Eye’s immoderate use of morphine: “When Grey Eyes takes a lot of it, he lies like he is dead until I worry that he has joined them [the dead soldiers]” (Boyden 80) This quote illustrates how incognizant many soldiers were to the harm the strong pain killer had on the body’s central nervous system like the character Grey Eyes as he misuses the drug until unconscious.

The fact that it blocks the feeling one gets from taking opiates is very helpful in the treatment process because if the abuser feels like they want and need to use opiates, doing so won’t be effective for

Patients evaluated in acute pain will often have narcotics withheld until after the patient has been evaluated by a surgeon and has given informed consent. Concern that the patient would have impaired judgment due to narcotic effects often prevents the administration of timely pain relief. Similarly administration of anxiolytics and benzodiazepines are avoided until the patient has consented to the procedure. As there is a considerable heterogeneity in the metabolism of a particular drug depending on age and patient characteristics, there is no specific timeline of how long should one wait prior to getting consent if these medications are given accidentally.

Case declares, “I’m a drug addict, Cath. Stimulants. Central nervous systems stimulants. Extremely powerful central system stimulants.” (Gibson 129-130)

Humans have used drugs of one sort or another for thousands of years. Wine was used at least from the time of the early Egyptians; narcotics from 4000 B.C.; and medicinal use of marijuana has been dated to 2737 B.C. in China. But not until the 19th cent. A.D. were the active substances in drugs extracted. There followed a time when some of these newly discovered substances—morphine, laudanum, cocaine—were completely unregulated and prescribed freely by physicians for a wide variety of ailments.

Due to variability in brain recovery, many addicts may require prolonged treatment or supportive medications in order to discontinue their addictive lifestyles. Since the body becomes physically addicted to the drug, the body too must be cleaned of its effects before treatment can progress. Any detox can be extremely painful with severe physical symptoms that may be traumatic if attempted without medical treatment. Withdrawal from opiates can be very trying on the body and generally requires medical assistance to ease the patient through the process as much as possible. Disruption of endorphin production is thought to be associated with a need to increase opiate use in order to avoid the onset of painful withdrawal symptoms.

Opioid include morphine and heroin among others. Proper use of these drugs for their approved diagnostics usually delivers significant welfares to the ailing patients. However, due to their pleasurable impacts, these drugs are liable to the risk of mishandling, abuse, and eventual addiction. Currently, the United States is in the middle of a pandemic involving opioid overindulgence. The provision of the prescription opioid analgesics is at a high rate in the nation.

Both drugs are stimulants so they stimulate the individual and create an euphoric high, as a result of the way both drugs elevate the dopamine levels in the brain. Stimulants such as cocaine and meth cause the user to be more active, talkative, alert, less tired, exhilarated, etc. This essay will talk about each drug signs and symptoms treatment nursing management for drug abuse. Cocaine is an extremely addictive and poisonous drug and is a central nervous system stimulant (Miller-Keane).

The Methadone Train Addictions to opiates, and opiate derivatives, are some of the most prevalent and long-standing drug abuse issues known. These abuses have also contributed to other social problems such as the spread of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C due to needle injection being a popular method of delivery. In the 1960s, methadone, a synthetic opiate substitute, was introduced as the preferred medical treatment for opiate abuse and addiction and remains so today. Reduction of disease distribution is only one of its heralded benefits. Methadone is commonly used in management of withdrawal symptoms related to addiction to heroin and other opiate drugs, both prescription and non-prescription.

According to Michael Klein, “The most prescription drugs that are commonly misused are opioids, tranquillizers, sedatives, and hypnotics.” Unintentional overdose deaths involving opioid pain relievers have quadrupled since 1999 and have outnumbered those involving heroin and cocaine since 2002. (Klein). The reason some people abuse opioids is just to “get high”.