Introduction – Opioid Use Disorder (Nursing)

00:01 What are narcotics? Narcotics are defined by the Drug Enforcement Agency, also known as the DEA, as any substance used to relieve pain, and which dulls the senses.

00:16 So, what will we be talking about while we're talking about narcotics? We're gonna look a little bit at the history, we'll look at the statistics in the United States.

00:28 I'd like to look at the definition of narcotic or opioid use disorder, also known as OUD.

00:35 We're going to look at the types of opioids, signs and symptoms of opioid use disorder, the physiological effects of OUD, respiratory depression in OUD, and also the nursing responsibilities when taking care of a person who has opioid use disorder.

01:00 So, let's start with the history.

01:03 Opium, which is derived from the poppy plant, has been used medicinally and recreationally since ancient Greece.

01:12 In fact, in the late 17th century, morphine was isolated from opium, and was then introduced as an analgesic and also as an antidiarrheal.

01:25 By the late 1850s, the development of hypodermic needles increased in the use of morphine as a rapid and effective analgesic.

01:36 Heroin is an illegal semi-synthetic opiate.

01:42 The increased use of opioids in the United States led to the creation of the 1914 Harrison Narcotic Act, restricting opioid use to medicinal use only.

01:56 This drove the recreational use of opioids underground.

02:01 It did not stop them. Opioids just went underground.

02:05 Opioids are classified as narcotic analgesics.

02:11 What are some of the statistics about opioids? Well, the annual cost of opioid use disorder in the United States in 2018 was over 780 billion, with a B, dollars. And what does that include? Well, that includes the fact that persons with OUD have excess healthcare needs, they use the criminal justice system far more frequently, there's work loss, there's productivity loss, their home life is disrupted, and there is also early death.

02:59 More than 760,000 people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose.

03:08 Two out of three drug overdoses in - deaths in the United States in 2018 involved an opioid.

03:18 COVID-19 has accelerated death by overdose with over 81,000 people in the United States dying in the year ending in May 2020.

03:33 These 12 months, 5/19 through 5/2020, had the highest number ever recorded by the CDC for opioid deaths.

03:49 In 2019, an estimated 10.1 million people who were aged 12 or older misused opioids in the past year.

04:02 Specifically, 9.7 million people misuse prescription pain relievers and 745,000 people used heroin.

04:16 The use, when you look at the chart, is amazing how it has just gone up so high.