Monica Giraldo

Professor Amarikwa

November , 2008

English 102

Prescription Drug Addiction and women

The Misuse of prescribed medication may be the most common form of drug

abuse among women. Women benefit from the appropriate use of prescription pain

killers, and other drugs but when abused, they can be as addictive and dangerous as

illegal drugs. Studies have shown that women are more prompt to abuse and addition:

they get hooked faster and suffer the consequences sooner than men. Studies also

suggested that women are more likely than men to be prescribed an abusable prescription

drug, particularly narcotics and anti-anxiety drugs. I decided to explore this topic further

because unfortunately this is a problem that runs in my family including my sister and

mother who had been diagnosed with pre-cancer for abusing pain killers’ medication.

Although many prescription drugs can be abused, there are several classifications of

medications that are commonly abused. Opioids, CNS Depresants and Stimulants. Is

evident that there are other factors increasing this problem in our society. For instance:

Illegal pharmaceutical practices including web sites dispensing drugs to consumers

without a prescription, little information given to the public from the FDA administration,

and communication barriers between English speaker doctors and foreign patients.
Lisa Davis notes that our whole physical make up contributes to our problems with

drugs. Women have a higher percentage of body fat than man, which affects how fast

some drugs reach our organs. We are more apt to be “slow metabolizers”. Our bodies

can take longer to break down medicines, which can therefore build up to potentially

levels (167-200). In addition to our differences in the body, women also tend to be

prescribed more medications either for anti-anxiety, psychiatric and depression

disorders. As a result women are prescribed more medications such as tranquilizers.

The use of barbiturates is common in women, barbiturates are a group of drugs that are

used by doctors to treat patients suffering from anxiety or who are having problems

sleeping. Because they are stronger than tranquilizers and sleeping pills, barbiturates are

more dangerous when abused. According to Regina Avraham, stimulants much stronger

than nicotine and caffeine are routinely prescribed by doctors to treat a variety of

conditions such as obesity, fatigue, depression, behavioral disorders and neurological

illnesses (53). One of the biggest problems that comes with addiction is

that women are usually caregivers for their kids or other family’s members. If a woman

is addicted to any kind of prescription drug, she might not be the best person to take care

for her family. Also pregnant women can harm their babies if abusing prescription drugs.

Many women using prescription drugs do not seek treatment because they are afraid:

They fear not being able to take care of or keep their children, they fear reprisal from

their spouses or boyfriends, and they fear punishment from authorities in the community.

It is important to know that there are many resources a woman can find to help her out to

come out of addiction.

increasing this problem, the lack of information for consumers, even though the FDA

provides health information about the risk of certain medications, I believe that the FDA

should give more information to the public in this regard. Especially information to

educate women which is the gender that tends to be more vulnerable. The FDA should

give consumers the best information available about each of the products they use.

Especially, medications that causes addiction. According to an article from the FDA

website, recent innovations, such as the new label on over-the-counter drugs and direct-

to-consumer advertising, have had positive effects on consumer health decision-making.

The FDA should have campaing at schools, hospitals, and they should provide more

information via television. They should focus in the importance of protecting

consumers. The FDA should communicate directly with the public and through health

care providers concerning risks and benefits of regulated products. Consumers will do

smarter decision if they were better informed. We all know that the information we get

from FDA can sometimes be confusing. I think that a well-informed public is one of the

best weapons against this increasing problem. Women should be more informed about

the consequences of buying drugs over the internet. According to Krista Venturella, the

risk with a prescription drug purchased on a non-authenticated Internet site lies in the fact

that consumers do not know who made the product, where it was made or what is in it

(70). According to Jacky Law an effective regulatory regime to ensure that the industry

works in the public interest is essential. Unfortunately, the present regulatory system is

failing to provide this. Even if people are not in position to judge the science, they can
still make sense of how the industry operates.(101). It is evident that the FDA is failing

our society, not long ago the famous Vioxx pill caused big scandal in the pharmaceutical

industy. Phyllis Greenberg suggested that the FDA has shown that the agency is not

efficiently monitoring research data to determine how sex differences affect drug safety

and effectiveness (Journal of Women’s health and medicine)

Another factor increasing this problem is the language barriers between doctors

and patients. Most women visit the doctor every year, but men, in general, tend to go less

often. In fact, a recent survey showed that more than one-third of American men would

not see a doctor even if they were experiencing classic heart attack symptoms such as

severe chest pains or shortness of breath. I work in a doctor’s office, I have seen many

women patients desperate to get an appointment, just to be able to get a prescription from

the doctor. Some of our patients are foreign patients, I translate for the Spanish speaking

patients but I have always wonder, what about the other patients such as chinese speaking

people, I cannot translate for them. My concern is do they actually know, what kind of

medications they are taking. According to Kadesha Thomas cultural misunderstanding

and language barriers are quite common between American doctors and their foreign-

born patients, causing a host of problems from discrimination and confusion to major

medical errors and death. (The Boston Globe). It has been estimated that up to 48

percent of English-speaking patients in the United States lack functional health literacy. I

remember not long ago, I went to the pediatrist because my daughter was coughing a lot.

Five minutes later after talking to the doctor, I had five prescriptions in my hand.

Fortunately, I know how to read labels. For my surprise the doctors prescribed my six

year daughter a medication that contains codeine, intended to be used for people older
than 16 years old. I can imagine how many people do mistakes with their kids. This is

fact more complicated that just mis-communication affecting a woman. It is also

affecting kids, unborn babies and families. If a woman is prescribed a

medication that causes addiction, and she cannot understand this, she might get addicted

faster than the one person who clearly understands that the medication causes addiction.

The doctors, hospitals and other providers should have bilingual staff in their offices. I

think it will make a big difference in our society.

In conclusion, we all should be aware that the use of prescription drugs in

America is a growing problem. However with the help of the FDA, physicians as well

as people getting aware of the long term dangers. Addicted people can overcome this

problem. Women are by nature nurturing, empathetic and caring. Addicted women are

robbed these qualities. When under the influences of drugs women experience feelings of

hopeleness and humiliation and are unable to function in their normal capacities as a

spouse, a mother, or in other care giving relationships. These feelings can make

conquering addiction difficult to women. Women need to be aware of unregulated

internet sellers, because many of their products might not contain the correct ingredients

and could contain toxic substances. We all need to make sure, we understand our

doctor’s orders and the instructions in the prescriptions given. It is also important to

teach our childrens the consequences that bad decisions bring, teach them the importance

of learning about reading medications’ labels and consequences of addiction. For

all women who are facing this problem, they should understand that they can receive

benefits from drug treatment, there are programs that provide comprehensive services for
meeting their basic needs, including access to the following: shelter, food, clothing, child

care, medical care, family therapy, legal assistance, transportation, social services. The

destructive effects of addictive behavior are not limited to the addicts themselves. The

lives of family members are disrupted by the addict’s erratic and self centered actions.

We need to understand that addiction has nothing to do with intelligence and that anyone

can become addicted if not fully informed. There are many avenues for treatment:

inpatient treatment under complete medical supervision is a safe and effective way to

detox, outpatient group therapy and individual psychotherapy. The most important is to

recognize that the problem exist and be willing to look and receive help.
 Works Cited

Davis, Lisa. “The Best and Worst Drugs for Women”. Prevention March 2007:197+. Alt Health
Watch. ECC library, NJ. November 26, 2007: http//www.essex.edu/library/

Greenberger, Phyllips. FDA doing poor job of monitoring drugs for sex differences , Journal of
Women’s Health and Gender Based Medicines 10 (2001): 829-830.