Policy Brief Coursework Example

Policy Brief Part 1
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Policy Brief Part 1
The need to ease patient pain and enhance comfort played a key role in increasing the prescription of opioids as alternatives for painkillers. Moreover, pharmaceutical companies also added weight to the debate and the issues, whereby they mentioned that it is unlikely that the patients would become addicted to the use of opioids as pain relievers. The assurance from relevant research agencies and pharmaceutical companies led to a significantly higher rate of prescriptions for the drug. Over time, the overdose rates for opioids increased significantly. National Institute of Health (NIH) (2018), documents that more than 33000 Americans died because of opioid overdoses. Further analyses into the matter indicated that those who received opioid prescriptions were misusing them. As a result, roughly 10% of those who used the drug developed opioid use disorder. Worse is, approximately 4 to 6% of those that misuse opioid prescription, a transition to the use of heroin (NIH, 2018). The National Institute of Health (NIH) admits that the misuse and overdose of opioids is an evolving public crisis that ought to be addressed. Thus, the development of an initiative to help eliminate the dependency on opioids is touted to provide a long-lasting solution that would help end the menace.
Underlying issues
The underlying issue is the subject of the misuse and addiction of opioid. Statistics from the National Health Institute indicate that up to 2 million Americans depict the addition and misuse of opioids (Kolodny, Courtwright, Hwang, Kreiner, Eadie Clark & Alexander, 2015).

Such individuals take opioid medication longer, and in higher doses than that prescribed. Supporting research, which would help address issues of opioid misuse and addiction, will help the medical teams to make informed decisions regarding the misuse of the drug and instead attain a meaningful and sustainable mechanism for sustainable recovery.
The other issue of concern upon the efficient management of the use of opioids would be pain management. The use of opioids in relieving pain has been identified as the most reliable mechanism to ensure the comfort of patients. Unfortunately, inadvertent use of opioids implies that the patients are at risk of developing an addiction. Thus, there is a dilemma regarding the need to ensure patient comfort and path to good recovery while ensuring that the patient is not hooked on the dependency of opioids. The development of feasible clinical practice for pain management ensures that patients have a viable method of recovery that would enhance treatment methods and thus enhance clinical practice for the management of pain.
Stakeholders
Several stakeholders are involved in the fight against opioids addiction. As initially mentioned, a significant number of individuals who are addicted to opioids advance to the use of other hard drugs such as heroin (NIH, 2018). The addiction menace becomes a new challenge to medical professionals, families and even the patients. The government and law enforcers are also faced with challenges of containing the use of the drug. The NIH also alludes that it is forced to engage experts from other organizations to help identify possible mechanisms for dealing with the drug addiction challenge. Relevant research agencies are also prompted to look for alternative methods upon which they can enhance efficient pain management (Dhalla, Persaud & Juurlink, 2011). The NIH admits that it cannot manage to manage the challenge alone. Rather, it requires the support of other organizations to help it develop a viable method for pain management. Families also play an instrumental role in the fight against opium addiction. Families are always the most affected when a member is forced to withstand pain. They provide first support whenever their members are forced to join rehabilitation centers because of drug abuse. Thus, the fight to the realization of an addiction-free society is not only for professionals but also affects relevant support groups of the patients.
Resolution
Discussions on the need to consider alternative methods of pain relief and management have been considered. So far, opioids were found to effectively provide relief to patients. Unfortunately, the incidences of overdoses imply that the medical fraternity would be forced to consider alternative prevention mechanisms tailored to the needs of individuals. A better scientific understanding of the cause of opioid addiction needs to be conducted to help understand the ideal dosage that should be given to the client. Typical analyses have concluded that overdoses of opioids do not have adverse effects on the patient. However, it is evident that with insufficient control, the patient develops a high dependence on the drug. The inability to suffice the demand for the drug forces patients to resolve using other drugs.
The resolutions seek to look for genomic variations of the drug as mechanisms of taming patient addiction to the drug. NIH (2018) also suggests that studies to identify individuals who would, in turn, be predisposed to opioid disorder and hence dependence on the drug ought to be identified. Moreover, NIH (2018) suggests that an enhancement of the understanding of the science of addiction is likely to offer relevant prevention strategies tailored to meet the needs of every patient. The advancement is touted to guarantee a reduction in the vulnerability of addiction and provide guidance for addiction management.
Specific Alternative Resolution
The first resolution supports the implementation of genomic variations of the drug, which do not have an adverse effect on the well-being of the patient. The variations will offer similar pain management effects and ensure minimal incidences of addiction to the drug.
Subsequently, expansion of treatment options and the development of alternative formulations for opioids is considered as a viable method to help with the addiction menace. Volkow and Collins (2017) explain that Introducing reversal agents as strategies for saving lives is also touted to provide relevant mechanisms to help reduce dependence on the drug and hence the transition to more powerful substances.
Creating awareness through evidence-based research strategies may also be a strategy to ensure best approaches towards eliminating opioid addiction. Most importantly, the medical world should consider the need to optimize effective treatments that would ease the dependence on opioids.
Positive Consequences
The benefit of discovering genomic variations is that the drug would still be effective on the body. Subsequently, it will reduce overdependence and hence eliminate incidences of overdosing and thus addiction.
The second alternative on treatment optimization indicates that conducting effective analyses on the test and treatment would help understand the additive role of the interventions and the programs put in place to guarantee the wellness of patients (Volkow & Collins, 2017). A major benefit of the approach is that it would involve the relevant stakeholders and ensure an effective solution is implemented.
The final resolution should be highly effective. It creates awareness to those that view opioids as alternative drugs of abuse. Creating awareness helps the society to understand the adverse effects of the drug on their health. It also boosts patient response to alternative options given to help them with pain management.
Negative Consequences
A challenge of the first resolution option is that it is expensive. Subsequently, it may take several years of research before a genome for the drug is realized to help in the management of pain as opioids. Finally, the efficacy of the drug may be uncertain given that the new dug would not have been tried and approved.
Treatment optimization alternatives do not assure the patient of effective pain management. As such, it would be difficult to guarantee the patient of the reliability of alternative drugs when opioids have been the only effective options.
Creating awareness is not a guarantee that abuse of opioids would stop. In fact, the society is well aware of the adverse effects of the drug yet they go ahead and use it to the point of addiction. As a result, creating awareness should not be a sole resolution. Rather, it should seek to complement other alternatives and resolutions that aim at making opioids safe and less addictive. Besides, the awareness campaigns should foster at ensuring that even researchers and doctors create a friendly option that would ensure patients receive the best treatment with regards to the management of pain.
Opioids play key roles in pain management in the society. As a result, efficient strategies to ensure that patients benefit out of its use is essential. It is imperative that the medical fraternity develop relevant treatment methods through research to help deal with the challenge. At the end of the day, proper pain management is an essential requirement for wellness.

References
Dhalla, I. A., Persaud, N., & Juurlink, D. N. (2011). Facing up to the prescription opioid crisis. BMJ: British Medical Journal (Online), 343.
Kolodny, A., Courtwright, D. T., Hwang, C. S., Kreiner, P., Eadie, J. L., Clark, T. W., & Alexander, G. C. (2015). The prescription opioid and heroin crisis: a public health approach to an epidemic of addiction. Annual review of public health, 36, 559-574.
National Institute of Health. (2018). NIH Initiative to Help End the Opioid Crisis. Retrieved from https://www.nih.gov/research-training/medical-research-initiatives/opioid-crisis Volkow, N. D., & Collins, F. S. (2017). The role of science in addressing the opioid crisis. New England Journal of Medicine, 377(4), 391-394.