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In the older population, many people suffer from medical conditions in which cause them to remember which can lead to accidental overdoses. These patients often forget that they have taken their medication and then will take another dose. This leads to accidental overdose but is abuse of medication. These people, while they are very independent, they need someone to control their prescription drugs and ensure that they take them as they are prescribed. These people "not only forget they may fail to have their prescription filled, do not take their medication as prescribed, or the prescribed dose, and they do not persist with drug therapy over time " (Medication Misuse and Abuse, 2006). All of these topics lead to many health issues for senior citizens in our communities. To address this abuse and correct the issue as citizens and doctors we must correct our communication with each other and ensure that the elderly are taken care of. .
"In the United States adolescents from the age of 12-19, we polled to find an alarmingly high 30 percent of all were taking at least 1 prescription drug daily and 12.6 percent are currently taking at least 2 or more prescription drugs daily " (Qiuping Gu, Charles F. Dillion, & and Vicki L. Burt, 2010). The CDC states that "for every 1 death that occurs to an individual, there are 10 treatment admissions for abuse, 32 emergency department visits for misuse or abuse, 130 people who abuse or are dependent, and 825 non-medical users " (Policy Impact: Prescription Pain Killer Overdoses, 2013). These issues have to be addressed, or this epidemic is going to increase, and we are going to continue to see a rise in our community. When there is an increase of abuse in any type of substance, especially in use from adolescents, we are going to see a rise in other areas such as violence and crime. These adolescents are currently taking medications from the elderly, disabled, and even breaking into a residence to get their fix.
