youth athletes are being prescribed opioids for sports injuries, which sometimes leads to addiction

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Sports Injuries can lead to Opioid
Addiction ~ Doctors over-prescribing pain
medications can lay foundation for
addiction
Home » Activities » Sports Injuries can lead to Opioid
Addiction ~ Doctors over-prescribing pain medications can
lay foundation for addiction
We parents know the joy that sports and athletic activities

2. can bring to the lives of our kids. Starting in childhood, most
kids begin dabbling in this sport or that and along the way
may discover a special talent that they decide to apply to
their chosen sport. There are many benefits of participating
in youth sports—they teach discipline, encourage hard work,
promote teamwork and provide physical activity. However,
as kids get older and the level of competition in team sports
increases, so does the risk of injury.
Just a decade or so ago, it was highly uncommon for an
orthopedic doctor to prescribe opioid medications to treat
sports injuries in their adolescent patients. Back then, a
regimen of ice, heat, physical therapy, specified stretches
and exercise along with acetaminophen or NSAIDs (anti-
inflammatory drugs) were typically prescribed.

4. In recent years, however, doctors have become “pad happy”
when it comes to prescribing prescription drugs to teens;
quickly grabbling their prescription pads and writing out RXs
for dangerous opioids, often with tragic results. Opioids are
narcotics that act on the nervous system to relieve
pain. They include oxycodone (OxyContin, Percocet),
hydrocodone (Vicodin, Norco), meperidine (Demerol), just to
name a few.
Opioids are extremely addictive, and when prescribed to
teens can launch a lifelong battle with drug
addiction. Opioids act to reduce the perception of pain by
attaching to specific proteins called opioid receptors in the
brain, spinal cord and other organs. With prolonged use,
however, brain abnormalities can occur, restructuring neural
pathways and resulting in addiction.
An athlete who is using these drugs to manage pain is at risk
of misusing or abusing the medication. Easy access to
these painkillers, especially when not managed carefully by
vigilant parents, can lead to abuse and addiction, and
death. How many heroin overdose deaths can be traced
back to a teen misusing prescription medications that
eventually became too expensive as drug dependence took
root. The common path for the addict is to eventually
transition to heroin, which satisfies the same craving more
intensely, and at a fraction of the cost.
A study out of the University of Michigan sought to explore
whether a student’s participation in sports led to opioid
abuse or addiction. With a sample of 1,540 students aged
12-19, they were asked the following questions:
1. On how many occasions (if any) in the past 12 months
has a doctor, dentist, or nurse prescribed the following
types of medicine for you?
2. On how many occasions (if any) in the past 12 months

5. have you intentionally gotten high with your prescribed
medication or used it to increase other drug or alcohol
effects?
3. On how many occasions (if any) in the past 12 months
have you used too much (e.g., higher doses, more
frequent doses) of your prescribed medication?
4. On how many occasions in the past 12 months have
you used the following types of medicines not
prescribed to you?
The results from the study showed that 63 percent of the
sample were involved in organized sports between 2009-
2012. The authors found that male athletes used and
misused opioid medications more often than males who did
not participate in athletics. The study’s author, Dr. Philip
Veliz, PhD, states,
“In general (among all male sports participants), having
unsupervised access to opioid medications is a driving factor
behind misuse. These drugs are being treated, or viewed, by
adolescents (and parents) as something ‘safer’ than street
drugs. Although these drugs serve an important function to
manage pain (acute pain), they still have a high abuse
potential and doctors must be more aggressive in telling both
the parent and child the potential dangers of misuse.”
Here in our community we have witnessed an alarming
increase in opioid-related overdoses and deaths. As a
community action collaborative, COA strives to create
alternatives to the destructive forces that have taken too
many of our promising young adults from us. In addition to a
continually growing list of fun and engaging activities for our
local youth to participate in as an alternative to hanging out
with the wrong crowd, COA is happy to sponsor an
upcoming COA Clinic on Drug-free Pain Resolution this

6. Wednesday, June 3, at 7pm at the VENUE located
behind TLC Preschool 1050 Calle Negocio, San
Clemente (childcare provided).
Dr. Timothy Swift of Swift Health Chiropractic will provide
drug-free alternative methods to help those suffering from
pain. He has spoken at many rehab facilities and knows
addiction often comes from a prescription that was meant for
short-term use. Parents of athletes are encouraged to attend
so they can be informed and armed with the necessary tools
and knowledge in the event their teen is injured. Please join
us!
Written by Eileen Spatz, San Clemente resident