Christine Petersen - Vicodin and Oxycontin

Left:Pain cannot be seen by others, yet it is something many people experience due to injury or illness.

"P AIN IS SUCH AN UNCOMFORTABLE FEEL-ing that even a tiny amount of it is enough to ruin every enjoyment. The famed cowboy actor Will Rogers made this comment almost a century ago. His plain words say a lot about the power of pain. Pain is more than a physical experience. It has the potential to invade the mind, heart, and soul. Perhaps this is why people have always looked for ways to make pain go away.

Although pain can make a person miserable, it serves an important purpose. Pain is a warning system. It is an alarm signaling that something is wrong within the body or affecting it from the outside. Touch a hot pan on the stove, and nerves in your skin instantly send signals to your brain. The signals travel along the complex network of nerves leading from the skin on your hand to your spinal cord and brain. Within milliseconds, your brain processes this information, and your hand pulls back rapidly.

Modern medicine offers many options for pain relief. Mild pain is treated with nonprescription analgesics, which ease pain without causing sleepiness. Adults can purchase aspirin, acetaminophen, and ibuprofen over the counter at pharmacies and other stores. These drugs are used to relieve a headache, a fever caused by a cold, or muscle aches after a hard workout.Opioid analgesics (also known as opioids) are a separate group of painkillers. These drugs are made from the juice of the opium poppy or are made in a laboratory from opium-like chemicals. Opioids control pain by mimicking endorphins, a group of chemicals naturally produced when the body begins to feel pain. Endorphins bind to dock-like receptor sites found in the brain and spinal cord. When the docks are filled either by endorphins or by opioid chemicals the feeling of pain eases. Because opioid drugs are so powerful, they are generally legally available only with a doctors prescription.

Opioid chemicals (red at top center) bind to nerve cells and block the pathways of pain signals. They are highly addictive. Green opium pods are depicted on the left .

Vicodin and OxyContin are two of the most commonly prescribed opioids available today. Under the supervision of a doctor, these and similar drugs are prescribed for patients with serious pain-related problems. Yet Vicodin and OxyContin are also among the nations most abused prescription drugs. They have the power to turn a healthy persons life into a nightmare.

Vicodin (left) and OxyContin (right) are two of the most commonly misused prescription painkillers in the United States.

Although Vicodin and OxyContin have been available for just a few decades, chemically they are similar to opium, the worlds oldest known painkilling drug. Modern researchers have found stone tablets describing how the Sumerians obtained opium from poppy flowers more than five thousand years ago. Travelers and traders eventually brought this drug to Egypt, Greece, India, and China.