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1. How are prescription medications used?

 Medically, they are prescribed as analgesics, to treat pain. When abused, they are swallowed or injected.

2. How are prescription sedatives and tranquilizers used?

Medically, barbiturates are prescribed for acute anxiety, tension and sleep disorders. Benzodiazepines are prescribed for anxiety, acute stress reactions, and panic attacks. When abused, they are swallowed or injected.

3. What do prescription pain relievers look like?

 Tablets and capsules.

4. What do prescription sedatives and tranquilizers look like?

Multi-colored tablets and capsules, some can be in liquid form.

5. What are the long-term effects of prescription pain relievers?

 Taken exactly as prescribed, pain relievers can manage pain effectively. But chronic use or abuse of opioids can result in physical dependence and addiction. Dependence means that the body adapts to the presence of the drug, and withdrawal symptoms occur if use is reduced or stopped. 

Symptoms of withdrawal include restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, and cold flashes with goose bumps. Tolerance to the drugs' effects also occurs with long-term use, so users must take higher doses to achieve the same or similar effects as experienced initially. Addiction is a chronic, relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use.

6. What are the long-term effects of prescription sedatives and tranquilizers?

Continued use can lead to physical dependence and - when use is reduced or stopped abruptly- withdrawal symptoms may occur. Because all Prescription sedatives and tranquilizers work by slowing the brain's activity, when an individual stops taking them, there can be a rebound effect, leading to seizures and other harmful consequences. Tolerance to the drug's effects can also occur, meaning that larger doses are needed to achieve similar effects as those experienced initially. This may lead users to take higher doses and risk the occurrence of an overdose. 

Addiction can also occur, meaning that users continue to take these drugs despite their harmful consequences.

7. What are the short-term effects of prescription pain relievers?

Relief from pain. In some people, prescription pain relievers also cause euphoria or feelings of well being by affecting the brain regions that mediate pleasure. This is why they are abused. Other effects include drowsiness, constipation and slowed breathing. 

Taking a large single dose of prescription pain relievers can cause severe respiratory depression that can lead to death. Use of prescription pain relievers with other substances that depress the central nervous system, such as alcohol, antihistamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, or general anesthetics, increases the risk of life-threatening respiratory depression.

8. What are the short-term effects of prescription sedatives and tranquillizers?

Prescription sedatives and tranquilizers can cause euphoria. They also slow normal brain function, which may result in slurred speech, shallow breathing, sluggishness, fatigue, disorientation and lack of coordination or dilated pupils. During the first few days of taking a prescribed sedative or tranquilizer, a person usually feels sleepy and uncoordinated, but as the body becomes accustomed to the effects of the drug, these feelings begin to disappear.

Higher doses cause impairment of memory, judgment and coordination, irritability, paranoia, and suicidal ideation. Some people experience a paradoxical reaction to these drugs and can become agitated or aggressive. Using Prescription sedatives and tranquilizers with other substances, particularly alcohol, can slow breathing or slow both the heart and respiration, and lead to death.