Earth and Passion: Understand Petra’s drug addiction and the harm

Petra (Debora Ozório) is one of the most complicated characters in “Terra e Paixão“, the 9pm soap opera on TV Globo, since in addition to facing several family problems, she is still completely addicted to medicine, mainly tranquilizers.

WHAT IS A BLACK STRIPE REMEDY?

“Black stripe medicine is a medicine that receives a recommendation from Anvisa, a visual identification on the package label, which is a black stripe, talking mainly about the problem, the addiction that this medication can cause. Classically, drugs from the benzodiazepine family are given this black label, drugs with the capacity to create dependence”, defined the professional.

He also made it clear that to take this type of medication, you need a referral from a psychiatrist, that is, it is not possible to go to the pharmacy and buy it without a prescription: “The correct way to take a black-line medication, first, follows the same recommendation as any other medication, you know, always under medical supervision, and the second rule would be as little as possible. Black-line medication, as it has a high degree of dependogenesis, we advise as little of this medication as possible, but certainly, with medical approval, with a good clinical indication, it will be correct”.

CONTRAINDICATIONS

The most common cases to take this type of medication is when the patient has a high level of anxiety or depression.

“The black label medication is the medication with the greatest power to reduce anxiety, the famous anxiolytics. These are medications that we use intensively in the treatment of anxiety, especially the intensity of acute anxiety, panic peaks, anxiety attacks. They are the fastest-acting medications, which manage to respond to bad feelings within 5, 10, 20 minutes, they are already having an effect”, he details.

In addition to the risk of taking more than prescribed, mixing very heavy medicines with a lot of alcohol is also not recommended.

“The biggest contraindication would certainly be the concomitant use of alcoholic beverages. Black label medications and alcoholic beverages have a really problematic interaction of potentiating the effect of both substances, and there they can cause states of distortion in the very intense central nervous system. A lot of drowsiness, loss of reflexes, amnesia, then, are situations of great problems in the concomitance of alcoholic beverages with medication”, says Gabriel.

“In addition, there are other contraindications depending on the other medications that this person may be taking. So, it’s always essential to have a medical professional’s evaluation if you’re taking a black box medication and it’s added to a new medication so it’s worth talking about. Or the opposite if you are taking another medication for any reason and then there is a prescription for a black label medication”, he adds.

ADDICTION

He explained the case of addiction in depth: “All medication will always have a good practice relationship that the best dose is the lowest possible dose. Taking above that dose, the first mistake is that we may be taking it unnecessarily. The second issue is exactly because of the effect of being a medication that can generate dependence and can generate this state of more sedation, which is not a positive thing. And then, if, for example, a person is used to a very, very, very low dose and he takes a dose that is not even that high, a moderate dose, he may already have a feeling of hypersedation, of clouding the system central nervous system”.

“Addiction is not directly and purely dependent on the drug class. So it’s not every medicine black label that will cause addiction for everyone. This is an interaction of that medication with that individual and then many other situations come in, which is the person’s social reality, what is the person’s relationship with that medication, how is the use, if we seek, if the person seeks effects that are not the correct ones of the medication and then we could be configuring this issue of a medication addiction”, he explains.

OVERDOSE AND DEATH

Death is even a possible reality for those who abuse medication: “An overdose, an overdose, or sometimes not even an overdose, but taking an exaggerated concomitant medication, with other medications or even alcohol, can lead to a fatal outcome. of fatality, such as death, because it is a medication that will cause hypersedation and, depending on the situation, this can lead to a cardiorespiratory arrest”.

GETTING OUT OF ADDICTION

Finally, he told the best way to cure himself of drug addiction: “Any and all abuse relationships with a substance, whether legal or illegal, the first thing is to recognize the problem. So, the first step is for us to understand that we are in a situation of abuse, be it the black label, an alcoholic beverage, an illegal drug, tobacco, whatever. And from that identification, seek help. The best professional to deal with this is the psychiatrist, but the search for medical help needs to happen as soon as possible”.

WALCYR CARRASCO