Expert Says Murdaugh’s Pill Habit Could Lead To Unprovoked Outburst

Experts have revealed the devastating effect of opioid addiction after murder suspect Alex Murdaugh claimed to be addicted to 60 pills a day.

Murdaugh, 54, said he initially became hooked on oxycodone after receiving the pain reliever following surgery for a college football injury.

He continued to abuse drugs for decades, and claims he was spending $60,000 a week on the opioid at the peak of his addiction.

Many social media users expressed doubt as to whether someone could consume 60 pills a day and still function as a high-level lawyer.

But Dr. Tildabeth Doscher, an addiction medicine specialist at the University at Buffalo, told DailyMail.com: “Tolerance is more important than quantity” when it comes to opioids. You or I would die if I took ten of those because my opioid receptors are inexperienced.

Research shows that severe addiction to opioids causes emotional changes, unprovoked outbursts, paranoia and depression, as well as crippling withdrawal.

Dr. Doscher said that as his abuse continued, Murdaugh likely would have had to slowly increase the number of pills he needed each day to get his dose and avoid withdrawal.

Murdaugh is currently facing trial for the 2021 murder of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.

Oxycodone is highly addictive, and people who use it for treatment have been known to develop a dependency on it.

People who suffer from these types of addictions often have trouble regulating their emotions, often feeling numb or experiencing intense outbursts.

This is due to the effects drugs have on regulating a person’s mood.

Opioids in particular give a person a feeling of euphoria, but they also affect a person’s ability to regulate their mood.

An addict is susceptible to losing control of their emotions and sometimes acting in ways that others would find out of character.

Drug addiction is also linked to mental health disorders like anxiety and depression.

This is because addiction can trigger feelings of sadness and hopelessness when a person is unable to get their fix.

Spending large sums of money on pills can also be stressful, depleting the resources of the rest of a person’s livelihood. This adds to feelings of hopelessness.

People who already have these conditions are also at a higher risk of developing addiction.

Paranoia is another common side effect of addiction. Murdaugh blamed paranoia induced by his drug use for his inconsistent behavior after the murder of his wife and child.

Over time, a person will need more and more of the drug to stay balanced and avoid withdrawal symptoms, experts say.

“Tolerance develops,” Dr Doscher told DailyMail.com.

There are opioid receptors in the brain. Opioids knock that out. You or I would die if I took ten of those because my opioid receptors are inexperienced.

‘Tolerance is more important than quantity.’

Murdaugh’s use of opioids dates back to the early 2000s, when he was a member of the South Carolina Gamecocks college football team.

A doctor prescribed the medication to help treat a knee injury.

Oxycodone is a pain-relieving opioid sold under various brand names. While it has clinical uses, it is also known to be widely abused.

The drug is most commonly prescribed by doctors for long-term pain relief in patients.

It is typically taken in capsule or tablet form, and comes in regular and extended-release varieties. It can also be given as an intravenous solution to patients in hospitals.

The drug is detectable in a person’s system for up to three days and has a half-life of three to six hours, which is the amount of time it takes for the body to get rid of half of its prevalence in a person’s system.

However, it is easy to quickly develop a dependency on the drug. Doctors say that its prescribers should use it despite these risks, as the benefits outweigh the harm.

It was developed by Stamford, Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma in 1996 and hit the US markets in 2000.

Purdue is founded and owned by the Sackler family, which has been controversially linked to America’s opioid crisis.

The family has been described as one of the most evil in America for its role in the crisis that has pitted it against dozens of lawsuits from individuals and local governments across the country.

This means that your drug tolerance has probably increased in the last 20 years. The disgraced legal descendant says the pills “made everything better” for him.

‘Opioids gave me energy. Whatever he was doing, he made it more interesting. It made me want to do it longer,” he told the jury on Friday.

Opioid drugs, which include oxycodone, heroin, and fentanyl, among others, work by binding to opioid receptors located in the brain, spinal cord, and other regions of the body.

The drugs induce a feeling of euphoria and pleasure and can eliminate feelings of pain in a user.

These drugs are known to be addictive, as the body craves the euphoria they bring.

However, over time, receptors lose sensitivity to the drug. This means that a person will require more opioids to achieve that same sensation.

A person will slowly need more and more to achieve that feeling, and the body can experience withdrawal symptoms if these cravings are not satisfied.

“More and more are needed to counteract withdrawal because once those opioid receptors are full, they start to get empty and cause withdrawal symptoms,” Dr. Doscher.

“People continue to use and use and use because they are trying to avoid withdrawal pains.”

Many people turn to more dangerous street versions of the drug to get their fix once their addiction reaches a far enough point.

For Mr. Murdaugh, a wealthy man who can supposedly afford to spend $60,000 a day on the pills, he was able to sustain this dangerous addiction for more than a decade.

It just goes up and up,” he told the court. She said that she visited a detox center three times, the first time in December 2017.

“Opioid withdrawal is, ugh, it’s hard,” Murdaugh said. She described how ‘you throw up. You have terrible diarrhea. You sweat like you’re running a marathon. You can’t keep your legs still.

At the time, you probably weren’t using the pills every day to get high, but simply avoiding withdrawal symptoms.

“It appears that what happened with this individual is that they were using more and more and more, which would kill someone who is inexperienced with opioids,” Doscher said.

‘And when someone is using that much, they’re not very affected. They use it to feel normal.

“Dose means nothing, literally nothing, when we look at someone with an opioid use disorder. This could have killed him five years ago, but not right now. What he was taking seems to maintain function,” he continued.

“I am never surprised to hear that they took that and felt normal. I imagine when you take that much, you’re still trying to get the euphoria, the dissociative effects.

“So if you always take 50 pills and then one day you take 70, you will feel differently. There is a stabilizing dose versus an excessive dose.

However, Docher does not believe that Murdaugh’s alleged violent crimes were caused by the opioids themselves.

She says they’re not the kind of drugs that lead to these violent outbursts.

‘Regarding violence, no. People will do things they never would have done otherwise, but murder someone? No. It’s not like PCP or other drugs that make people more prone to violence,” he explained.