Addiction can come quickly and users routinely will go back to their doctor and tell them their pain persists and then they continue to get more Vicodin or other painkillers. This perpetuates the vicious cycle that leads to addiction. A prescription painkiller addiction has dangerous consequences, and ultimately the outcome from the addiction can become death.

In the past decade, fatal overdoses from prescription painkillers have more than tripled, according to recent government reports. U.S. officials have called the problem an epidemic as painkillers like Methadone, OxyContin and Vicodin have led to nearly 15,000 deaths alone in 2008, which is over three times the amount as the year 1999.

Prescription painkiller addiction affects people of different races, gender, and age groups. Recently reports have highlighted the sweeping problem among teens. A recent survey highlighted the problem of painkillers among adolescents showing that 10 percent of all seniors in high school are using Vicodin now as the new recreational drug.

Why People Get Addicted to Prescription Painkillers is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Researchers from the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital have attempted to answer these questions. They studied more than 26,300 adults who reported using prescription opioids within the past month of a survey conducted November 2005 through December 2009. The adults in this study were ages 18 to 70, whose drug use was being tracked through a national monitoring system called the National Addictions Vigilance Intervention and Prevention Program.

The research team found that many abused opiates in conjunction with other prescription and/or illicit drugs, and that many of these adults were suffering from psychiatric conditions along with their substance abuse. Only 19% were using the drugs as prescribed.

Dr. Traci Green and her colleagues classified the adults using opiate drugs into four groups: those who use them as prescribed (19%); those who had prescriptions but were misusing the drugs (27%); medically healthy abusers (36%); and illicit users (18%). Over 80% were determined to be at risk for death by overdose, and an additional 18% were at risk for blood-borne infections such as HIV.

The research team also studied these adults in terms of age, race, ethnicity, concurrent drug use, onset and duration of drug abuse, route of administration, and comorbid psychiatric and medical problems. They reported that patient education and expanding prescription monitoring programs would have little effect in stopping or helping opioid abusers, many of whom do not receive regular care from the medical profession. Many of the opioid abusers have psychiatric and medical problems that are not being addressed in formal treatment programs.

“Our results add to a growing body of research indicating that prescription opiate products are being abused and misused in ways that call for more nuanced and public health-oriented post-marketing surveillance and risk management responses that have been proposed heretofore,” said Dr. Green, lead author of the study.

The study appears in the journal PLoS ONE.

Majority of Opioid Painkiller Abusers Do Not Receive Medical Treatment is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

The United States is in an epidemic of prescription drug abuse with about seven million people using them for non-medical purposes, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Prescription drugs are now causing more deaths than illegal drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine, and the number of Americans dead from drug overdoses recently surpassed the number killed in automobile accidents.

Florida is the nation’s number-one supplier of prescription pain drugs used for nonmedical reasons. The most frequently abused of these drugs are OxyContin, Viocodin, and other potent painkillers. One of the most popular drugs now being abused is oxycodone, a painkiller related chemically to heroin. Of the 53 million oxycodone doses sold last year to medical practitioners, about 45 million were bought in Florida. Seven people die of prescription drug overdoses every 24 hours in Florida.

Dealers and drug tourists are traveling from other parts of the country to obtain prescription drugs in Florida that cost about a dollar a pill. They are able to sell them in their home states for $20-$30 a pill. Recently a man arrested in Connecticut with 8,000 pills in his possession admitted to police that he had gone to Florida 65 times in the past five months and obtained thousands of drugs each time. He was able to bribe airport authorities to let him smuggle the drugs into Connecticut.

The reason that drugs are so easy to get in Florida is that laws are lax enough that unethical doctors can set up “pain clinics” where people can obtain prescriptions simply by saying they are in pain, and without undergoing medical tests or examinations.

“People literally line up in the morning and wait for the doors to open, and then they swarm inside,” said Pinellas County Deputy Bob Gualtieri. “I hate to even call them doctors. Because they are not really doctors. They are people who hold a medical license, but they are not really practicing medicine, and you pay a cash fee. They’re drug dealers.”

Lt. Richard Pisanti of the Broward County’s Sheriff’s office said that people were doing drug deals right outside the pain clinics.

“We had burglaries, thefts of pills from cars, and one incident even resulted in murder,” he said.

The new legislation will require doctors to use electronic prescription pads or tamper-proof pads, and will increase penalties for overprescribing painkillers. Most doctors will be unable to dispense painkillers under the new regulations.

Florida legislators tried in the past to establish a drug database to keep track of which patients are obtaining which drugs and in what amounts. However, the state had trouble getting the measure funded, even though Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, offered to pay $1 million to set it up.

The new law establishes the Electronic Florida Online Reporting of Controlled Substances Evaluation, enabling doctors to request patients’ drug histories. Pharmacists, and anyone who prescribes or fills prescriptions for narcotic drugs will have seven days after dispensing these painkillers to report information to the data system. The system should cut down on “doctor shopping,” which refers to patients who go from one doctor or clinic to another in order to obtain pills.

The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy already have a national database that doctors or pharmacists can use to retrieve information on painkiller prescriptions from any state participating in the database. Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, and 20 other states have agreed to participate in this database.

Many experts believe that national electronic databases for prescription drug abuse will only increase the problem of drug addicts turning to heroin. Because of earlier crackdowns, prescription drugs have already become more expensive and harder to get in certain parts of the country, including Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee, and parts of the west coast. For example, a typical dose of heroin costs $25 compared to $80 for an oxycodone pill in places like Oregon, where there is stricter enforcement of drug laws. The manufacturers of OxyContin have also produced a new version of the drug that is harder to abuse, in that it cannot be smoked, snorted or injected.

Even before the new laws go into effect in Florida, heroin abuse already is starting to increase. In Palm Beach County, for example, the amount of heroin seized by authorities so far this year is three pounds, up from 20 grams last year. The latest national statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice indicate that heroin abuse increased 342% between 2004 and 2008. Heroin dealers are convincing more people that heroin is not only cheaper than prescription pills, but it is just as safe if you smoke it, rather than inject it, according to addiction expert Dr. Terry Alley.

If heroin abuse becomes more widespread in the United States, more Americans will develop liver or kidney diseases, skin abscesses, collapsed veins, and infections of the heart lining and heart valves. One of the biggest dangers will be increased numbers of people with HIV/AIDS, because most heroin addicts use needles. Since the HIV/AIDS virus is a blood-borne disease, the infection can be spread by sharing needles. Heroin used to be imported from Columbia or Asia, but the kind most prevalent today is a very pure variety from Mexico.

Actions to Shut Down “Pill Mills” Result in Increased Heroin Addiction is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

According to a recent article in The Chicago Tribune, the newest trend in drug users is they are increasingly white from suburban and upper-middle class homes and are both older adults and teenagers looking for a quick high. Prescription drug deaths have tripled nationwide from the beginning of the millennium to 2008 and have exceeded deaths from cocaine and heroin combined. In 2009, drug deaths reached an all-time high of nearly 37,500, killing more people than automobile accidents.

Experts say prescription drugs and heroin abuse are intertwined. They are so similar that the user will substitute one for the other when they run out. Many users have begun their addiction to prescription meds because they believe they are safer. Once hooked on them, they may move on to heroin.

Both of these drugs have similarities in that they are depressants that can kill. They suppress breathing especially when mixed with other downers or alcohol. Teenagers are finding these drugs easy to get their hands on because they are often in their parents’ medicine cabinet at home. The DEA says that 1 in every 6 adolescents under 20 years old have tried a prescription drug in order to get a quick high. A special agent in the Chicago area also says many gang members are sending in members to fake illnesses in order to obtain these prescriptions.

The DEA stresses that it will take law enforcement, educators and parents to crack down on those involved with prescription drug abuse because it is such a huge problem.

White Suburbanites Are the New Drug Addicts is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Those who work the pharmacy counters are a bit more cautious lately and officials believe it to be the rise in addictions to prescription drugs such as Vicodin that is leading to the increase in robberies. Technicians who normally love their job say they are becoming increasingly concerned about the dangers of being a pharmacy technician. While they used to worry about people coming into the store and stealing Valium, now they are concerned about people coming in with guns.

The DEA reports that there is an increase nationwide in the amount of these types of robberies. Some places such as Walgreen’s have begun to store security locked cabinets that makes it more difficult to get to the popular drugs such as Oxycontin. Police say they are staying busy trying to handle these types of threats but unfortunately, our society is becoming more and more addicted to prescription pain medications according to Volunteer TV.

James Berrong, with the Sheriff’s Office in Blount County, says people who used to get their pill fix at pain clinics are now resorting to these desperate attempts to get their pills and breaking the law to do so. Berrong says people are becoming more and more desperate because of their addictions and are resorting to desperate measures such as committing serious crimes simply because their supplies have been cut off.

Armed Robberies on the Rise at Pharmacies Nationwide is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

After meeting on Thursday, September 16, the FDA’s Advisory Committee agreed with Alkerme’s sNDA and its research that was first introduced at the 2010 American Psychiatric Association (APA) Annual Meeting in May, where four clinical studies demonstrated naltrexone’s ability to suppress both alcohol and opioid cravings and withdrawals. The FDA will consider the recommendation of the Advisory Committee and formally announce its final decision on October 12, 2010. The FDA is not obligated to agree with the recommendations of its Advisory Committee—a panel of outside experts—although the U.S. administration historically tends to follow suit.

The Advisory Committee voted 12 to 1 in favor of naltrexone’s use in the treatment of opioid dependency and found the sNDA to be particularly favorable since the clinical trials of the drug showed no apparent serious side effects. Although the clinical trials did show positive results among sample populations of alcoholics or opioid addicts compared to placebo-administered control groups, the Advisory Committee was concerned about the efficacy of a single research study that was held outside the U.S.

“Efficacy and Safety of Extended-Release Injectable Naltrexone (XR-NTX) for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence,” conducted by lead investigator Dr. Evgeny Krupitsky of St. Petersburg Regional Center of Addictions in Russia found that naltrexone injections successfully reduced drug cravings among opioid-dependent individuals. In a 24-week investigation involving 250 opioid-dependent participants who had opioid addiction for 10 years, the group administered naltrexone injections showed significant reductions in their cravings, physiologic dependence, and self-reported opioid use, and had better retention compared to the placebo group. These participants were more capable of suppressing their cravings, preventing relapse and sustaining abstinence.

Due to the disruption of normal neurotransmission in the brain’s reward system caused by opioid use, opioid abusers become physiologically vulnerable to their cravings and often relapse even after undergoing treatment. The experts from the clinical trials as well as the FDA Advisory Committee caution that naltrexone may not be an absolute cure-all to alcoholism or opiate addiction, but the benefits of this new injectable does give the field of addiction medicine more options when it comes to treating opioid addiction, which as of yet has no other pharmacological form of treatment.

Source: MedScape Today, Emma Hitt, FDA Panel Recommends Naltrexone Extended-Release Injectable Suspension for Opioid Addiction, September 17, 2010

FDA Committee Recommends Naltrexone for Opioid Addiction Treatment is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Curtis told Vieira that recovery is accepting that your life is in shambles and knowing that you have to change it. She added that she feels lucky that she didn’t have to lose anything, as so many other addicts have.

In a 2008 interview with More magazine, Curtis said she used the drugs to get high and to avoid feelings of loneliness, and drank heavily at times for years. She admitted to stealing pills from her sister, who was recovering from a broken bone at the actress’ home.

Family and friends were unaware of her addiction, including her husband, actor and director Christopher Guest. Curtis decided to get clean when she considered how her addiction would affect her daughter Annie.

Sources: PopEater, Jamie Lee Curtis Says Recovery From Drug Addiction Is Her ‘Single Greatest Accomplishment’, September 7, 2010

New York Daily News, Korin Miller, Jamie Lee Curtis opens up about past painkiller addiction, June 23, 2008

Jamie Lee Curtis Says Recovery from Addiction Is Her Greatest Accomplishment is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

The CDC sent out questionnaires to over 158 schools across the country, with 16,460 student participants responding. The YRBS surveys students in grades 9–12 on their health-risk behaviors, including unintentional injury or violence; tobacco use; alcohol consumption; substance abuse; sexual activity that involved unintended pregnancy, violence, or disease; unhealthy dietary practices; and physical inactivity. This year’s YRBS was the first in its history to include prescription medications as a substance of abuse in its questionnaire, and is the first national survey from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to specifically pole teenagers on their activity related to prescription drugs.

Participants were asked if they had ever consumed prescription drugs such as Percocet, OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax, Adderall, or Ritalin without a doctor’s prescription. Based on the results, 20.2% of participants admitted to having illicitly taken a prescription medication one or more times in their lifetime. White students were more likely than any other demographic group in the survey to abuse prescription drugs (23% of all white participants). Following were Hispanic students with 17.2% and black students with 11.8% of their respective demographics. Students were more likely to abuse prescription drugs as they progressed in age: twelfth grade students were more likely to abuse (25.8%) than eleventh grade students (22.7%), tenth grade students (18.2%), and ninth grade students (15.1%). There was no significant disparity among male and female genders regarding use, however white females were more likely than non-white females to abuse (23.3% of white females vs. 16.6% of Hispanic females and 10.3% of black females) and white males were more likely than non-white males to abuse (22.8% of white males vs. 17.8% Hispanic males and 13.3% of black males).

These statistics are evidence of the growing misconception that prescription drugs are somehow safer to use than illicit ‘street drugs.’ Even though these drugs are prescribed medications for legal use, they can be just as toxic and detrimental to one’s health if misused and can potentially lead to addiction, overdose, and death. Both parents and children may believe that no harm is being done by taking these drugs since they are not illegally distributed and sold in some dark alley. Prescription drugs are the most easily accessible drugs for teenagers to get their hands on. Teenagers can swipe prescription drugs from their parents’ medicine cabinets to get high or self-medicate, and there are also substantial reports of high school students having ‘pill parties’ in which partiers bring whatever prescription drugs they can obtain and share them with friends. While rates of adolescent illicit substance abuse may seem unchanged over the last decade, prescription drug abuse is disturbingly high among this age group and continues to rapidly increase.

Concerning other substances of abuse, statistics among teenagers in the 2009 survey were similar to 2007. Regarding overall use, 72.5% of high school students reported they had used alcohol; 37% reported they had used marijuana; 8% reported they had used hallucinogenics such as LSD or mescaline; 6.7% reported they had used ecstasy; 6.4% reported they had used cocaine; 4.1% reported they had used amphetamine/methamphetamine; and 2.5% reported they had used heroin.

Prescription drug abuse is now more prevalent that heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine abuse combined. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Drug Abuse Warning Network estimates that an average of 195 emergency hospital visits per day (or 71,175 per year) nationwide relate to prescription drug abuse (including prescription and nonprescription pain relievers, prescription narcotic pain relievers, benzodiazepines, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and ADHD medications) among individuals ages 12–17. This estimated average exceeds the expected averages of teenage emergency hospital visits related to cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, amphetamines/methamphetamines, and inhalants combined. The CDC hopes that its new report will create awareness among parents, health care providers, and community leaders and encourage them to promote safety and responsibility for the future generation.

References

http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/yrbs/pdf/press_release_yrbs.pdf

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss5905.pdf

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/639796.html

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/20100603/survey-reveals-rx-drug-abuse-by-teens

http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k10/185/185TypicalDay.htm
 

National Study Shows 1 in 5 Teens Abuses Prescription Drugs is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Haim, 38, died of natural causes from "community-acquired pneumonia" that damaged his lungs, according to an autopsy report.

Low levels of eight drugs, including both prescription and over-the-counter medications, were found in his system along with marijuana, coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey said.

"But nothing was at a level that would have contributed to his death," Harvey said.

They included tranquilizers and some common cold and flu medications, such as ibuprofen and a cough-suppressant, the report said.

Haim, who had struggled with drug problems throughout his life, died March 10 after collapsing in his mother’s apartment. Haim was ill with flulike symptoms before his death, and police said he was taking over-the-counter and prescription medications.

"The pneumonia is what killed him," Harvey said.

Mark Heaslip, the actor’s agent, did not return a phone message seeking comment Tuesday.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown said in April that Haim employed "doctor shopping" to obtain 553 prescription pills in the two months before his death. Brown called Haim — the star of 1980s films such as "The Lost Boys" and "License to Drive" — a poster child for prescription drug abuse. He said Haim obtained powerful sedatives such as Valium and Xanax and painkillers such as Vicodin and OxyContin.

However, no OxyContin was found in his body, Harvey said. He noted that Haim’s heart was abnormally large and factored in his death.

"His heart was 530 grams. The average normal heart weighs 300 grams," Harvey said.

Haim also had damaged lungs and arteriosclerosis of his coronary arteries, with some vessels 50-percent and even 75-percent blocked. Haim also had an enlarged liver.

Harvey said it was unclear how long Haim had suffered from the medical problems or the pneumonia or whether earlier treatment might have saved him.

A message left with Brown’s office was not immediately returned Tuesday.

The report said that Haim had been feeling ill two days before his death and had a fever and severe cough. The report said he stayed in bed all day March 9 and his mother gave him tea, vegetable soup, Robituson, Tylenol and Advil, and Zophren. He appeared disoriented and collapsed to his knees at about 12:30 a.m. the next day.
"His mother helped him back into bed. His body began to shake in all directions and his eyes rolled back. His mother called 911," according to the report’s synopsis.

He stopped breathing and his mother performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation until paramedics arrived. Haim was pronounced dead in an emergency room at 2:15 a.m.

The report said that Haim had a history of drug abuse and had taken several prescription medications about five days before his death. He also had a history of heart murmur and possibly hypertension.

Drugs found in Haim’s system included the cough-suppressant dextromethorphan; the antihistamine diphenhydramine; carisoprodol, a prescription muscle relaxant; the tranquilizers diazepam and meprobamate, which are found in Valium and other medications; and the antidepressants fluoxetine and olanzapine.

Corey Haim Died from Pneumonia, not Prescription Drug Abuse is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

His police career in shambles, Vergennes Police Chief Michael Lowe called his behavior "inexcusable" but asked to be spared prison time, saying he was successfully rehabilitating himself from his addiction to prescription painkillers. "Drug addiction is a bear," he told the judge.

But Vermont District Court Judge Cortland Corsones said a message of deterrence had to be sent, ordering Lowe to serve a 1 1/2-to-3-year prison term, all but six months of it suspended. He will likely serve the time out of state, since he can’t be incarcerated with people he prosecuted.

Lowe, 51, pleaded guilty in January to driving under the influence of drugs, felony prescription fraud and neglect of duty, capping an abrupt fall from grace that began June 7, when he had a fender-bender with a parked car while driving an unmarked cruiser.
Officers who responded to the scene found him glassy-eyed and slurring his speech, and he failed field sobriety tests.

The accident laid bare a private struggle that began with a neck injury incurred while weightlifting and led to three operations and a painkiller addiction.

Authorities alleged that Lowe got one officer to obtain Adderall prescriptions for him, got another to give him oxycodone pills that were for the officer’s wife and took a seized pistol from evidence that he gave it to a third officer in exchange for vitamin supplements. The officers were never charged.

In court Wednesday, Lowe’s lawyer and a nurse specializing in psychiatry painted a picture of a law-abiding policeman whose addiction and previously undiagnosed bipolar disorder led to crimes he never would have committed otherwise.

Lowe, a 27-year law enforcement veteran with no criminal record, has since completed substance-abuse rehabilitation and continues to undergo psychotherapy, defense attorney Richard Goldsborough said.

Brush-cut and barrel-chested, wearing a dark suit, shirt and tie, Lowe teared up listening to the nurse testify about his love for police work.

His voice cracked as he pleaded for mercy, and he apologized to the police officers he dragged into his deceits. He said the fender-bender actually saved his life.

"My life was out of control. How I functioned at the end there, I don’t quite know," said Lowe, whose daughter, siblings and mother sat in the courtroom gallery behind him.
He said he can’t believe the depths to which he sank to get drugs. "It’s inexcusable. With that being said, I have to use the tools that have been given to me over the course of this year to turn this around," Lowe said.

The judge said Lowe’s use of his position to get others to help feed his addiction had to be answered with prison time. The state’s prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Robert Menzel, asked for a sentence of between 18 months and four years in prison.
Outside court, Lowe declined to comment.

"Mike’s relieved that it’s over," Goldsborough said. "We’re disappointed that it was six months of incarceration but that was within the judge’s discretion."

Former Lawman’s Prescription Drug Addiction Leads to Prison Time is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment