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]]>National Take-Back Initiative
October 26, 2013 – 10AM to 2PM
The National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day aims to provide a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while also educating the general public about the potential for abuse of medications.
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]]>By The Christian Science Monitor
Tuesday, October 8, 2013 7:02 EDT
A new study shows that deaths from prescription drug overdoses have quadrupled during the past decade, suggesting that a stronger response is needed.
Deaths involving prescription pills have quadrupled between 1999 and 2010, according to a report released Monday by Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit organization in Washington that studies health policy. About 6.1 million people abuse prescription pills, and overdose deaths have at least doubled in 29 states, where they now exceed vehicle-related deaths. In 10 of those states, rates tripled; in four of them, they quadrupled.
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Saturday August 31, 2013
overdoseday.com
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]]>The post Stimulant-Related Emergency Department Visits Rise 300 Percent Among Younger Adults appeared first on Pasadena Recovery Center.
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In 2011 there were approximately 1.24 million emergency department visits related to the nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals, which include prescription and over-the-counter medications as well as supplements.
A new report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shows that some drug-related emergency department visits increased by 300 percent — from 5,605 visits in 2005 to 22,949 visits in 2011. These visits, made by adults aged 18 to 34, were related to the nonmedical use of central nervous system (CNS) stimulants. On average, about 30 percent of these visits also involved alcohol.
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Even though anabolic steroids do not cause the same high as other drugs, steroids are reinforcing and can lead to addiction. Studies have shown that animals will self-administer steroids when given the opportunity, just as they do with other addictive drugs. People may persist in abusing steroids despite physical problems and negative effects on social relationships, reflecting these drugs’ addictive potential. Also, steroid abusers typically spend large amounts of time and money obtaining the drug—another indication of addiction.
Individuals who abuse steroids can experience withdrawal symptoms when they stop taking them—including mood swings, fatigue, restlessness, loss of appetite, insomnia, reduced sex drive, and steroid cravings, all of which may contribute to continued abuse. One of the most dangerous withdrawal symptoms is depression—when persistent, it can sometimes lead to suicide attempts. Research has found that some steroid abusers turn to other drugs such as opioids to counteract the negative effects of steroids.
Performance Enhancing Drug Effects
The use of performance-enhancing drugs has become increasingly popular as athletes compete for scholarships, medals, money and coveted spots on professional teams, report Mayo Clinic doctors. Drugs that are used by both male and female athletes to give them an edge over their competition include anabolic-androgenic steroids, diuretics, stimulants and creatine. Each drug, whether natural or man-made, comes with its own set of side effects. While they do reap some of the desired benefits, most physicians and sports trainers report that the dangerous performance-enhancing drug effects outweigh any short-term benefits.
The bottom line
Do performance-enhancing drugs boost performance? Some athletes may appear to achieve physical gains from such drugs, but at what cost? The long-term effects of performance-enhancing drugs haven’t been rigorously studied. And short-term benefits are tempered by many risks. Not to mention that doping is prohibited by most sports organizations. No matter how you look at it, using performance-enhancing drugs is risky business.
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]]>In 2010, OxyContin introduced a new formula that drug abusers can’t crush to a powder to snort or inject. This is how it works, chemically, and whether it actually deters abuse.
Old vs. New: The pre-2010 OxyContin pill crushes into grains (left) while the newer formula is more difficult to break up (right). Scott Novak
Injection Deterring: Drug abusers sometimes dissolved crushed older OxyContin into an injectable mixture (left), but the newer formula makes a stringy jelly when mixed with liquid (right). Scott Novak
New And Old OxyContin Pills: 80-milligram tablets of the current OxyContin formula (left) and the previous OxyContin formula (right) U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
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Researchers say there are too many gaps between current treatment options for opioid drug abuse and the evidence-based practices utilized in much of the rest of the developed world
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Are Pills In Your Medicine Cabinet a Gateway Drug to Heroin?
By Jeremy Martinez, MD
Opiate use has been escalating among young people.[i] Pills in your own medicine cabinet may be the Gateway to Heroin, and I will explain how.
High school students are among those who have begun to experiment with Vicodin, Percocet, Norco, and other strong pain-killers.
Prescription pills can appear innocuous to many. These pills have been given by a doctor, which makes a person feel that they are safe. These pills are also made by a professional manufacturer, and may appear safer than street drugs.
The problems with opiate addiction begin with regular use of these drugs. Tolerance to opiates begins after daily use over an extended period of time. A person’s body changes with regular opiate use, and this causes withdrawal when the drug is stopped.[ii]
Stopping the pain-killers leads to runny nose, nausea and vomiting, severe muscle pain, and diarrhea. Opiate addicts commonly refer to this as getting “sick,” and may feel like a bad flu. Withdrawal can also cause muscle twitching, or “kicking,” that can occur in the arms or legs.
Opiate addicts are afraid of becoming “sick,” which can be extremely painful, and leads to the regular, daily use of stronger and stronger opiates to stay “well.” Many who are addicted to these drugs will tell you that they are just trying to stay “well.” At some point they are no longer trying to get “high.”
Using pain-killers regularly can lead to a rapid tolerance. Using Vicodin or Percocet will turn into Roxicet or OxyContin, which can be more than 100 times stronger[iii] than Vicodin. OxyContin is often sold illicitly, or “on the street” for up to $80 per pill.[iv] You can imagine how expensive this becomes!
The pricey OxyContin (also called “OC’s” or “OP’s”) will often become difficult to get, and heroin provides a cheaper option to “stay well.” People are often introduced to heroin by smoking it. Smoking heroin does not have the stigma or “scariness” of injecting the drug IV. For a high school student who has smoked marijuana, it might not be as scary to try smoking heroin.
Smoked heroin has only 1/4 to 1/2 the potency of IV heroin.[v] Once again, the addict begins to spend so much money smoking the heroin, that injecting heroin begins to look like an attractive option. The addict desperately needs some form of opiate to avoid “the kick.”
This is how the pain pills in your medicine cabinet may ultimately lead to a young person’s addiction to heroin. Not every young person that takes a Vicodin becomes an opiate addict. The danger of addiction arises from regular, daily use of these drugs.
What can be done to prevent this from happening?
There are simple steps that you can take today to prevent your pain medications from leading to another person’s life-long addiction…
First, if you take painkillers such as Vicodin, or the other pills mentioned here, it is important to keep these in a locked container. Locking pill containers are available at most drug stores.
Second, it is also critical that you never give your pain medications to another person. If they are prescribed to you, you are the only one who should take them.
And lastly, if you have pain medications that you are no longer taking, these should be destroyed. The FDA actually recommends that opiates be flushed down the toilet because of the high risk of abuse by others (http://1.usa.gov/1dQ1EIx)
If you have concerns about opiate addiction for yourself or a loved one, talk to your doctor about the treatment options available.
Jeremy Martinez, MD is an Addiction Psychiatrist who works at Pasadena Recovery Center and The Solstice Clinic in Los Angeles, CA.
[i] Hall AJ, Logan JE, Toblin RL, Kaplan JA, Kraner JC, Bixler D, Crosby AE, Paulozzi LJ. Patterns of abuse among unintentional pharmaceutical overdose fatalities. JAMA. 2008 Dec 10;300(22):2613-20.
[ii] Ouyang H, Liu S, Zeng W, Levitt RC, Candiotti KA, Hao S., An emerging new paradigm in opioid withdrawal: a critical role for glia-neuron signaling in the periaqueductal gray., ScientificWorldJournal. 2012;2012:940613
[iii] Ordóñez Gallego A, González Barón M, Espinosa Arranz E., Oxycodone: a pharmacological and clinical review., Clin Transl Oncol. 2007 May;9(5):298-307.
[iv] Kavilanz, Parija. Prescription drugs worth millions to dealers, CNNMoney, 2011 June
[v] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Division of Pharmacologic Therapies. Medication-Assisted Treatment for Substance Use Disorders. 42 CFR Part 8 Opioid Drugs in Maintenance and Detoxification. Treatment of Opiate Addiction; Final Rule. Published January 17, 2001.
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Is your medicine cabinet filled with expired drugs or medications you no longer use? How should you dispose of them?
Most drugs can be thrown in the household trash, but consumers should take certain precautions before tossing them out, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A few drugs should be flushed down the toilet. And a growing number of community-based “take-back” programs offer another safe disposal alternative.
The FDA has put together a website with valuable information on how to safely dispose of all those unused old prescription and OTC medications you may be holding onto.
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]]>Fatimah Waseem, USA TODAY1:01 p.m. EDT July 2, 2013
More women are dying from prescription painkiller overdoses than ever before, highlighting what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls a growing public health epidemic.
The CDC study shows that while men are still more likely to die of overdoses, the number of deaths among women increased five-fold in the last decade, four times more than deaths in women from cocaine and heroin combined, says CDC director Tom Frieden. About 12% of these deaths were suicides, CDC experts said.
The rate of prescription drug overdose deaths of women increased 400% from 1999 to 2010, compared with an increase of 250% for men. More men die of prescription painkiller overdoses — about 23,000 in 2010, compared with 15,300 for women.
“Unfortunately, women are catching up in this regard,” Frieden said.
Women may be more prone to overdoses because they’re more likely to have chronic pain, be prescribed painkillers, have higher doses, and use them longer than men, said Linda Degutis, director of CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. But doctors may not recognize these facts about women, said John Eadie, director of a Brandeis University program that tracks prescription-drug monitoring in the USA.
Overdose deaths from prescription painkillers skyrocketed over the past decade despite no major increases in the need for prescription painkillers over the last 20 years, said Chris Jones, a health scientist at CDC. Doctors are prescribing medications more frequently for patients who may not need them, a trend in the medical profession that needs to be reversed, Frieden said.
Women between 45 and 54 had the greatest increases in drug overdose deaths, likely because of dependence on prescription drugs to ease chronic pain, experts said.
A jump was also seen in visits to hospital emergency rooms. Painkiller-related ER visits by women more than doubled between 2004 and 2010, the CDC found.
These numbers alone, however, may not tell the whole tale.
“If one looks carefully at the data it can be quickly seen that the vast majority of prescription overdose deaths occur as a consequence of individuals combining these drugs with another sedative,” said Carl Hart, a Columbia University associate professor who studies drugs and behavior.
The solution to this prescription problem lies in maximizing prescription monitoring programs, Frieden said.
Washington began one of the first such programs in 2007, allowing pharmacists to submit patient records of prescriptions, dosage, the dispenser and prescriber to the state’s health department. Frieden says these programs can curb drug use by catching “doctor shoppers” and “pill mills,” but critics say the programs can be intrusive for conscientious clinicians and patients.
Health care providers should responsibly prescribe prescription painkillers by monitoring patients for substance abuse and mental health problems, discussing patient treatment options that don’t involve prescription drugs, and discussing the risks and benefits of taking painkillers for chronic conditions, the CDC says.
Patients should use prescription drugs only as directed by doctors, discuss all medications they’re taking with their doctors, and dispose of medication after they’ve completed the prescribed treatment, Frieden said. Women should also discuss pregnancy plans with their doctors to ensure infants do not develop heart malformations and become addicted to opiates, he said.
He said giving this “under-recognized issue” a spotlight is key in keeping deaths from prescription painkiller overdoses at bay.
“While we should be concerned about new drug-related trends, especially drug-related deaths, I am more concerned about us missing an important public health education opportunity,” Hart said.
Contributing: Associated Pres
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