Posted by azdrugrehabctr on May 21, 2016 under Addiction Trends, AZ Drug Rehab News, Opiate Abuse, Prescription Drugs | 
A new study conducted by researchers at Harvard University shows that there is has been a substantial increase in the number of people being hospitalized due to opioid use. These hospitalizations can include overdoses, accidents induced by painkiller use and infections.
After data was compiled using information from hospitals throughout the country, it was determined that hospitalizations related to opioid abuse and dependence have increased by 67% in ten years. In 2002, hospitals reported 302,000 admittances for opiate-related issues. In 2012, this number rose to 520,000 admittances. While data from 2013 to the present has not been available, researchers caution that these numbers have likely increased to reflect the continued worsening of the opiate problem in the United States.
“Our results characterize the financial burden on the healthcare system related to opioid abuse/dependence and one of the more serious downstream complications of this epidemic: serious infections,” explained Mathew V. Ronan and Shoshana J. Herzig, the co-authors of the study.
Increased hospitalizations not only cost the insurance companies and hospitals money, but the public is helping foot the bill as well. Many of these cases relied on Medicare or Medicaid funds to pay for the bills associated with treating these opiate addicts. Oftentimes the public does not realize how drug abuse negatively impacts the rest of society, but this is a great example of how even those that are not directly affected by the opiate crisis suffer.
Studies like this one are important because it keeps opiate abuse in the news. Some people may feel that these sorts of studies are redundant because it has already been established that prescription painkiller and heroin abuse is an epidemic in this country. However, keeping this sort of information in the news and educating the public, forces law makers and public officials to take notice and enact better policies and programs to combat this serious problem.
Posted by azdrugrehabctr on August 19, 2015 under Addiction Trends, Prescription Drugs |
Citizens of the United States have heard countless stories and warnings about the prescription drug abuse epidemic. Originally starting in areas where heroin was not easy to obtain, such as rural areas, pain pill misuse and abuse spread throughout the country. Now experts are watching other countries throughout the world succumb to the prescription drug epidemic as well.
The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) monitors the drug patterns throughout the world. The organization has reported that prescription drugs have moved up to the second most abused and trafficked class of drugs worldwide. Second only to marijuana, prescription drugs are making their mark around the globe including places like Europe, Asia and Australia.
Prescription painkillers like oxycodone and hydrocodone make up much of the prescription drug problem, but stimulants, sedatives and tranquilizers are included in this group as well. The INCB also reported that heroin and cocaine use has gone down, despite the recent surge in heroin use here in the United States.
Prescription drug trafficking isn’t just being done by criminal organizations, as there are reports that doctors around the world have also been a huge part of the problem through careless and sometimes intentional prescribing practices in exchange for money.
The INCB concurred with most experts in that most people seek out prescription drugs because they are considered safer than street drugs. This misconception has helped to encourage worldwide addiction problems.
Posted by azdrugrehabctr on March 4, 2014 under AZ Drug Rehab News, Prescription Drugs |
The Food and Drug Administration has recently approved a potent new painkiller scheduled to become available to patients this month. As part of the hydrocodone-based family of opioid analgesics, Zohydro, a high-dose pain pill is expected to be a dangerous new factor in the growing prescription abuse epidemic in the U.S.
A league of more than 40 health care, consumer and addiction treatment groups is urging the FDA to revoke its approval of the prescription. In a letter to FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg, addiction experts echoed concerns surrounding the risks tied to the drug.
Dr. Andrew Kolodny, president of the advocacy group Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing has a strong opinion on this subject. “It’s a whopping dose of hydrocodone packed in an easy-to-crush capsule,” said the doctor. “It will kill people as soon as it’s released.”
That is not the only letter of concern in the FDA’s mailbox. Other groups petitioning the FDA to revoke their approval include members of the congress and 29 state attorneys general, among others. The common fear among these groups is the high-dose and its potential to amplify already-rising overdose numbers.
Prescription opioid deaths more than quadrupled since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control. There were 4,030 deaths involving the drugs in 1999, compared with 16,651 in 2010.
Zohydro is reported to be approximately five times more potent than what is available now. Both the FDA and Zohydro’s maker, Zogenix, claim that the drug’s benefits outweigh the risks.
Zohydro is intended to be prescribed solely for patients dealing with severe pain, according to advocates for the drug. Dr. Brad Galer, executive vice president and chief medical officer at Zogenix, stated that the company will focus its commercial efforts on a small group of doctors with good experience prescribing opioids, so that only appropriate chronic pain patients would receive the drug.
Despite these intentions, many are expecting the narrow patient group to eventually expand to patients with less serious pain issues. If Zohydro follows in the footsteps of its opioid-containing predecessors, the drug will become more and more available to those who are likely to abuse it. It seems not everyone is comfortable with the FDA’s “risk-benefit” way of thinking.
Posted by azdrugrehabctr on February 26, 2014 under Prescription Drugs |
According to a new government report, the Department of Defense needs to do more to prevent prescription drug abuse in the military. A large issue lies in the lack of uniform standards for dealing with this issue. Some military branches are tougher than others when it comes to monitoring and preventing abuse and misuse of prescription pain pills among recovering service members.
In the report conducted by the department’s Inspector General’s office, investigators found that the Army has an aggressive policy that monitors a soldier’s prescriptions which allow them to receive four different drugs, including one controlled substance. The Navy has a similar policy, but starts the monitoring at five controlled substances in some locales.
In so-called Wounded Warrior units, patients are supposed to receive the most focused care, so it is troubling that the report cites dozens of overdose deaths in these units during the war years. The report strongly urges the Pentagon to be more aggressive in addressing every potential loose end that allows these overdoses to happen.
One of the Inspector General’s recommendations endorses wider accessibility to a “take-back” program that allows pharmacies to take back unused medication from troops. Currently, these programs are conducted only twice a year under the mandate of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
The “take-back” programs are designed to give soldiers a safe and accountable method to dispose of medications that are no longer needed for treatment. Practicing this method keeps unused pills out of the hands of soldiers who may abuse the medication and it also prevents soldiers from exceeding the doses needed to treat their ailments.
According to responses cited in the report, corrective steps are being taken to guard against wounded troops “doctor shopping” and using the same prescription to obtain more pills, potentially for abuse. The report also stated that in 2010 – the last data cited – nearly a thousand soldiers were hospitalized for drug overdoses. In 2011, a Pentagon health survey found that one in four troops use pain medication.
Hopefully the corrective steps being taken will be enough to decrease the risk of overdose for the high-risk patient population of wounded warriors in the U.S. military.
