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People with Chronic Pain Find It Difficult to Get Their Medication

Posted on by Christy Weeks
dea-pharmacy

Prescription drug abuse continues to plague Americans in all 50 states, and effective measures to combat the problem appear to be a double edged sword. On the one hand: prescription drug monitoring programs and more cautious prescribing practices have served to reduce abuse and/or overdoses. On the other hand: effective harm reduction policies are making it harder for those with legitimate chronic pain to get the medications they need.

Florida was once considered to be the easiest place to acquire prescription opioids, such as OxyContin ® (oxycodone), due to a plethora of “pill mills” (pain management clinics that will dispense narcotics onsite) and overprescribing doctors. In an attempt to reverse the trend, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) came down on the state with a firm hand, shutting down more than 250 pill mills, PBS NewsHour reports.

The DEA went after doctors and pharmacies that were, what the agency considered, writing and dispensing too many pills. The nationwide pharmacies, CVS and Walgreens, paid civil penalties for record-keeping violations of the Controlled Substances Act. Walgreens paid an $80 million penalty and CVS paid an $11 million penalty, according to the article.

The result, pharmacies were warned to not cross DEA dispensing ceilings, or face penalties. In Florida, an independent pharmacy owner in Jacksonville, Bill Napier, says the amount of drugs he needs to supply his clients is not being provided by drug wholesalers who supply his store. What’s more, the DEA approached Napier last year regarding the amount narcotics he dispensed.

“They showed me a number, and they said that if I wasn’t closer to the state average, they would come back. So I got pretty close to the state average,” he said. “I turn away sometimes 20 people a day.” 

The acting deputy administrator of the DEA, Jack Riley, claims that his agency is not to blame for the medication rationing, according to the article.

“I’m not a doctor. We do not practice medicine. We’re not pharmacists. We obviously don’t get involved in that,” he said. “What we do do is make sure the people that have the licenses are as educated as possible as to what we’re seeing, and that they can make informed decisions as they do dispense.”

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If you are currently struggling with opioids and are in need of help, please do not hesitate to contact Harmony Foundation to begin the journey of recovery. Harmony is a state-of-the-art, affordable, residential addiction treatment program located in the Rocky Mountains.

Public Schools Screen for Substance Abuse

Posted on by Christy Weeks
substance-abuse-screening

A number of states across the country have seen a dramatic rise in overdose deaths related to prescription opioids or heroin. Naturally, as the affected states work to combat this crisis there is a lot of concern about teenage substance abuse. In Massachusetts, a state which saw more than 1,000 overdose deaths last year, child advocates are calling for substance abuse screening in public schools, WBUR reports. Screenings could help school nurses identify the students who may be in need of help before a problem gets even more out of hand.

School nurses already screen for hearing and vision problems, why not add substance abuse screening to the list? Currently, eight schools in MA have already started screening, with seven more districts expected to follow this fall, according to the article.

“Similar to the way they do hearing and eye tests, all with the goal that this is a normal process where kids are brought into their nursing offices and given a screening,” said Mary McGeown, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Identifying a problem early on could potentially save the lives of teens who might look to opioids for their next high. Many teens are unaware just how addictive and life threatening these types of drugs can be.

“In about 10 percent of the cases there is brief counseling, that the individual reports that they have used alcohol or have used marijuana,” said McGeown.

“In a very, very small percentage of those 10 percent, really 1 or 2 percent, there’s a referral to treatment,” she added. “And it’s at that point that a parent would be called.” Lawmakers are meeting today to discuss a bill that would take the program statewide.

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If you are currently struggling with opioids and are need of help, please do not hesitate to contact Harmony Foundation to begin the journey of recovery. Harmony is a state-of-the-art, affordable, residential addiction treatment program located in the Rocky Mountains.

Effective Policies to Combat Drunk Driving

Posted on by Christy Weeks

Drunk driving is a serious problem in the United States, especially among young adults who are unaware of their limits. All 50 states have policies in place to deter drunk driving, such as DUI checkpoints on major holidays and stiff penalties – including jail time and harsh fines. While those measures are effective, new research suggests that policies designed to deter binge-drinking are equally effective, ScienceDaily reports. States that have implemented stricter alcohol policies have lower rates of self-reported drunk driving.

Researchers at the Boston University schools of public health and medicine and the University of Minnesota School of Public Health assigned each state an “alcohol policy score.” States that were found to have higher scores had a decreased likelihood of impaired driving. The states were scored using 29 different alcohol policies, such as alcohol taxation.

“Basically, our study supports two parallel mechanisms involved in addressing drunk driving: Drinking policies reduce the likelihood of getting drunk, and driving policies prevent drunk folks from getting behind the wheel,” said study lead author Ziming Xuan, ScD, an assistant professor of community health sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health.

The research showed that high alcohol taxes, safe serving laws, and retail sales restrictions were effective measures to combat drunk driving, according to the article. Despite stricter penalties and excessive drinking deterrents, for the last two decades the rate of drunk driving related accidents has stayed about the same – around 33 percent.

“It is clear that in order for states to comprehensively address drunk driving as a public health issue, more effective policies need to be put into place to address excessive alcohol consumption,” Xuan said.

The findings were published in the International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. __________________________________________________

If you are currently struggling with an alcohol use disorder and are in need of help, please do not hesitate to contact Harmony Foundation to begin the journey of recovery. Harmony is a state-of-the-art, affordable, residential addiction treatment program located in the Rocky Mountains.

Addiction and recovery news provided by Harmony Foundation.

Pharmacy Shopping Linked to Overdose

Posted on by Christy Weeks

Many in the field of addiction are familiar with the term “doctor shopping,” the act of going to multiple doctors to obtain the multiple prescriptions of the same medication – such as OxyContin ® (oxycodone), a highly addictive opioid narcotic. While prescription drug monitoring programs have made it more difficult for addicts to engage in doctor shopping, it is still possible for people to engage in what’s called “pharmacy shopping” – using multiple pharmacies at the same time in order to obtain more medication than a patient needs.

A new study suggests that patients who engage in pharmacy shopping are at an increased risk of opioid overdose deaths, HealthDay reports. The researchers found that patients who used four pharmacies within 90 days had the highest risk of overdosing.

The records of more than 90,000 Medicaid recipients aged 18 to 64, who were long-term users of narcotic painkillers, were analyzed by researchers. The Medicaid patients involved in the research had used three or more narcotic prescriptions for 90 days from 2008 to 2010, according to the article.

The researchers point out that that there are legitimate reasons for using more than one pharmacy, such as:

  • Relocating
  • Traveling
  • Changes in Insurance Coverage

In many states, in order to deter prescription drug abuse, Medicaid programs track the number of pharmacies a patient visits, the article reports. When a patient’s pharmacy records are not tracked, it is possible to fill multiple prescriptions for the same drug. The overlapping of opioid prescriptions was associated with higher overdose rates.

The study authors note that it has not been determined how many pharmacies or how much time should occur between prescriptions, for a patient to be considered a pharmacy shopper.

The study is published in The Journal of Pain.
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If you are currently struggling with opioid addiction, such as prescription drugs or heroin, and are in need of help, please do not hesitate to contact Harmony Foundation to begin the journey of recovery. Harmony is a state-of-the-art, affordable, residential addiction treatment program located in the Rocky Mountains.

Addiction and recovery news provided by Harmony Foundation.

Does Marijuana Lead to Harder Drugs?

Posted on by Christy Weeks

Marijuana has long been referred to as a ‘gateway drug,’ a moniker which has been thrown around in defense of continued cannabis prohibition. While it may be true that people who engage in the illicit use of other drugs used marijuana first, there is very little evidence to support the idea that the use of marijuana leads to harder drugs. New research suggests that the varying reasons people have for using marijuana has bearing on who is at risk of using other illicit drugs, ScienceDaily reports.

Analyzing data from the Monitoring The Future (MTF) Survey, researchers at New York University’s Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) sought to determine how reasons for illicit marijuana use relates to the use of other drugs individually. The NYU researchers drew their findings from data collected on high school seniors.

“Aside from marijuana, a wide range of illicit drugs are prevalent, each having different use patterns, and different effects and dangers associated with use,” said Joseph J. Palamar, PhD, MPH, a CDUHR affiliated researcher and an assistant professor of Population Health at NYU Langone Medical Center (NYULMC). “Our research helped to identify subtypes of illicit marijuana users who use other drugs, as this may be able to inform prevention efforts.”

The research focused on self-reported use of eight other illicit drugs, including:

  • Heroin
  • Cocaine (powder)
  • Crack
  • Amphetamine/Stimulants (nonmedical)
  • Tranquilizers/Benzodiazepines (nonmedical)
  • Opioids (nonmedical)
  • LSD
  • Other Psychedelics

The study, “Reasons for Recent Marijuana Use in Relation to Use of Other Illicit Drugs among High School Seniors in the United States,” showed that people who used marijuana because they were bored had an increased risk for reporting the use of powder cocaine or hallucinogens other than LSD, according to the article. The researchers found that 11% of the sample reported using marijuana to amplify other drugs. Those who used marijuana infrequently were found to be generally not a risk for using other illicit drugs.

“Interestingly, we found that using marijuana ‘to experiment’ decreased risk of reporting use of each of the eight drugs examined before adjusting for other variables,” said Palamar. “The marijuana users in this sample who used to experiment were consistently at low risk for use of nonmedical use of prescription narcotics.”

Palamar adds: “It seems that only a subset of illicit marijuana users is at risk for use of other illicit drugs,” notes Palamar. “Most teens who use marijuana don’t progress to use of other drugs and we believe this is evidenced in part by the fact that nearly two-thirds of these marijuana-using teens did not report use of any of the other illicit drugs we examined.”

The findings were published in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. __________________________________________________

If you are battling with a substance use disorder, please contact Harmony Foundation. We can help you build the foundation for recovery.

Addiction and recovery news provided by Harmony Foundation.

Blood Pressure Medication Affects Unconscious Addiction Memories

Posted on by Christy Weeks

There is still a lot that scientists do not understand about the complex nature of addiction. Nevertheless, researchers continue to tirelessly probe the human mind in order to decode the nature of addiction and the causes of relapse, with the hope that one day better treatments for the disease can be developed.

Over the last few years, addiction researchers have been testing the effects of a number pharmaceuticals developed for a series of medical conditions. The goal was to see if such drugs had an impact on the cycle of addiction. Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin have been experimenting with the blood pressure medication isradipine, and if human trials prove successful, the drug could help prevent relapse, ScienceDaily reports.

The researchers gave high doses of the antihypertensive drug isradipine to rats addicted to cocaine or alcohol. Hitoshi Morikawa, an associate professor of neuroscience at The University of Texas at Austin, along with colleagues, trained rats to associate either a black or white room with the use of a drug, according to the article. Over time, the rats given isradipine no longer chose the room they associated with the addictive drug. The rats who didn’t receive the antihypertensive almost always choice the drug room. The findings suggest that the memories of addiction had disappeared entirely.

“The isradipine erased memories that led them to associate a certain room with cocaine or alcohol,” said Morikawa.

It may be possible to target the associations an addict has with the experience prior to the use of a drug. If isradipine can erase the unconscious memories that underlie addiction in humans, it would be a monumental advancement in addiction research.

“Addicts show up to the rehab center already addicted,” he said. “Many addicts want to quit, but their brains are already conditioned. This drug might help the addicted brain become de-addicted.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved isradipine, the article reports. Morikawa points out that clinical trials could begin in the near future.

The findings were published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

If you are or a love one are in the grips of a substance use disorder, please contact Harmony Foundation. We can help you build a foundation for recovery.
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Addiction and recovery news provided by Harmony Foundation

A Review of Medical Marijuana Research

Posted on by Christy Weeks

The need for a better understanding of marijuana’s medicinal properties is great, considering that more states are expected to adopt medical marijuana programs in the coming years. There are currently 23 states and the District of Columbia which have active medical marijuana programs. Such programs have brought on an increase in research involving the controversial drug. While each state is different regarding the acceptable health conditions for which marijuana can be recommended, new research suggests that cannabis works for treating some conditions better than others, Reuters reports.

A new review of previously conducted research, which included 80 randomized trials involving nearly 6,500 people, indicated moderate support for using cannabis to treat certain ailments, including chronic pain, muscle spasms and involuntary movements. However, the review did not show much support for using cannabis to treat:

  • Chemotherapy Induced Nausea and Vomiting
  • Sleep Disorders
  • HIV-Related Weight Loss
  • Tourette Syndrome

“As systematic reviewers, we have provided a summary of the available evidence which doctors can now use to make decisions regarding whether to prescribe cannabinoids for their patients,” said Penny Whiting of University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust in the UK.

Whiting points out that when considering the benefits of using marijuana to treat medical conditions, one must also consider the potential side effects which often accompany the drug, according to the article. Side effects which include:

  • Euphoria
  • Dry Mouth
  • Dizziness
  • Nausea
  • Sleepiness

“Individuals considering cannabinoids as a possible treatment for their symptoms should discuss the potential benefits and harms with their doctor,” said Whiting.

The research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

It is important to keep in mind that marijuana is a mind altering substance which carries with it the potential for addiction. If you find yourself struggling with cannabis, please do not hesitate to reach out for help.
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Addiction and recovery news provided by Harmony Foundation

Prescription Drug Overdose Deaths Rise in 26 States

Posted on by Christy Weeks

In a number of states, especially the ones hardest hit by prescription opioid abuse, drastic measure have been taken to curb the problem. While such efforts have shown promise, such as prescription drug monitoring programs and greater access to naloxone, many states are still seeing a rise in overdose deaths. New research suggests that the number of drug overdose deaths rose in 26 states between 2009 and 2013, Reuters reports. Only six states saw a decrease in overdose deaths during the same time period.

The study was conducted by the nonprofit group Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Their findings indicated that an estimated 44,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2013, a figure which is more than double the number found in 1999. Drug overdoses were responsible for more deaths in 36 states than motor vehicle-related deaths, according to the article.

In 2013, almost 52 percent of overdose deaths were related to prescription drugs. The two types of prescription drugs that were linked to the majority of overdoses were opioid painkillers and benzodiazepine anti-anxiety medications, such as OxyContin ® (oxycodone) and Xanax ® (alprazolam). The study found that more than 16,000 deaths were related to opioids and almost 7,000 were tied to benzodiazepines and sleep medications.

The report clearly shows the need for more access and training to the life saving overdose reversal drug naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan ®. There are 34 states and D.C. which have laws in place to expand access to, and use of, naloxone, according to the study. 

Prescription Drug Abuse Treatment 

If you are currently struggling with prescription drugs, and are need of help, please do not hesitate to contact Harmony Foundation to begin the journey of recovery. Harmony is a state-of-the-art, affordable, residential addiction treatment program located in the Rocky Mountains.
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Addiction and recovery news provided by Harmony Foundation

Prevalence of Alcohol Use Disorders in America

Posted on by Christy Weeks

In the United States, alcohol use disorders (AUDs) affect millions of people each year, more than any other mental health disorder. While alcohol is the most commonly used mind altering substance, the number of people with an AUD who actually seek help is quite low. New research suggests the between 2012-13 there were approximately 32.6 million people with AUDs, but only 7.7 percent sought treatment for their illness, JAMA Psychiatry reports.

 What is an Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD)?

The medical diagnosis of “alcohol use disorder” is given when problem drinking becomes severe. In order to be diagnosed as having AUD, individuals must meet certain criteria outlined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5). In the 5th edition some changes were made to the criteria of AUDs, including:

  • The elimination of separate abuse and dependence diagnoses.
  • The combination of the criteria into a single alcohol use disorder diagnosis.
  • The elimination of legal problems as an indicator.
  • The addition of craving to the criteria.
  • A diagnostic threshold of at least two criteria.
  • The establishment of a severity metric based on the criteria count, i.e. mild, moderate, or severe.

The Prevalence of AUDs in America

Researcher Bridget F. Grant, Ph.D., of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD., and coauthors analyzed data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC)-III, according to the article. The total sample size was 36,309 adults.

The researchers found that, under the DSM-5, the 12-month prevalence of AUDs was 13.9 percent and the lifetime prevalence was 29.1 percent. The finding represents approximately 32.6 million and 68.5 million adults, respectively. Only 7.7 percent of people with an AUD over a 12-month period sought treatment, and only 19.8 percent of adults with lifetime AUDs sought help.

Young Adults With AUDs

The study showed that the prevalence of AUDs was highest among male respondents (17.6 percent 12-month prevalence, 36 percent lifetime prevalence), as well as who those who were younger (26.7 percent 12-month prevalence, 37 percent lifetime prevalence).

“Most importantly, this study highlighted the urgency of educating the public and policy makers about AUD [alcohol use disorder] and its treatments, destigmatizing the disorder and encouraging among those who cannot reduce their alcohol consumption on their own, despite substantial harm to themselves and others, to seek treatment,” the study concludes.

Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment

If you are a young adult struggling with alcohol, and potentially meet the criteria of an alcohol use disorder, we encourage you to take a look at our Young Adult Recovery Track. Our program focuses on the specific needs of young people looking to find a new way of life through recovery.
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Addiction and recovery news provided by Harmony Foundation

Mixing Alcohol and Marijuana Increases THC Levels

Posted on by Christy Weeks

The legalization of recreational marijuana use in a number of states, including Colorado, has created a need for more research on the drug. Up until recently, there had been little research conducted on the effects of marijuana use, let alone on the effects of mixing alcohol and marijuana together – the two mind altering substances that are used together the most frequently.

New research suggests that when a person mixes alcohol and pot they show an increased amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in their blood, TIME reports. THC is the active ingredient in marijuana that is responsible for the euphoria that users experience.

The new study involved 19 people who drank alcohol or a placebo in low doses 10 minutes before they used marijuana in either a low or high dose. The researchers found that when a person drank alcohol, their blood concentration of THC was much higher, compared to when marijuana was smoked on its own, according to the article.

Previous research has shown that when alcohol and marijuana are mixed together, users are far more likely to get into a car accident. Teenagers who mixed the two substances were about 50 to 90 percent more likely to admit to unsafe driving, and they had higher rates of traffic tickets/warnings and car accidents. The new research may explain why that tends to be the case.

Mixing alcohol and marijuana is quite common among teenagers and young adults. In most cases, people are unaware that combining any two mind altering substances increases both intoxication and the risk of injury. While alcohol, and now marijuana in some states, are legal – it does not mean that they are always safe; both can lead to addiction.

The new research was published in Clinical Chemistry.
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If you are a young adult struggling with alcohol and marijuana use, we encourage you to take a look at our Young Adult Recovery Track. Our program focuses on the specific needs of young people looking to find a new way of life through recovery.

Addiction and recovery news provided by Harmony Foundation.