Predicting stubborn
alcohol addiction: mood, motive may hold keys
It doesn't take stacks of research to demonstrate that medicating painful feelings with alcohol or drugs is a dangerous and ultimately futile strategy (although those studies do exist). But the relationship between emotional difficulties and alcohol addiction has always been a complex one, in a chicken-and-egg way: does alcohol -- a depressive agent -- make people who use it become depressed? Or are depressed people more likely to drink heavily to self-medicate, and then to become dependent on alcohol? Two new studies explore the links between mood and alcoholism in an effort to predict who becomes alcohol-dependent and which alcoholics are most likely to relapse. Read the rest here.
It doesn't take stacks of research to demonstrate that medicating painful feelings with alcohol or drugs is a dangerous and ultimately futile strategy (although those studies do exist). But the relationship between emotional difficulties and alcohol addiction has always been a complex one, in a chicken-and-egg way: does alcohol -- a depressive agent -- make people who use it become depressed? Or are depressed people more likely to drink heavily to self-medicate, and then to become dependent on alcohol? Two new studies explore the links between mood and alcoholism in an effort to predict who becomes alcohol-dependent and which alcoholics are most likely to relapse. Read the rest here.
Many Drug Companies
Creating Abuse-Resistant Painkillers
More than a dozen drug companies are working on
abuse-resistant painkillers, in the wake of the Food and Drug Administration’s
(FDA) decision last month not to approve any generic versions of the original
form of OxyContin.
The FDA also approved new labeling for a reformulated
version of the drug, which will indicate it is more difficult to crush, and
thus harder to abuse than the original version. The original version of
OxyContin could be crushed and then snorted or injected. OxyContin’s
manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, introduced a tamper-resistant formula in 2010. The
Wall Street Journal reports the FDA on Friday will consider the effectiveness
of another painkiller, Opana ER. If the FDA decides that drug deters abuse, it
could help guard Opana’s maker, Endo Pharmaceuticals, from competition, since
generic painkillers are not tamper-resistant. That would provide extra
incentive to create new painkillers that are resistant to abuse, the article
notes. Opana turns into a jellylike substance when it is heated up for
injection. Pfizer has two potential new abuse-resistant drugs: Remoxy, which
would compete with OxyContin, and Embeda, a morphine drug. Johnson &
Johnson is testing an opioid drug that is tamper-resistant, while Purdue Pharma
hopes to produce a hydrocodone drug that is resistant to abuse. “Over time, it
should be a scientific race across the whole pharmaceutical industry to create
a market where all opioids have abuse-deterrent properties,” Gary L. Stiles,
Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Purdue Pharma, told the
newspaper. Smaller biotech companies are developing their own tamper-resistant
formulas. One company has created pills that are so hard, that they chip a
coffee grinder’s blades when someone tries to use the device to break down the
pills.
Law Enforcement Has Few
Tools to Crack Down on Nitrous Oxide Abuse
Law enforcement officials who are trying to crack down on
the growing problem of nitrous oxide abuse have limited options to punish
people who sell the gas to those who use it to get high, the Los Angeles Daily
News reports. Nitrous oxide, or “nozz,” is a prescription drug inhaled by
recreational users to get high, usually from balloons filled from large
cylinders. It is also sold as a product to improve car performance. According
to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California,
the drug can cause many significant and debilitating side effects, including,
in extreme cases, death. In a news release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office notes,
“during the past year, several teens in the Los Angeles region have been killed
in car accidents linked to the use of nitrous oxide, and acts of violence have
been associated with the inhalation or sale of the drug, according to court
documents.” The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department says sales of nitrous oxide as
a drug have dramatically increased in Southern California over the past five
years. A person selling nitrous oxide used by someone to get high can be
charged with a misdemeanor violation of the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act,
which carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and up to a $100,000
fine. While possessing nitrous oxide with the intent to ingest it for
non-medical or dental reasons is a misdemeanor in California, intent is
difficult to prove, the article notes. In 2009, the state passed a law that
makes it a misdemeanor to sell nitrous oxide to a minor. Southern California
officials say the problem is increasing. “I had hoped it would dissipate,” said
Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Veronica De Alba. “But it just seems to be
getting bigger.”
Latest Prescription Drug
Take-Back Day Yields 50% More Pills Than Previous Event
Fifty percent more pills were collected during the latest
National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, compared with the previous event in
2012, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced. The agency said
742,497 pounds of prescription medications were collected from almost 6,000
sites around the country on April 27, UPI reports. More than 2.8 million pounds
of prescription medications have been removed from circulation during the six
national take-back days the DEA has sponsored. The events are designed to
provide a safe, convenient and responsible way for people to dispose of their
unwanted or expired medications, while educating the public about the potential
for abuse of prescription drugs. According to the 2011 Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health,
twice as many Americans regularly abused prescription drugs than the number of
those who regularly used cocaine, hallucinogens, heroin, and inhalants
combined, the DEA noted in a news release. More than 70 percent of people
abusing prescription pain relievers say they obtained them through friends or
relatives, including the family medicine cabinet.
All My Friends Are Dead
Five years off Adderall and Dexedrine and I’m still in withdrawal.
Months of yoga, years of therapy, meditating each morning—everything helps, but nothing helps completely. Every time I sit down to do work I have pain in my chest. I feel like I’ve somehow made a wrong turn in life. I miss the amphetamine salts. Drugs made me less productive and less healthy, but at least I felt better in my decline than I do in my current state. My new life started in 10th grade at a desk in my science class in my public school on the Upper West Side of New York City. I remember the exact moment the Ritalin kicked in. I became more focused, not on the teacher, but on the wood leg of the granite lab table that I sat at. I noticed the grain, the imperfections, the dark circles where students had left gum that’d then been removed by janitors. Read the rest here.
Months of yoga, years of therapy, meditating each morning—everything helps, but nothing helps completely. Every time I sit down to do work I have pain in my chest. I feel like I’ve somehow made a wrong turn in life. I miss the amphetamine salts. Drugs made me less productive and less healthy, but at least I felt better in my decline than I do in my current state. My new life started in 10th grade at a desk in my science class in my public school on the Upper West Side of New York City. I remember the exact moment the Ritalin kicked in. I became more focused, not on the teacher, but on the wood leg of the granite lab table that I sat at. I noticed the grain, the imperfections, the dark circles where students had left gum that’d then been removed by janitors. Read the rest here.
Screening Alone Garners
Long-term Reduction in Alcohol Use
Screening alone for alcohol use appears to garner long-term
reductions in drinking frequency as well as binge drinking, new research show.
Investigators found that a control group that received alcohol assessment only,
with no therapeutic intervention, had reduced alcohol consumption 6 months
later and that this effect persisted at 30-month follow-up. Continue reading here.
Clinton and Kelly declare
war on prescription drug abuse
Former President Bill Clinton joined the fight against
prescription drug abuse Monday, vowing to cut within five years the number of
senseless deaths caused by overdoses. "We have lost the balance between
the legitimate use of pain medicine and the systematic abuse or misuse of
it," Clinton said during a NYU panel discussion that included Police
Commissioner Raymond Kelly and NYU President John Sexton. The Clinton
Foundation initiative is especially aimed at 18- to 26-year-olds who abuse
prescription drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin or stimulants such as Adderall. Read
the rest here.
Chronic Pain Program
Focuses on Education for Patients with Addiction
The Neurological Center for Pain’s Chronic Pain
Rehabilitation Program (CPRP) at the Cleveland Clinic has created a Chemical
Education Track designed specifically for patients with chronic non-cancer pain
who also have a therapeutic opioid addiction. Initial results are promising.
Patients who complete the program report low opioid resumption rates 12 months
after they complete the program. They also report sustained improvements in
pain severity, mood and pain-related functional impairment. Continue
reading here.
Leading Nonprofit Reveals
Top Five Reasons Why More Moms Turn to Alcohol and Drugs
The pressures on mothers today are extraordinary. Experts
share tips daily on how to “be a better mom” and “have it all.” While this
wealth of information can be valuable, it also sets an impossible standard for
mothers to achieve. Society’s focus on perfectionism also puts more mothers at
risk of developing destructive coping mechanisms – the most common of which is
drug and alcohol abuse. A recent survey conducted by Caron Treatment Centers, a
nationally recognized non-profit provider of alcohol and drug addiction
treatment, found the top five contributing factors to addiction for mothers are
stress or anxiety, romantic relationships, pressure from family or friends,
traumatic experience and a general feeling of boredom. Click
here to read the rest of this story.
Hospitals need
to test physicians for drug and alcohol use to improve patient safety
To improve patient safety,
hospitals should randomly test physicians for drug and alcohol use in much the
same way other major industries in the United States do to protect their
customers.
The recommendation comes from two
Johns Hopkins physicians and patient safety experts in a commentary published
online April 29 in The Journal of the American Medical Association. Click
here for more.
Synthetic Marijuana Use
Leads to Dangerous Symptoms in Pregnant Woman
Synthetic marijuana use during pregnancy can lead to
symptoms similar to those caused by dangerous conditions known as preeclampsia
and eclampsia, California doctors report. Preeclampsia is marked by high blood
pressure and a high level of protein in the urine. It can lead to eclampsia,
which can cause a pregnant woman to develop seizures or coma, and in rare cases
is fatal. At the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists annual
meeting, the doctors this week described the case of a woman who said she was
about 35 weeks pregnant, who suffered a seizure and appeared agitated. She had
high blood pressure and protein in her urine, so the doctors treated her for
eclampsia, HealthDay reports. They performed an emergency cesarean section
because the baby was in distress. The woman screened negative for drugs, but an
anonymous caller reported the woman regularly smoked Spice Gold, a type of
synthetic marijuana. Spice Gold cannot be detected with a standard urine test.
The baby tested negative for drugs. The woman required psychiatric care for
psychotic behavior the day after delivery. “This was not a pregnancy problem
but a drug problem,” Dr. Cindy Lee said in a news release. “Eclampsia is cured
with delivery of the baby, but she did not get better after delivery.” The
doctors noted obstetricians and gynecologists should be aware of emerging
drugs, and consider the possibility patients may be taking them when making a
diagnosis.
Schools Take On Social
Work Amid High Unemployment, Drug Abuse
When school started this fall in this sparsely populated
rural area at West Virginia's southern tip, 1 of 7 classrooms was without a
teacher because leaders couldn't recruit enough educators. When officials
turned on the mandatory security cameras at one elementary school, the rest of
the building lost its Internet connection because it wasn't wired for this
century. When it came time for parent-teacher conferences, fewer than half of
the biological parents got invitations because the others were long gone, in
jail or dead. This is the reality facing students in McDowell County, a place
perpetually ranked among the worst in the state by almost every measure. Every
month, 12 people die from drug overdoses here, while more than 100 people are
on a waiting list to talk to rehab counselors via Skype. Continue
reading here.
Programs Can Lower Substance
Abuse Rates in Young Adults with Mental Health Issues
Older teens and young adults with mental health issues who participate in community-based treatment programs report lower levels of substance use disorders, a new government report finds. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) says young adults ages 18 to 25 who take part in community-based treatment programs supported by the agency achieve positive outcomes in behavioral and emotional health, employment, school enrollment, daily life skills and reduced homelessness. SAMHSA notes 20 percent of young adults in the United States had a mental health condition last year, according to Medical News Today. More than 1.3 million had a disorder that interfered with their ability to function in daily life. Among participants in SAMHSA’s adolescent substance abuse treatment programs, over an eight-month period, there was an 80 percent increase in the number of young adults who were living in the community, a 34 percent decrease in the number who reported experiencing mental health concerns, such as depression and anxiety, and a 10 percent increase in the number who were enrolled in school or working. The report found among young adults who took part in SAMHSA-sponsored programs, 28 percent showed notable improvement in behavioral and emotional health within six months, and 38 percent showed considerable improvement within a year. In SAMHSA’s Pregnant and Postpartum Women program, 86 percent of young adults reported no substance use after six months of treatment, compared with 40 percent of those entering the program, and 29 percent reported being employed or in school, compared with 13 percent of those entering the program. “These data show that treatment is effective. Young people who experience mental or substance use disorders can recover and lead healthy, productive lives with improvements in employment opportunities, housing, education and emotional well-being,” SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde said in a news release.
Older teens and young adults with mental health issues who participate in community-based treatment programs report lower levels of substance use disorders, a new government report finds. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) says young adults ages 18 to 25 who take part in community-based treatment programs supported by the agency achieve positive outcomes in behavioral and emotional health, employment, school enrollment, daily life skills and reduced homelessness. SAMHSA notes 20 percent of young adults in the United States had a mental health condition last year, according to Medical News Today. More than 1.3 million had a disorder that interfered with their ability to function in daily life. Among participants in SAMHSA’s adolescent substance abuse treatment programs, over an eight-month period, there was an 80 percent increase in the number of young adults who were living in the community, a 34 percent decrease in the number who reported experiencing mental health concerns, such as depression and anxiety, and a 10 percent increase in the number who were enrolled in school or working. The report found among young adults who took part in SAMHSA-sponsored programs, 28 percent showed notable improvement in behavioral and emotional health within six months, and 38 percent showed considerable improvement within a year. In SAMHSA’s Pregnant and Postpartum Women program, 86 percent of young adults reported no substance use after six months of treatment, compared with 40 percent of those entering the program, and 29 percent reported being employed or in school, compared with 13 percent of those entering the program. “These data show that treatment is effective. Young people who experience mental or substance use disorders can recover and lead healthy, productive lives with improvements in employment opportunities, housing, education and emotional well-being,” SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde said in a news release.
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