Wednesday 13 August 2014

Are we creating a new form of drug addiction?


The abuse of medications prescribed to replace the drug of choice and help stave off an addiction — treatments in the form of buprehorphine, methadone and Suboxone —have the potential to further the addiction of the drug addict and alcoholic.  The big question, yet to be determined, is whether the addict in Drug Treatment Florida, Drug Rehab Florida, Drug and Alcohol treatment Florida, Alcohol Rehab Center Florida is actually recovering from addiction via the use of these potentially addictive drugs? 
Buprenorphine
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Pharmacies dispensed enough painkillers last year to keep every American adult medicated around the clock for a month, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An estimated two million Americans are addicted to the prescription opioids. Of that number, 800,000 are currently receiving treatment…”
Buprenorphine helps ease opioid withdrawal symptoms, but many forms are not yet approved by the FDA. Some forms are commonly being sold on the black market so abusers can get high by crushing or injecting the drug, since buprehorphine contains a small dose of opioids to help mimic the effects of painkillers.
“Stuart Gitlow, acting president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, said that in order to prescribe Suboxone, the brand name for the best-selling version of buprenorphine, he is limited by Drug Enforcement Administration rules to treating 100 patients, even though he has a waiting list for the drug about the same size.”
Suboxone
Buprenorphine is often sold under the trade name Suboxone.  This was the first narcotic drug, officially approved by the FDA in 2002, which physicians could utilize for opioid addiction.  It’s been considered “better” than Methadone in blocking opiate receptors in the brain, keeping away withdrawal symptoms while preventing its own addiction; however, in Kentucky, law enforcement and community groups say” the number of Suboxone investigations are approaching those for oxycodone or hydrocodone.”  This is potentially a real issue for Drug Treatment Florida, Drug Rehab Florida, Drug and Alcohol treatment Florida, Alcohol Rehab Center Florida. 
Methadone
Methadone is a slow-release drug with ingredients that can build up in the body and produce dangerous symptoms, also used to replace painkillers and heroine addiction. However, it’s become a cheap alternative to oxycodone for treating chronic pain — which has made the drug more widely available, thus helping it end up on the black market for addicts to abuse. Methadone”now causes 30% of prescription painkiller deaths, putting it second behind painkilling drugs containing oxycodone, according to the CDC.”
USA Today reported, “Methadone has long been viewed as a relatively safe and effective narcotic, in part because its effects are gradual and it can ease withdrawal symptoms for recovering heroin addicts. However, it also is addictive, and drug addicts account for most methadone-related deaths.” Please read more for more info at: http://outpatientdrugrehabflorida.com/our-treatments/

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