Southcoastrecovery

Opiates (oxycontin, vicodin, codeine, darvocet, demerol, fentanyl, heroin, morphine) and benzodiazepines (valium, xanax, klonopin) are the new drugs of choice for America’s youth and we have seen a huge increased in admission to our treatment facility listing opiates, benzodiazepines or some combination of opiates with other drugs as their primary addiction. Noticing this increase led our team to develop a specialized treatment protocol to more effectively treat this type of addiction. On June 1, 2007, our first client was admitted to our prescription drug rehab program with promising results. The new program works like this:It is the experience of Southcoast recovery that prescription drug addiction needs to be approached in a very particular way. Due to the long acting physical and psychological effects of heroin, oxycontin, xanax, valim and klonopin and prescription medication of all kinds, South Coast Recovery has developed a unique treatment program for people addicted to these types of drugs. Prescription drug users have a very high relapse rate during the early states of recovery due to the physical pain of withdrawal and easy access involved. The body has cravings that the brain interprets as a signal that the body is in pain. Doctors prescribe these medications to almost anyone. Our prescription drug treatment program recommends that the client to be prescribed medications that decrease this level of pain for the first 10-14 days. These analgesic drugs (suboxone or naltrexone) block the transmission of pain messages to the brain thereby decreasing the level of pain. We have experienced a 88% success rate during the first two weeks of recovery using this method versus a 22% success rate using no opiate blockers.Southcoast recovery has treated prescritption medication addictions for over 14 years. The first stage is to physically stabilize the person. We refer our clients to an addiction medicine specialist for evaluation and opiate blocking medications, if necessary. Detox doesn’t have to be painful. With the addition of a state-licensed detox, clients are now admitted to a Southcoast residential home specifically designed for medically supervised drug detox. “The addition of our detox facility is an exciting venture,” says Executive Director, Dennis Larkin. “We’re thrilled to be able to offer this component as another layer of support to our clients.”This process doesn’t have to be painful. With the addition of its state-licensed, medically supervised detox program, Southcoast recovery is now equipped to handle all stages of the recovery process. This personal attention allows clients to comfortably progress to the next level of recovery.Once a person is stabilized and has an opiate blocker medication, the learning begins. Each client is evaluated by our psychologist, Dr. Robert Buley, to identify issues and goals. Our marriage and family therapist identifies relationship and family issues. Our addiction treatment specialists give individual attention and evaluation. Once the person is properly evaluated, a treatment plan is developed which ensures the best possibility of success. The root of the problem is identified and treated through individual and group sessions.Southcoast recovery, founded by Dennis Larkin, a former drug addict himself, is a residential drug rehab center with an extended treatment transitional program. The program lasts from 30 days to one year, depending on one’s progress, and includes 30 people at a time working with 14 staff members. Most get jobs while in the program. The desire to become sober and the willingness to stop using all mind-altering chemical substances are the most important — and therefore the first essential steps on the road to recovery

Every day across America, nearly a million American kids age 12 to 17 abuse a pain reliever for the very first time just to get high. If you do the math, that’s nearly a million kids a year risking their lives — or at the very least, risking a life interrupted or ruined by prescription drug addiction. Teenagers are abusing more prescription and over-the-counter drugs than all illegal and illicit drugs except marijuana, according to federal statistics. In 2006, more than 2.1 million teens ages 12 to 17 reported abusing prescription drugs. And kids as young as 12 and 13 told researchers that prescription drugs are their “drug of choice.” The drugs that lead to prescription drug addiction for thousands of these young people are powerful narcotic painkillers like OxyContin, Vicodin and Percocet. These are the heroin-in-a-pill type drugs that can cause breathing collapse and coma, that have led to tens of thousands of cases of prescription drug addiction across the country. OxyContins were responsible in part for the death of actor Heath Ledger, and literally thousands of other “just plain folks” across the country in recent years. Anti-anxiety drugs and depressants, especially the benzodiazepine drugs — Xanax is a popular brand, as are Valium, Librium and many others — are particularly dangerous. They rapidly create dependencies that can lead to prescription drug addiction — some people are hooked after just a day or two on Xanax — and they are really difficult to get off of safely. And benzos can cause death when mixed with other drugs or alcohol. Stimulants are another type of drug that kids are abusing to get a buzz, particularly the kinds prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Adderall and Ritalin are two of the most abused, and these, because of their side effects, are basically cocaine-in-a-pill. Kids are trading and selling their ADHD prescription drugs with other kids, and stupidly risking their friends’ lives. Speed drugs can cause seriously abnormal heart rhythms, seizures and death. Meanwhile, a recent University of Texas study showed conclusively that methylphenidate, the active ingredient in Ritalin, causes chromosomal damage — the organized structures of DNA in our cells. No one has a clue yet what damage that will do long-term, but messing with someone’s DNA can’t be harmless. But while that research continues, millions of parents keep feeding these drugs to children. It’s time for a reassessment. Teens are also abusing over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, such as cough and cold remedies, which contain dextromethorphan and other drugs which are, like those prescription drugs, extremely deadly when combined with other drugs or with alcohol. OTC drugs can cause blurred vision, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, coma, and even death. And they’re a stepping stone to prescription drug addiction, too. Thousands of kids wind up in hospital emergency wards every year fighting for their lives because they overdosed on prescription or OTC drugs mixed with alcohol — all for fun! These drugs are readily available from home medicine cabinets or from friends, and even from on-line pharmacies. A lot of kids still think they’re a safer way to get high than street drugs, and many of them who wouldn’t touch cocaine or heroin don’t realize they are abusing almost identical drugs, and risking prescription drug addiction or death. What’s needed is for parents to start talking to their kids, and to clearly spell out all the very real dangers of prescription and OTC drugs. And they need to show strong disapproval of drug experimentation and abuse, and create and enforce anti-drug rules. Parents need to be firm, but they need their kids to understand that rules are to protect them — kids should be healthy, not in the morgue with a tag on their toe or in medical drug detox recovering from addiction.

People assume that if a drug is approved by the FDA, it’s safe. Obviously that’s not the case. If it were, we wouldn’t be facing a prescription drug addiction and abuse epidemic. What many people don’t understand is how the FDA works. If you want to avoid the possibility of prescription drug addiction, it would be a good idea to understand exactly what the criteria are for FDA approval. Prior to submitting a drug for approval, studies are done on cells and animals. If there are no disasters, studies begin on humans. The first studies, Phase I of the clinical trials, are usually done on between 20 and 80 people. If the drug shows promise, Phase II begins. More people are usually tested in Phase II, but it may be only about 100. If Phase II also shows promise, Phase III is begun. This phase may involve several hundred people, or several thousand. While each step enables scientists to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the drugs, researchers are supposed to determine how a drug will effect the general population in Phase III. After Phase III, the benefits of the drug are compared to the risks, including the possibility of prescription drug addiction, and if the benefits are deemed to justify the risks, the drug is approved by the FDA and is made broadly available. But it is only approved for the specific conditions it was designed to treat, at specific dosages, and may have other guidelines such as warnings to not take the drug under certain conditions. The drug company is then free to market the drug and Phase IV begins. While Phase IV no longer requires clinical trials, it is a period of surveillance and adverse reactions are supposed to be reported. Only in Phase IV do we actually get an idea of what effects the drug will have when taken long-term and by patients who, while they may have the condition on which the drug has been tested, may also have other conditions not included in the clinical trials. Doctors may, at this point, also recommend the drug for things other than which it was approved, called off-label prescribing, although it’s illegal for drug companies to do off-label marketing. So, why don’t we find out about things like the possibility of prescription drug addiction, hearts attacks or strokes, and a number of other side effects during this procedure? In some cases, like OxyContin, the drug’s manufacturer lies to or withholds information from the FDA and the public – for which OxyContin’s manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, paid a fine of $634 million. The drug has been tested on relatively few people - perhaps only hundreds - compared to the millions who may eventually take it. Many people may have conditions that were not represented in the clinical trials. The drugs are prescribed off-label – given to people with conditions for which the drug has never been tested. The drugs may not have been tested in combination with other drugs the patient may be taking. Drug combinations are often the cause of death with prescription drugs. Only about 1 to 10% of the adverse effects of a drug are reported by the public and doctors to the FDA. Consequently, it can take a long time for the FDA to realize there’s a problem – prescription drug addiction being only one of the many problems that may occur – and pull the drug off the market or issue warnings about it. Prescription drug addiction may go unrecognized as such by the person taking the drug. Those who do realize they have a problem may fail to report it since many people don’t want to admit they have a prescription drug addiction, as with addiction to other drugs. These are not the only reasons why things like prescription drug addiction go undetected by the powers that be for long periods of time but, all in all, the system is flawed. If you suspect that you or someone you care about could have a problem with prescription drug addiction, ask your doctor or a drug addiction specialist to find out more about it. A drug addiction treatment center may be in order.