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Our news & announcements offer up-to-date information important and relative for us to share with you. We update often, so check back frequently. Past news and announcements are available in this archive.
06/06/2007 - Opioids and Addiction: A Wake-Up Call to Doctors
Although most people picture someone shooting heroin in a back alley when they think of a drug addict, the truth is a typical drug abuser could easily be your next-door neighbor, and he or she could be addicted to medication from the local pharmacy.
Prescription opioid use and dependence are at a record high and affect patients regardless of geographic location or socioeconomic status. Recent government reports show that nearly 4.4 million Americans abuse prescription painkillers, and that opioid painkillers are the fastest growing drugs of abuse among teenagers.
This new survey underscores the urgency of educating the public that, as a substance of abuse, prescription opioid painkillers are equivalent to heroin. Even though opioid painkillers such as oxycodone or morphine are appropriately prescribed to treat pain, their abuse affects the brain in the same way, and to the same extent, as heroin.
This issue has become so important to doctors that on March 5-6, 2007, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) sponsored a joint meeting in Maryland to present information on opioid prescribing, chronic pain and the increase in prescription drug abuse.
Prescription drugs can have great medical benefits when taken under the supervision of a physician. However, inappropriate use, co-occurring disorders such as depression and anxiety, or genetic predisposition can lead to addiction. Healthcare providers can play a role in identifying and preventing prescription drug abuse.
Many physicians avoid involving themselves in the treatment of addictive disorders because of poor education about addiction, limited opportunities to coordinate a patient's transition to recovery, and limited access to effective treatments.
However, office-based treatment is a major breakthrough in access to care, and holds the promise of integrating health-care needs and thus improving the quality of care.
In recent surveys, office-based opioid treatment was significantly better in patient satisfaction. Buprenorphine treatment reaches patients who are better educated, more likely to be employed, and more likely to have taken prescription opioids as their main drug of abuse when compared to methadone maintenance treatment.
Opioid addiction can profoundly impact a person's daily functioning. These lifestyle disturbances include repeated change in physicians; dishonesty; financial loss; depression; and family, job, and legal problems. These disturbances can leave patients feeling trapped with limited treatment options; however, buprenorphine treatment can dramatically reverse these disruptions within weeks or months. Few treatments are as immediately rewarding to physicians and patients. Clinical response, for instance, can occur much quicker than when selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are used to treat depression.
Buprenorphine is not a cure-all, however. It is important for physicians to understand that medications for addictive disorders generally are most effective when provided with counseling, which helps decrease the risk of relapse and addresses the effects of addiction.
Because the capacity to refer patients for counseling and ancillary services is a criterion for qualifying to prescribe buprenorphine, physicians are encouraged to cultivate relationships with addiction treatment physicians and self-help groups.
While opioid therapy is still surrounded by considerable controversy, buprenorphine has provided a much-needed opportunity for physicians and other healthcare providers to address addictive disorders with their patients.