Thousands of Addicts Face Involuntary Withdrawal

By Prithi Yelaja, CBC News
The move to replace the prescription painkiller OxyContin with a newer formulation less prone to misuse won’t solve the crisis of widespread abuse, experts say, unless there is additional training for physicians and treatment for addicts.

Following a similar move in the U.S. in 2010, Purdue Pharma will stop manufacturing OxyContin in Canada and replace it —starting Thursday — with OxyNeo pills, which have been treated to make them extremely difficult to break down.  » More

By Dr. Frieden
Thirty years ago, I attended medical school in New York. In the key lecture on pain management, the professor told us confidently that patients who received prescription narcotics for pain would not become addicted.

While pain management remains an essential patient right, a generation of health care professionals, patients, and families have learned the hard way how deeply misguided that assertion was. Narcotics - both illegal and legal - are dangerous drugs that can destroy lives and communities.

Millions of Americans struggle with substance abuse. Across the United States, overdoses involving opioid painkillers - a class of drugs with narcotic effects that includes hydrocodone, methadone, oxycodone - have skyrocketed in the past decade.  » More

By J.T. Junig, MD, PhD
I appreciate the feedback to my last post.  I had no doubt that the thoughts expressed in the original letter would ring such a chord, as I hear similar comments on a daily basis.  For people new to my blog this week, please review the letter in last week’s post, as that is where I’m starting today.

I had the same ‘love at first site’ reaction to opioids described by many people who become addicted.  My addiction began with a relatively weak opioid — codeine —but I still remember lying in bed as the effects of the substance drifted over me, easing the life-long depression that I had long accepted as ‘just how things are.’  » More

Doctors need access to education and training programs that are free of industry bias.

By Andrew Kolodny; President of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing and chairman of the department of psychiatry at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City

Doctors have contributed to an epidemic of overdose deaths and addiction by overprescribing opioids. We didn’t do this out of malicious intent. For most of us, it was a desire to treat pain more compassionately that led to overprescribing. To bring this public health crisis under control, doctors must prescribe more cautiously.

In response to an industry-funded campaign, sales for opioids increased exponentially. Doctors were taught that unrealistic fear of addiction was resulting in needless suffering and that opioids would provide long-term relief of chronic pain. Doctors were misinformed.  » More

By Abby Callard
In April 2011, the Office of National Drug Control Policy declared the American opioid abuse problem an epidemic. Robert Saenz, CEO of Tulsa Pain Consultants, president of VIP Medical Consulting and former Federal agent, says physicians need to be more vigilant than ever because they are going to be held more accountable.

"Because of this epidemic, doctors need to be aware that there's a crisis," he says. "The federal government is looking at this, and they're going to hold physicians a lot more accountable than before because there's going to be more resources to do that."  » More

By Rick Nauert, PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
Mood Disorders Up Risk of Opioid AbuseResearchers have discovered that people suffering from mood and anxiety disorders are more likely to use and abuse non-prescription opioids.

The illnesses associated with abuse of opioids include bipolar disorder, panic disorder and major depression. Mood disorders in general heighten the risk for substance abuse. In this study,  investigators made a distinction between prescription opioids commonly used for treatment of chronic and acute pain and opioid use that occurs absent a prescription. » More