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OUR RECENT PATIENTS: |
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Radio Show
Host:
They
all care about your situation and truly want you to get
better. The
food was great.
Steve and Paula are wonderful! JJ was
awesome.
Montana - thanks. All nurses, Jess
was great, Cate too. It was very
peaceful --
terrific.
I found people here who care about us, or people
like me.
I
realized that one day there is a light at the end of the
tunnel. I
realized I need to eat healthier and my body needs to be
healthier.
I have decided to keep trying
and moving on to the next step to complete my recovery
to bring back the real me. This place was a
great start at pushing me into the right direction of
being that good person. Thanks
Novus.
Student:
My stay at Novus was great. Wouldn't change
a thing.
Everyone was very helpful.
I've realized the things that I need
to change and now I'm ready to change. It's going to be
a long, hard road but I'm ready for the challenge.
I finally have the drugs out of
my system and now I'm ready to keep them out. I'm ready for a
new life and basically a new me. Being here has
made me realize all of the bad things I have done and I
no longer want to be a bad person. It's time for a
change.
Insurance
Salesman:
Wish I could give some constructive
criticism but I can't think of any area to improve. I'm gonna miss
the food!
The place is very neat, clean and
comfortable.
The biggest thing I realized during my
stay was the sheer number of friends I have been blessed
with. Your
staff healed my body and hundreds of friends came to my
rescue.
Humbling.
Life is worth living. God bless you
all!
Handyman:
You guys are wonderful. The food was
great. Thanks to Montana, J.J., Patty, Cate, Leigh and
everybody else who helped.
There is nothing in this world
that I could say to explain how I would thank them. These people are
wonderful. I'm just going
to make my life better in every way. Thank
you.
Business
Owner:
All
the nurses were great. The food is
5 on a 1-5 scale.
I understand how good you can feel without drugs
and that I am not alone with my problems.
I am not a bad person. It's just that I
made a few bad choices. There is a life
without drugs.
I see how useful the herbal medicines
are.
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NARCOTIC PAINKILLER
WITHDRAWAL
By Steve Hayes,
Director
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At Novus Medical Detox Center, an
increasing number of our patients are coming to us for
assistance in withdrawing from narcotic
painkillers. Most of these patients have attempted
to withdraw from narcotic painkillers or heroin on their
own. But a "cold turkey" withdrawal can be
extremely uncomfortable, painful and sometimes even
medically dangerous. Most who try to withdraw on
their own are unable to finish and are driven back to
taking the drug to which they are addicted.
There are
some definitions that are helpful.
The term dependent
is used to describe the phenomenon of a person who has
been taking narcotic painkillers and experiences
withdrawal symptoms when they try to stop taking the
drugs. People can become dependent because they
were given painkillers but took them for too long a
period, and often these people may not need to go for
further treatment because they are not
addicted.
The term addicted is
used when a person continues taking the narcotic
painkillers not just because they fear the pain of
withdrawal, which they will experience if they quit
taking them, but because of the way the painkillers make
them feel. Many describe this as a feeling of
euphoria, and the addicted person may still have pain
but primarily now craves the feeling and will do
anything to obtain the painkillers.
If the addicted
person does not receive further treatment after a
medical detox, most studies estimate that only five
percent will not get back on the
painkillers.
Of course, if a
person has a work-related injury and the pain is still
there after they have successfully withdrawn from the
painkillers, it is important that alternative
non-narcotic methods of dealing with the pain are
used. Otherwise, they will be driven to resume the
use of narcotics.
Many of our patients who were
injured and still had pain after their withdrawal have
experienced relief from therapists and non-drug pain
management doctors. We regularly work with some
very good ones and send our patients to see them. Some
patients state that they are now "pain-free" while
others just say that it provided them with real relief
and greatly lessened their pain.
OPIATE/OPIOID
Opiate refers to
drugs derived from the opium plant. Some examples
of opiates are morphine and codeine. Heroin is
made from the opium plant.
An opioid is a
synthetic chemical substance made by the drug companies
that has similar action in the body as that of
opiates. Examples of opioids are: methadone,
Percodan/Percocet, Lorcet, Lortab, Demerol, Vicodin,
OxyContin, Suboxone, Subutex and Dilaudid.
The human body
produces endorphins, natural hormones that the body uses
to block pain signals from the nervous system which
relieves pain. The word "endorphin" was created by
combining endogenous (something originating in an
organism) and morphine. Endorphins are protein
molecules that bind with receptors located in your
brain, spinal cord, and other nerve endings.
Everyone wants to
experience pleasure and not feel pain. This is
normal. The endorphins increase the feeling of
pleasure or at least a feeling of relief from
pain.
Endorphins are
naturally produced by a variety of activities such as
running, swimming, cycling, skiing, deep breathing, and
even laughter. Because of our different DNA and
metabolisms, the amount of endorphins produced by us and
what activity is required for their production
varies. For some people, they may start to feel
"high" after exercising for ten minutes, but others may
not get a similar feeling until they have exercised for
20 minutes or even longer.
Narcotic painkiller
receptors are molecules on the surfaces of cells to
which the narcotic painkillers attach and activate the
receptors to produce endorphins. Different types of
narcotic painkiller receptors are present in the brain.
The receptor most relevant to narcotic painkillers has
been named the "mu" receptor. (Receptors were named with
the first letter of the substance found to bind with
them. Morphine was the first substance so they named it
M but then changed it to Mu which is the 12th letter of
the Greek alphabet.) It is now believed that
through activation of the mu receptor, painkillers exert
their analgesic and addictive effects and their feelings
of euphoria. The roles of other types of opioid
receptors in the brain (that is, non-mu opioid
receptors, e.g. the kappa receptors) in the addictive
process are not as well-defined.
THE NARCOTIC WITHDRAWAL
PROCEDURE
If operated
properly, a medical detox facility can greatly ease the
discomfort of withdrawal from narcotic
painkillers.
At Novus we
recognize that each of us has different DNA and that our
metabolisms are not the same. We know that all
narcotic painkillers and most everything else we eat and
drink are metabolized through the P450 pathway in the
liver. We know that most narcotic painkillers are
metabolized with the CYP2D6 enzyme.
We know that as many
as 10% of the population doesn't even have this
enzyme. We also know that as many as 50% of the
population metabolize these painkillers either more
slowly than others or faster than normal.
We also know that the
painkillers are substitutes for the body's natural
activities. For example, the painkillers stimulate
the receptors to produce more endorphins. Most
people produce less of their own endorphins while taking
these painkillers.
Part of the
withdrawal process is the time it takes the patient to
again produce endorphins naturally, which is dictated by
the individual's DNA and is something which we carefully
monitor.
We know that people
withdraw from all drugs differently, and we modify our
withdrawal protocols for each person.
Between 60% and 70%
of our body is composed of water. All of our
organs are composed of cells which are largely
fluid. At Novus we find that most of our patients
who are dependent or addicted to painkillers are
dehydrated and are suffering from vitamin
deficiencies. We ensure that our patients are
hydrated properly and this, along with individually
designed withdrawal protocols, is a major reason that
our patients, who have detoxed before, comment that
their Novus detox was not only much faster but much more
comfortable.
One of the
medications that Novus uses is Suboxone®, which was
approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2002 and
is administered in tablet form. Only doctors
approved by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration, a department in the United
States Department of Health and Human Services, are
allowed to dispense
Suboxone®.
Suboxone®
contains buprenorphine, an opioid that triggers a
response in the body similar to the response triggered
by heroin, oxycodone, and morphine. However,
unlike heroin, OxyContin® and other frequently abused
narcotic painkillers, buprenorphine increases endorphin
production only to a certain point and then no longer
adds to the effect no matter how large the
dose.
An example would be
entering an elevator of a ten-story building. The
elevator requires you to press a code to go to each
floor. Oxycodone and heroin can take you to the
tenth floor. Suboxone will only take you to the
fourth floor-no matter how much you take.
Suboxone® also
contains naloxone which slows or prevents the triggering
of the receptors. If Suboxone® is not taken
under the tongue but crushed and injected into the
bloodstream, the naloxone will prevent the buprenorphine
from activating the narcotic painkiller receptors and
almost certainly cause the person to quickly go into a
painful withdrawal.
However, if the
Suboxone® tablet is placed under the tongue and allowed
to dissolve gradually, the buprenorphine effect
predominates, and very little naloxone reaches the
bloodstream, so what the patient feels are the effects
of the buprenorphine and an increase in endorphin
production.
Suboxone® comes in
two dosage forms: 2 mg buprenorphine/0.5 mg naloxone and
8 mg buprenorphine/2 mg naloxone. The Suboxone® drug
label is available on the FDA Web site at: http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/subutex_suboxone/default.htm
The medical staff must
determine when the opiate-addicted individual is ready
for the first dose of Suboxone® to be
administered. Here is the reason. If someone
who is dependent/addicted to painkillers is not in
withdrawal, this means that the painkillers are still
activating the receptors in the brain and causing it to
produce endorphins.
If you were to take
Suboxone® at this time it would go to the brain, seek
out the painkillers that were producing a certain amount
of endorphins, expel them from the receptors and
activate the receptors but to a much lower degree than
the painkillers. This results in a drastic drop in
endorphin production and is like falling from the tenth
floor to the fourth floor. This drop in endorphins
is what starts the withdrawal.
At Novus, using
hydration, natural supplements, good food and a
withdrawal protocol designed specifically for each
person, we ensure that the Suboxone® dose is properly
tapered so that the person's natural production of
endorphins increases as the Suboxone® is tapered
down. Our patients experience a much milder and
more comfortable withdrawal than at many other medical
detox centers. When they leave Novus Medical
Detox Center, they are off all unnecessary drugs.
If a patient is
dependent only and if we are able to help them address
any remaining pain, then the patient will likely be able
to resume their life without narcotic painkillers.
If a patient is addicted, then detox is only the first
step. 95% of the addicted people who don't get
further treatment resume taking their addicted substance
or one like
it.
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