OUR
PATIENTS
At Novus, a
significant number of our patients arrive with an
addiction problem that stems from a prescription
drug that was not bought on the street or in a
dark alley but was medically prescribed to treat
pain, anxiety, sleep disorders or obesity.
Our patients
became physically dependent on and addicted to
these drugs and continued to obtain and use these
drugs long after their original prescriptions
expired.
For many, they just kept going to other
doctors and getting new prescriptions. For
others, they found that the prescription drugs, or
illegal drugs in the same class, were available
for easy purchase.
A NATIONWIDE
PROBLEM
The non-medical use
or abuse of prescription drugs is not unique to
Novus but is reaching near-epidemic proportions
all over the country. According
to the Office of National Drug
Control Policy, Synthetic Drug Control Strategy: A
Focus on Methamphetamine and Prescription Drug
Abuse, May 2006, "Prescription drugs
account for the second most commonly abused
category of drugs, behind marijuana and ahead of
cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and other drugs.
(Emphasis added.)
Prescription drug abuse poses a unique
challenge because of the need to balance
prevention, education, and enforcement with the
need for legitimate access to controlled substance
prescription drugs."
The National
Institute on Drug Abuse's (NIDA) research report
Prescription Drugs: Abuse and
Addiction, August,
2005, states that there are three classes
of prescription drugs that are most commonly
abused:
- opioids, which are most often
prescribed to treat pain-examples include:
codeine, oxycodone (OxyContin and Percocet), and
morphine (Kadian and Avinza);
- central nervous system (CNS)
depressants, which are used to treat anxiety and
sleep disorders-examples include: barbiturates
(Mebaral and Nembutal) and benzodiazepines
(Valium and Xanax);
- stimulants, which are prescribed
to treat the sleep disorder narcolepsy,
attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),
and obesity-examples include: dextroamphetamine
(Dexedrine and Adderall) and methylphenidate
(Ritalin and
Concerta).
The rampant problem
of prescription drugs is not confined to just
adults.
According to the 2005 National
Survey on Drug Use and Health
(NSDUH), approximately 48.7 million
Americans aged 12 or older reported non-medical
use of any psychotherapeutic drug at some point in
their lifetimes, representing 20% of the
population aged 12 or older. Approximately 6.4
million Americans aged 12 or older reported
current (past month) use of psychotherapeutic
drugs for non-medical purposes, representing 2.6%
of the population. In this report,
psychotherapeutics includes any prescription-type
pain reliever, tranquilizer, stimulant, or
sedative but do not include over-the-counter
drugs.
Additional data
from the 2005 NSDUH show that 2.2 million people
aged 12 or older
initiated non-medical use of prescription pain
relievers within the past year.
Not surprisingly,
many of the people incarcerated in the United
States abused prescription drugs. According
to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics,
approximately 21.3% of State prisoners and 16.9%
of Federal prisoners surveyed in 2004 indicated
that they abused depressants at some point in
their lives. For this report, depressants were
defined to include barbiturates, tranquilizers and
Quaaludes.
There are serious
health risks to abusing prescription drugs. If someone
abuses opioids, narcotics or pain relievers, they
can find that their breathing is drastically
slowed or even stopped.
If someone is abusing
depressants, including benzodiazepines and other
tranquilizers, barbiturates and other sedatives,
they can suffer seizures, respiratory depression
and decreased heart rate.
A person abusing
stimulants often experiences a high body
temperature, irregular heart rate, cardiovascular
system failure and
seizure.
The
Drug
Abuse Warning Network
("DAWN") receives reports of emergency room
("ER") visits caused by the non-medical use of
legal drugs. Some of these ER visits were the
result of the deliberate abuse of prescribed or
legally obtained medications.
Interestingly enough, the numbers of ER
visits caused by accidental overdoses or adverse
reactions caused by prescription drugs that were
taken as directed by a physician are not
reportable to DAWN unless they are present in
combination with an illicit
drug.
During 2005, there
were an estimated 598,542 ER visits that involved
the non-medical use of prescription or over the
counter pharmaceuticals or dietary supplements.
CNS agents were involved in an estimated 305,973
ER visits and psychotherapeutic agents were
involved in an estimated 275,430
visits.
THE
SOLUTION
At Novus, we
specialize in assisting people safely withdraw
from unneeded and unwanted drugs and alcohol. If
you have questions about how Novus could help you
or someone you know, please call us at
800-505-6604 or visit us at www.novusdetox.com.
