Locking Them Up

According to the Centers for Disease Control, almost 15,000 people die from an overdose of prescription painkillers every year. That’s more than the number of cocaine and heroin overdoses put together. What can be done to prevent more deaths from prescription painkiller misuse? A group of engineering students at Brigham Young University came up with a solution.

The invention is called Med Vault and it’s designed to replace the standard pill bottle. The device is tamper-proof. It’s connected to a computer when a pharmacist loads it. Then he or she programs the doctor’s orders so the Med Vault can dispense its contents on a schedule.

Safety First

Med Vault is equipped with a password protected system, so a child or someone other than the patient won’t have access to the pills. Even though Med Vault cannot be broken, it can still sustain damage. It can be used for refills, so if the pharmacist notices dents or other signs of tampering, it would raise a red flag for drug abuse.

What About Other Drugs?

The invention of Med Vault may have people thinking: Can other drugs be electronically dispensed in the future? This probably won’t happen for emergency medicine. If you need nitroglycerin for chest pain, using this kind of prescription bottle is a risk. If it malfunctions, that critical pill may not be released.

What do you think of electronic pill dispensing? Would it help chronic pain patients avoid addiction? Share your thoughts below or on our Lakeview Heath System’s Facebook page.

Suboxone Treatment is a Comfortable Opiate Detox

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were 14,800 prescription painkiller deaths in 2008. In about half of those deaths, the painkiller was used in combination with some other drug such as, alcohol, benzodiazepines and/or cocaine. The CDC also reports that drug overdose death rates from painkillers have tripled since the 1990’s. This is probably in correlation with the pain clinic explosion.

Opiate addiction has grown in popularity, especially with all the crooked pain clinics handing out prescriptions freely. Unfortunately, the cost of up keeping an OxyContin addiction is costing more money than trusty heroin. Many people who suffer from chronic pain and/or addiction are turning to cheaper street heroin for their continued supply. With the increase in opiate addicts, drug rehab centers are offering Suboxone treatment for opiate addiction to comfortably detox addicts.

Suboxone is the combination of buprenorphine and naloxone which assists in comfortably withdrawing an addict from opiates. Lakeview Health Systems offers Suboxone in a sublingual film which is given under a nurse’s supervision. The film form of this medication also makes it more difficult for addicts to abuse when they are not in a residential drug rehab facility. The primary use of Suboxone is to assist with opiate withdrawal, reducing the chances of relapse before the addict finishes with detox. Suboxone should only be taken under medical supervision of an addictionologist.

Drug abuse in Ohio has been an ongoing problem for many years. Recently, authorities have seen an increase in people using heroin in place of opiate medications such as OxyContin. Even more disturbing is the state reports that 13 year olds are using heroin instead of prescription pain medicine. Why is this epidemic happening in Ohio resulting in more adolescent drug abuse?

Heroin Easily Substituted for Expensive Pain Meds

Ohio’s Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services reports that Ohio is experiencing “crisis of unparalleled proportions,” regarding opiate abuse. Many children are finding prescription opiates in the form of OxyContin in their parent’s medicine cabinets. Doctors prescribe this most commonly abused drug for almost all pain inducing issues: dental, surgery, muscle or joint pain, etc. The freely prescribed drug becomes easy to access for teens and also makes ‘doctor shopping’ for prescriptions rather easy for addicts too.

Pain clinics have been targeted due to the national epidemic and crackdown on prescription drug addiction. Programs have been implemented to monitor doctors and decrease the distribution of unnecessary medications. MSNBC did a news report indicating that prescription opiates sell from $30 to $80 dollars a pill while a $10 bag of heroin offers a similar or better high. After opiate addiction has developed, the addict finds that it’s cheaper to use heroin than pharmaceutical forms of opiates.

Ohio may need to implement more education within the school system regarding drug addiction. In addition, parental education may be needed regarding addictive medications left in medicine cabinets that their children are gaining access to.

Opiates are the number one killer in Vermont

Vermont is experiencing an opiate epidemic. Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn comments, “Opiates are the biggest killer in Vermont. Last year, more people died in Vermont from opiates than from automobile crashes and murders combined.” He also reports that in 2010, 99 people died in Vermont from prescription pain killers and heroin overdoses.

As a result, Vermont is now looking at the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. This program is a universal database where all doctors will be monitored regarding dispensing medication. Additionally, it will also track patients who participate in doctor shopping to fuel their prescription drug addiction.

As opiate prescriptions are being monitored more closely and becoming more costly, people are turning to heroin. Chadd Lackey, a lawyer with the New Jersey State Commission, commented that people are switching to heroin because it is cheaper and a more potent alternative. He also remarks that heroin dealers are moving more towards suburban areas and are dealing drugs in Wal-Mart parking lots.

Addiction is a disease that progresses in such a way where you end up doing things you’d thought you’d never do. I am almost certain that those individuals who started out taking opiates in pill form thought they would never be buying heroin during their weekly shopping with their family.