What Doctors May Miss

It's not suprising for doctors to miss signs of addiction especially if the patient is not intoxicated at the time of inspection. This is why treatment centers can be so much more powerful than doctors and dual diagnosis can be a better tool. 

"Doctors often miss alcohol problems in their patients who are not intoxicated at the time of their visit, a new study finds.

The researchers analyzed studies that included a total of 20,000 patients assessed for alcohol problems by medical staff.  They found general practitioners identified 40 percent of problem drinkers, hospital physicians recognized 50 percent, and mental health specialists identified 55 percent, Science Daily reports.

“This study highlights that clinical identification of alcohol problems is challenging in busy clinical environments,” lead researcher Dr. Alex J. Mitchell of the University of Leicester in Great Britain, said in a news release. “When clinicians try and spot alcohol problems they often miss patients who have serious alcohol problems but who are not currently intoxicated.”

He noted that doctors are not always sure what questions to ask patients, or what screening tests to use. He added that in general, patients with alcohol problems admitted to them when asked.

The study appears in the British Journal of Psychiatry."

Source: http://www.drugfree.org/join-together/alcohol/alcohol-problems-often-missed-b...

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New Study Finds OxyContin Use Decreases

Though it may sound like good news at first if you take a look at the report you will find that OxyContin use has decreased, but Heroin is increasing. I'm looking forward to finding out the percentage of people that actually go to a treatment center after taking these drugs. 

"A new study finds that OxyContin abuse has decreased now that the painkiller has been reformulated to make it more difficult to misuse. Many people who abused the drug have switched to heroin, the researchers report in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine.

The study included more than 2,500 people who were dependent on opioids, who were followed between July 2009 and March 2012. During that time, there was a 17 percent decrease in OxyContin abuse. In 2010, the company that makes OxyContin introduced a new version of the drug that is more difficult to inhale or inject.

During the same period, heroin abuse doubled, ABC News reports.

“I think the message we have to take away from this is that there are both anticipated consequences and unanticipated consequences to these new formulas,” lead researcher Theodore Cicero of Washington University in St. Louis said. “Substance abuse is like a balloon: If you press in one spot, it bulges in another.”

The study found almost one-fourth of participants were able to abuse OxyContin despite the reformulation, and 66 percent switched to heroin. The article notes that a small bag of heroin can cost as little as $5, compared with an 80-milligram dose of OxyContin, which can cost up to $80 on the street.

“Our data show that an abuse-deterrent formulation successfully reduced abuse of a specific drug but also generated an unanticipated outcome: replacement of the abuse-deterrent formulation with alternative opioid medications and heroin, a drug that may pose a much greater overall risk to public health than OxyContin,” the researchers wrote. “Thus, abuse-deterrent formulations may not be the ‘magic bullets’ that many hoped they would be in solving the growing problem of opioid abuse.”

USA Today reported on Wednesday that misuse of the opioid Opanahas increased since OxyContin was reformulated."

Source: http://www.drugfree.org/join-together/addiction/as-oxycontin-abuse-drops-hero...

Pegasus Treatment Center provides hope and healing to those who are in the struggle against addiction. Our inpatient alcohol center brings you an empowering treatment facility that is beyond the best of all Orange County Treatment Centers. 

Treatment and The Supreme Court- Great News

This is great news for not just for Inpatient treatment centers, but also for those suffering from addiction. The U.S Supreme Court is making it easier for people with chronic illnesses to find help and make it affordable. 

"The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is extremely uplifting for the substance abuse field, according to A. Thomas McLellan, PhD, CEO of the Treatment Research Institute and former Deputy Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Dr. McLellan, who served on President Obama’s healthcare reform task force, notes the debates and research around the ACA produced two startling facts. “First, unaddressed substance use now costs mainstream healthcare upwards of $100 billion annually, particularly in areas such as ER and trauma care, but also in the treatment of virtually every chronic illness,” he said.

Dr. McLellan added that because of the severity and complexity of their conditions, the 23 million ‘addicted’ Americans are disproportionately costly – but it is the 40-45 million Americans with lower severity but still significant ‘harmful substance use disorders’ who comprise the largest burden of illness and cost to healthcare.

“The second realization produced in the ACA debates is that while there is provision to treat ‘addiction’ in specialty care programs (though clearly more coverage is needed) there had never been healthcare benefits or reimbursement options for those with ‘harmful substance use,’” he noted. “Thus, one of the historic aspects of ACA is the requirement that care services for the full range of substance use disorders be part of the ‘essential benefit design’ in all health plans.”

Dr. McLellan called this “the beginning of a new era in prevention, early intervention and office based care for patients who are not addicted – but whose drinking, smoking, and use of other substances is harming their health and compromising the effectiveness of the care they are receiving for other illnesses and conditions.”

The Supreme Court on Thursday largely upheld the constitutionality of the Obama Administration’s health care law. The mandate was upheld as a tax."

Source: http://www.drugfree.org/join-together/addiction/supreme-court-decision-%E2%80...

Pegasus Treatment Center provides hope and healing to those who are in the struggle against addiction. Our inpatient alcohol center brings you an empowering treatment facility that is beyond the best of all Orange County Treatment Centers.