It’s sad when you place your faith in doctors to help you manage intractable, long-term pain and they abuse the privilege of your trust. The trial for two doctors exacerbating pain pill addiction in Alabama is set for July, and they each face 19 criminal counts at their trial in the U.S. District Court of Mobile. Dr. John Patrick Couch and Dr. Xiulu Ruan not only facilitated pain pill addiction ...
Prescription Opiates: How much is too much?
One of the biggest challenges facing the doctors and other prescribers who order prescription opiates for their patients in pain is choosing the right dose. Despite heightened awareness of the dangers of prescription pain pills, many doctors continue to write for them because they simply don’t want their patients to go about in pain. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration ...
Gone Haywire: Prescription Drug Abuse in Georgia
With the New Year upon us we have available to us some new figures on prescription drug abuse and heroin addiction. The Centers for Disease Control reports an all-time new high—no pun intended—of overdoses from prescription drug abuse in the United States in 2014. 47,055 to be exact. In light of these startling statistics, some states like Georgia, are taking a proactive approach at preventing ...
Doctor Found Guilty: Prescription Pain Pills in California
Sometimes when you ask a question, it sounds like the setup for a punchline. But there was nothing funny about the question asked of Dr. Hsiu Ying “Lisa” Tseng of Los Angeles. The question asked was, “How do you know you’re a bad doctor?” The answer was, “When your patients are dying.” But Tseng didn’t take responsibility for causing the deaths of several young men from prescription pain pills in ...
Heroin Addiction: It Can’t Be Your Problem or Could It?
People have a stereotype in mind when they think about heroin addiction, and it’s not a pretty picture. Based on stigma that was bred back in the 1970s and 1980s, any picture that you draw of your average heroin junkie will probably feature a tall, skinny, dirty male, with wild hair and wilder eyes, wearing grungy clothes, scratching absent-mindedly, and pan-handling for money. Cross the street, ...
Prescription Drug Abuse: Are You Making Good Decisions?
Why do you think that people with addiction issues seem to make so many poor choices and become so easily irritated? Research by Dr. Merrill Norton of the University of George tells us that those who experience alcohol or opiate prescription drug abuse beginning in their teens put themselves at high risk of permanent brain damage. This damage halts the development of the brain’s prefrontal cortex, ...
