In the light of the buprenorphine treatment that’s often necessary in order to combat prescription opiate addiction, it’s interesting to note two informational pieces published in March 2016 regarding such medications. First, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a study noting that opiate prescriptions issued have increased in recent years for patients who undergo ...
Pain Pill Addiction in Alabama: Doctors’ July Trial Set
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 ...
Men, Trauma, and Opiate Addiction Recovery
There’s much written about women who are victims of violence and who find themselves in opiate addiction recovery. But it’s harder to find information about the issues that men have faced when they’ve experienced trauma in their lives and succumb to the lure of opiates. Some people, men and women, don’t even realize the extent of the trauma they’ve experienced. It’s like the tale of two donkeys ...
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 ...
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, ...
