Author: The Fix

Link Between Suicide And Opioid Use Examined

Researchers hope that the results of a new study will help them better identify those at risk for suicide.

A three-year, $1.4 million study will examine the connection between opioid use and death by suicide, in hopes of more effectively identifying high-risk patients.

“We know that opioid use, opioid overdose and suicide are related, but we need much more specific information to guide our efforts at prevention,” Gregory Simon, MD, principal investigator of the Mental Health Research Network and a co-investigator on the study, told Health IT Analytics. “The findings from this study will be a great asset to the public health community.”

The goal of the research is to develop predictive models that can help doctors better identify and intervene with patients who are at higher risk of attempting suicide.

Researchers will analyze data covering about 24 million medical visits, 35,000 suicide attempts, and 2,600 suicide deaths. They will try to predict how likely it is that a suicide will occur within 90 days of the time an individual visits a medical professional.

Opioid overdose deaths have increased exponentially in the past decade, while deaths by suicide increased 27% between 1999 and 2015. During that time suicides that involved opioids doubled, and may have increased even more.

“We’ve done preliminary work suggesting that 22 to 37% of opioid-related overdoses are, in fact, suicides or suicide attempts,” said Bobbi Jo Yarborough, PsyD, an investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Oregon.

Despite the rising risks, doctors and mental health providers often have difficultly identifying which patients are at risk for suicide.

“While health care settings are ideal places to intervene to prevent suicides, clinicians aren’t able to easily determine which of their patients are at elevated risk,” Yarborough said. “Our ultimate goal is to develop the most accurate suicide risk prediction tools and put them into the hands of clinicians. If our study is successful, clinicians will have a powerful new resource in the fight against suicide.”

Researchers will look at risk factors including illegal or prescribed opioid use, opioid use disorder, discontinuation or substantial dose reduction of prescription opioids, and prior non-fatal opioid-related overdoses. They will also examine how these factors affect men and women differently in order to understand whether one group is more likely to attempt suicide while using opioids.

Healthcare providers say that while suicide is highly stigmatized, talking openly about it can reduce the number of deaths.

“I have learned that it is important to talk about survivor stories. We know that suicide is preventable,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director at the CDC, said in June. “We are in a different era right now, with social media increased and also social isolation is high… We think helping overcome the isolation can improve the connectedness.”

View the original article at thefix.com

12 September 2018
CBD Oil Quickly Becoming Popular Opioid Alternative

One expert says CBD oil sales are growing nationally, particularly in states that allow medical marijuana but not recreational.

When it comes to pain management, there may be a safer alternative to prescription pain medication: CBD oil, also known as cannabidiol.

In Georgia, according to WSB-TV Atlanta, the hemp-derived CBD product is legal because it only contains trace amounts of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

CBD oil is sold at Little Five Points Pharmacy in northeast Atlanta, and pharmacist Ira Katz tells WSB-TV that it has been effective for some of his patients.

“We know that this can reduce pain,” he said. “I have several patients that we’ve been putting this on, recommending this to them, and it’s great. It helps. It makes a big difference.”

The oil does not give users a high. “People are turning to cannabidiol as an alternative when they can’t get low THC oil,” Anthony LaBorde, store operator for Discount Nutrition in Midtown Atlanta and Acworth, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We get people coming in here who say, ‘Oh my gosh, this is marijuana, I can’t believe you sell this.’ There’s complete confusion.”

Studies have found that CBD oil is effective for treating neuropathic pain, arthritis pain, anxiety, sleep disorders and depression.

“I’ve had some patients that have been able to get off some of those pain medications, which they hated taking,” Katz told WSB-TV. “It has no addictive properties and far less side effects than do a lot of the prescription pain medications.”

According to Bethany Gomez, research director for the Chicago-based Brightfield Group, sales of CBD are growing across the nation, particularly in states like Georgia that have some form of a medical marijuana program, but do not allow cannabis for adult use. In 2016, the market for the product was $174 million, compared to $590 million this year.

“CBD is very widely used by people who would not come anywhere near cannabis, who don’t want anything to do with the mind-altering effects of marijuana but want treatment for chronic pain, anxiety and women’s health conditions,” Gomez told the Journal-Constitution.

Despite the apparent benefits, CBD oil still concerns some local law enforcement officials. Wesley Nunn, president of the Georgia Narcotics Officers Association and commander of the Ocmulgee Drug Task Force, fears shops may be disguising THC oil as CBD oil, the difference lying in the potency of the product.

“You don’t know what’s in it. That’s the problem,” Nunn told the Journal-Constitution. “If it’s helping with seizures, appetite disorders and PTSD, let’s get it regulated… There’s so much money being pushed behind the marijuana trade, and people are trying to get on board.”

View the original article at thefix.com

11 September 2018
Former Purdue Pharma Exec May Profit From Opioid Addiction Drug

Richard Sackler’s involvement with a new formulation of buprenorphine has drawn a wave of criticism.

A new formulation of buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid addiction, is due to hit the market—but some have taken issue with one of the inventors’ ties to Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin.

Richard Sackler is listed as one of six inventors on a patent for a new formulation of buprenorphine issued in January, the Financial Times reported. Sackler is also the former chairman and president of Purdue Pharma, according to the Washington Post, and the son of Raymond Sackler, one of the company’s founders.

Purdue Pharma is the target of more than 1,000 lawsuits from cities, states, counties and tribes across the United States. The pharmaceutical giant and maker of OxyContin is accused of exaggerating the benefits and downplaying the risk of the opioid painkiller, and fueling the national opioid addiction epidemic.

“It’s reprehensible what Purdue Pharma has done to our public health,” says Luke Nasta, director of Camelot, a New York-based treatment center. The Sacklers “shouldn’t be allowed to peddle any more synthetic opiates—and that includes opioid substitutes.”

According to the patent, unlike the tablet or film formulation that’s currently available, the new drug will come in a fast-dissolving wafer that is placed under the tongue.

According to the inventors, the fast-dissolving formula will make it less likely for the drug to be abused and sold on the black market.

Colorado recently added to the mounting lawsuits against Purdue Pharma—accusing the company of playing a “significant role in causing the opioid epidemic.”

“Purdue’s habit-forming medications coupled with their reckless marketing have robbed children of their parents, families of their sons and daughters, and destroyed the lives of our friends, neighbors, and co-workers,” said state Attorney General Cynthia Coffman in a statement. “While no amount of money can bring back our loved ones, it can compensate for the enormous costs brought about by Purdue’s intentional misconduct.”

Members of the otherwise little known Sackler family have come to light for their ties to Purdue Pharma.

This past March, a group of about 50 people came together at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to protest members of the Sackler family’s alleged involvement in perpetuating opioid abuse. Led by artist Nan Goldin, the protestors threw pill bottles marked “OxyContin” into the reflecting pool in the Sackler Wing of the museum, named for the family’s contributions to the museum.

The family has donated millions of dollars to arts institutions like the Met over the years.

View the original article at thefix.com

11 September 2018
Inside Burt Reynolds' Addiction Struggles & Road To Recovery

The late icon spoke openly about his battles with addiction throughout his life.

When Burt Reynolds died on September 6 at the age of 82, many who worked with the iconic star expressed great sadness at his passing.

With hit movies like Smokey and the Bandit and Hooper, Reynolds became one of the biggest sex symbols of the ‘70s, but his life and career became increasingly troubled in the following decades. (His career ended on a high note with the independent gem The Last Movie Star, and he was about to film a role in the latest Quentin Tarantino movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.)

One of the tribulations of Reynolds’ life was his addiction to a controversial sleeping pill, which he spoke about openly. In the early nineties, Reynolds confessed he was addicted to Halcion, which he got hooked on when recovering from an injury he suffered during a movie shoot.

“I broke my jaw and shattered my temporomandibular joint,” he recalled. “The pain was worse than a migraine. It is like having an army of people inside your head trying to get out through ears, eyes, your nose. It never stops.”

Reynolds was hooked on Halcion for over four years. He told TV Guide he was taking up to 50 Halcion pills a day, and he went into a coma when he tried to stop cold turkey.

“Doctors told me if I had taken one more pill I would have died.” (In 1992, Halcion came under scrutiny from the Food and Drug Administration, and it was also banned in Great Britain.)

Even after having a near-death experience, Reynolds didn’t enter rehab at the time. He told People, “It was very important to me not to be portrayed as a drug addict.”

He wrote in his autobiography that he didn’t take another Halcion after he regained consciousness, but he fell into addiction again in 2009, becoming addicted to prescription pills after he had back surgery.

Reynolds finally surrendered and checked into rehab that September.

“I felt that in spite of the fact that I am supposedly a big tough guy, I couldn’t beat prescription drugs on my own. I’ve worked hard to get off of them and really hope other people will realize they need to seek professional help, rather than ignoring the problem or trying to get off of the prescriptions on their own.”

View the original article at thefix.com

11 September 2018
Lil Xan Says Mac Miller's Overdose Death Made Him Want To Quit Music

The 22-year-old rapper discussed how Miller’s death has impacted him during a recent podcast interview.

The death of hip-hop artist Mac Miller (born Malcolm James McCormick) has left many of his fans devastated, including fellow rapper Lil Xan, who has claimed that he will retire in the wake of his peer’s passing.

In a recent appearance on a podcast, Leanos states that the news of McCormick’s death left him “crying in [his] apartment” and unwilling to “make music no more” [sic]. McCormick’s death, from what authorities have described as an apparent overdose, also gave Leanos pause to consider his own drug use and mental health issues, which he said he would be addressing in rehab if he did not have upcoming tour dates.

Speaking live on Adam22’s podcast No Jumper on September 8—one day after McCormick was found dead in his home in Studio City, California—Leanos said that he was overwhelmed by the news. “I’ve been crying in my apartment, ‘Mac didn’t die, Mac didn’t overdose,”” he said.

He also recalled the last time he saw McCormick, which happened to be at the rapper’s final performance at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles shortly before his death. “Before I left, he was like, ‘Be safe,’” said Leanos. “People say that, you know: ‘Be safe.’ But he grabbed me, and he pulled me back, and he was like, ‘No, I mean, BE SAFE.’ That almost made me cry. That’s my idol right there. I keep thinking about that—how it resonated in my head, how those were his last words.”

According to Leanos, the experience of McCormick’s words, followed by the news of his death, left him unwilling to continue his music career. “When your hero dies, f—k that s—t,” he said. “I don’t want to make music no more.” After the completion of his current recording contract, Leanos claimed that he planned to retire, though he did not elaborate on this particular decision.

McCormick’s death also put Leanos in a reflective mood regarding his own substance use. His use of Xanax—the drug that gave him his stage name—and opiates like Norco have been well-publicized in the past, but in his No Jumper interview, Leanos suggested that he continued to struggle with sobriety.

“I want to get sober now, completely sober, but it’s so hard,” he told Adam22, whose real name is Adam Grandmaison. “I just want to be off everything. I want to be like a normal person. If I didn’t have a tour coming up, I would be in rehab right now.”

View the original article at thefix.com

11 September 2018
San Francisco Unveils Safe Injection Site Prototype

Alongside accommodations for drug use, the facilities will offer a range of services geared toward giving clients a chance to get well.

With the city of San Francisco now closer than ever to opening the nation’s first supervised injection facility (SIF), it unveiled a prototype to show how a real facility will operate.

The public was invited to view the demonstration, titled Safer Inside, at Glide Memorial Church in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood from August 28-31.

San Francisco is not the only city that has fielded the possibility of opening a supervised injection facility, which is prohibited under federal law. However, that’s closer to reality than ever, after final revisions of the bill (AB186) to allow the city to establish a SIF were approved by the state Assembly. AB186 now awaits the signature of Governor Jerry Brown.

The goal of opening such a site is to keep drug use off the streets, while giving people a safe place to use.

“I refuse to accept what we see on our streets—the needles, the open drug use, the human suffering caused by addiction—as the new status quo,” said Mayor London Breed in a statement. “Safe injection sites are a proven, evidence-based approach to solving this public health crisis.”

The San Francisco Chronicle offered a glimpse inside the Safer Inside demonstration. “Clients” who wish to use the facility register upon entering, and are then led to the injection room. They are provided with a “harm reduction kit” containing clean syringes, disinfecting wipes, cotton balls, tourniquets, and “cookers” to cook the drug.

They may inject at a table facing a small mirror that will allow staff to observe from a distance. “This way, we can check in on them without actually having to invade their space and their privacy,” said Kenneth Kim, clinical director at Glide. Afterwards, clients are ushered to a “chill-out room” where they can ride out their highs.

Despite the accommodations for drug use, public health officials are most proud that these facilities will offer a range of services geared toward giving clients a chance to get well. Services include meal services, showers, dental care, and mental health and medical referrals, according to the SF Chronicle.

“The readiness to take that next step or maybe go to recovery can start in a place where there’s dignity and respect and relationships,” said Anel Muller, who designed the prototype facility. “That’s not something that will happen overnight, but once you’re creating those great foundations, it becomes much easier to talk about a lot of different things.”

The greatest hurdle San Francisco officials may face is the federal government. Last Monday (August 27), US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein reiterated the federal government’s stance on SIFs—declaring them “very dangerous” and that they will “only make the opioid crisis worse.”

“Because federal law clearly prohibits injection sites, cities and counties should expect the Department of Justice to meet the opening of any injection site with swift and aggressive action,” said Rosenstein.

View the original article at thefix.com

11 September 2018
Don't Blame Ariana Grande for Mac Miller's Death

The idea that someone holds another person’s very life in their hands and has the power to determine whether that person lives or dies is a painful and damaging misconception.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know very much about Mac Miller. I’ve never listened to his music or attended one of his concerts. My knowledge of him has mostly been in the headlines I’ve seen about his relationship with Ariana Grande and their subsequent breakup earlier this year.

And yet, the second that news broke of Miller’s death Friday, I instinctively knew what was coming. I knew that following the shock over his untimely death, the shame and blame would begin.

I knew because I’ve been there. I’ve lived it. And I’m here to tell you that casting blame is just about the most unhelpful thing you can do for someone following the death of a loved one.

Sadly, I was right. Just a few hours after it was reported that Miller died of a suspected overdose, people began hurling blame on social media. Their target: Grande, who first fended off trolls after their May split when fans blamed her for her ex’s DUI. She even took to Twitter to explain their relationship.

Now, four months later, Grande is battling trolls yet again. Trolls who are blaming her for Miller’s death and leaving hateful comments on her Instagram like “His spirit will forever haunt you,” “There’s a special place in hell for people like u [sic],” “You could’ve done something,” and “You should have helped him.”

Grande has since disabled comments on her Instagram and fans quickly came to her defense on Twitter, but unfortunately, what happened to her is nothing new. It’s reflective of a pattern we’ve seen before, most notably with Asia Argento following Anthony Bourdain’s suicide in June. Argento was cyberbullied and blamed for the celebrity chef’s death, which prompted those in Hollywood to rally around the actress in the form of an open letter published in the Los Angeles Times.

When someone dies suddenly and traumatically, it’s typically their loved ones who are caught in the crosshairs of other people’s grief and the struggle to understand the death. But what about those who don’t have an army of support like Grande or Argento? How are they supposed to traverse the minefield of grief following a traumatic death when they have so many questions and those around them are saying things that are more harmful than healing?

It’s human nature to want to make sense of death because a part of us will always resist the idea that death is natural. And when the death is unexpected, like Miller’s, we rail against death even more, looking for any explanation we can find that will help us make sense of everything. Even if it’s misguided, sometimes those explanations come in the form of lashing out and assigning blame to those closest to the deceased.

However, trying to place all the blame in the world isn’t going to magically bring the person back to life. Death isn’t something that we can wrap up neatly like a half-hour sitcom where everything is solved by the end. Just like life, death doesn’t work like that.

When I was 21, my father suddenly and unexpectedly died from suicide. Although the day he died was the most traumatic day of my life, I wrestled with feelings of guilt and shame for years. I was the last one to see my father alive, and the questions swirled around my head in a never-ending loop. What if I’d woken up just 15 minutes earlier? What if I’d seen the signs that he was struggling? What if he said something on the last day of his life, something significant that I just casually brushed aside?

What it? What if? What if?

Those are the questions that plagued me, and I’m sure those are the types of questions on Grande’s mind as she mourns the loss of Miller. The best thing we can do for her — and everyone grieving the loss of a loved one — is to let the grieving process take place. Let people mourn in peace without hurling vindictive words at them. Those words are incredibly hurtful, not to mention cruel and damaging. The idea that someone holds another person’s very life in their hands and has the power to determine whether that person lives or dies is a misconception that has no place in the journey following someone’s death.

As much as we’d like to think otherwise, we’re not superheroes who can swoop in and rescue someone. We can do everything to help them, of course, but we don’t have the all-knowing power to save them. And maybe even more importantly, it’s not our job to cure them. We can offer love, hope and compassion, but in the end, everyone on this planet is responsible for their own life.

I can only hope that those trolls who are blaming Grande have never lost a loved one to a traumatic death like Miller’s. Trust me, people who lose someone to an overdose or suicide struggle enough with self-blame. They don’t need the world shaming and blaming them too. What they need is love and compassion. And space to grieve without shame.

View the original article at thefix.com

11 September 2018
Are Moms With Opioid Addiction At Heightened Risk For Overdose?

A new study examined pregnant women and new moms with opioid use disorder.

After finding out she was pregnant with her second child while in a Massachusetts prison, Katie Raftery entered treatment for heroin use. She stayed seven months, until her son was born. It wasn’t until he was about six weeks old that she began to feel the familiar urges to return to using.

According to the Sarasota Herald Tribune, a new study shows that women who use opioids, like Raftery, are at greater risk of an overdose in the year following their child’s birth.

Rather than return to using, Raftery was able to use her insurance coverage and reach out to her doctor to ask for buprenorphine, a medication that can treat opioid use disorder. But not all women in the country have the ability to take similar actions.

According to the Herald Tribune, in states that do not offer expanded Medicaid, low-income women lose their insurance coverage eight weeks after giving birth. Addiction experts say this is concerning, as it makes a relapse during postpartum depression and opioid cravings more likely.

“As a whole, women with substance use disorders do quite well during pregnancy, due in large extent to access to care, insurance coverage and attention from social services,” Mishka Terplan, an obstetrics and gynecology physician at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, told the newspaper. “Where things fall apart is postpartum. We actually abandon women after delivery.”

Terplan served as the co-author of the study published last month. During the course of the study, researchers kept track of more than 4,000 women with opioid use disorder in Massachusetts, for the duration of the year before and after giving birth.

The study’s results indicated that deaths from opioid overdoses decrease during pregnancy, but increase in the seven to 12 months following birth. Since all of the women involved in the study resided in Massachusetts, insurance coverage was not a factor.

Davida Schiff, lead author of the study and a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, tells the Herald Journal that sustaining care for women well after childbirth is vital.

“Pregnancy seems to be a time for change. Women tend to make healthier decisions during pregnancy. So, for women with an opioid addiction, it can be a motivating moment,” she said.

“We should capitalize on the emotions women feel during pregnancy, and sustain their care or enhance it during the postpartum period, which is arguably the most challenging.”

The Herald Journal states that while the opioid epidemic has hit the country hard as a whole, it has impacted subgroups, like pregnant women and new moms, especially hard.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that between 1999 and 2014, the number of pregnant women who used opioids more than quadrupled.

View the original article at thefix.com

11 September 2018
Woman Caught Trying To Smuggle Cocaine In Heels For Online Charmer

The woman believed she was just smuggling artifacts for a promising love interest.

Before a charlatan offering an internet romance lured her into smuggling 2 kilograms of cocaine in her gold high heels, Denise Marie Woodrum once dreamed of becoming a nun.

But after crippling medical debt, a difficult surgery, a tough divorce, the loss of her job and a long battle with depression, the Missouri woman’s devout faith alone wasn’t enough to get her through.

Maybe, she thought, her new lover—a mysterious online charmer known as Hendrik Cornelius—was.

Instead, the short-lived internet romance with the mystery Lothario she never actually met landed Woodrum in an Australian prison. She was reportedly sentenced last week to 7.5 years behind bars for her role in the smuggling scheme, a baffling illicit plot she claimed she knew nothing about.

“There are fraudsters out there who are relying on women who are vulnerable,” said her lawyer, Rebecca Neil, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. “She was groomed to provide a financial gain for this person, Hendrik Cornelius, whatever person or persons it was behind this identity.”

The series of personal dramas that ended in the Aussie hoosegow started years earlier in California. Woodrum had been living with her husband and working as a grade school teacher when her marriage collapsed, according to the Washington Post.

She moved to Montana and into her father’s condo, but her life continued on a downward slide until she found herself saddled with medical debt and selling vitamins at the mall.

Then in the spring of 2017, she finally saw hope, a desperate grasp at something new that played out over the course of hundreds of text messages.

“Can you promise you will never leave me?” Woodrum wrote in a message, according to the Sydney paper. “You are my Only and First True Family!!!”

It may have seemed that way at the time, but when Woodrum found herself at the airport with a key of coke and some hard questions to answer, Cornelius was nowhere to be found.

The then-50-year-old started her ill-fated smuggling run in Missouri, then flew to Texas, then Trindad and Tobago, then Suriname. Then, she hopped back to Trinidad and Tobago, then Miami, then Los Angeles and finally Sydney.

But when she touched down in the harbor city, her bags were flagged for additional inspection—and a swab test and X-rays found a heel full of blow.

“How much did they put in the shoes?” Woodrum allegedly asked while the felonious footwear went through the scanner. “Sorry, just talking to myself,” she added.

Despite that muttered question, Woodrum consistently told the courts she’d been duped, and that she thought she was just bringing artifacts for the man she’d never met.

District Court Judge Penelope Wass didn’t buy it, deeming her story “at times unbelievable” and noting the apparent lack of contrition.

“I am being asked to accept that unknown to the offender the relationship was not genuine and created by the internet to dupe the offender,” Wass said, according to BuzzFeed. “There is a limit to which even her own expressions show she is genuinely remorseful for her conduct, rather than the position she now finds herself in.”

And so, on Thursday, the New South Wales District Court sentenced Woodrum to a maximum of 7.5 years in the pen. She’ll be eligible for parole in 2022.

View the original article at thefix.com

10 September 2018
Dolores O’Riordan's Alcohol-Related Cause of Death Revealed

The Cranberries singer’s body was found in a London hotel in January.

The Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan had a blood alcohol level four times the legal driving limit at the time of her death, according to coroner’s inquest, AP News reports.

A police officer reported to the inquest at Westminster Coroner’s Court that on January 15, O’Riordan, 46, was found in a London hotel submerged in a bathtub in her pajamas. There was no note and no evidence of any self-harm. As such, the AP states, the inquest determined that O’Riordan’s death was accidental and caused by alcohol consumption.

In Britain, inquests are usually held after a sudden, violent or unexplained death. The purpose, according to the AP, is to determine the facts of the circumstances surrounding the death.

In O’Riordan’s room, authorities discovered five mini alcohol bottles as well as a bottle of champagne. In addition to O’Riordan’s high blood alcohol content, “therapeutic” amounts of prescription medications were also found in her body, the AP states.

“There’s no evidence that this was anything other than an accident,” coroner Shirley Radcliffe stated.

Prior to her drowning, O’Riordan had reportedly struggled with her physical and mental health. The AP reported that in 2017, the band had to end their world tour early due to her back issues.

In interviews, she had also spoken about being sexually abused during her childhood, as well as struggling with depression and bipolar disorder.

After the iconic singer’s death, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar stated that “for anyone who grew up in Ireland in the 1990s, Dolores O’Riordan was the voice of a generation.”

After the inquest, The Cranberries released a statement on Twitter.

“Today we continue to struggle to come to terms with what happened,” it read. “Our heartfelt condolences go out to Dolores’ children and family and our thoughts are with them today. Dolores will live on eternally in her music. To see how much of a positive impact she had on people’s lives has been a source of great comfort to us. We’d like to say thank you to all of our fans for the outpouring of messages and continued support during this very difficult time.”

View the original article at thefix.com

10 September 2018