Answer Addiction

Tag: opioid epidemic

  • Nurses Condemn Criminal Charges Against Mothers With Addiction

    Nurses Condemn Criminal Charges Against Mothers With Addiction

    The threat of arrest and sentencing has created what the AAN dubbed a “culture of fear and barriers” for pregnant and nursing mothers.

    The Washington, D.C.-based American Academy of Nursing (AAN) called for an end to criminal and civil charges against pregnant women and mothers based on drug use.

    The 2,700-member organization outlined its position in a press release, which stated that legal action against pregnant women with substance use disorder (SUD) has resulted in arrests and jail time that have deterred them from seeking essential health services.

    The AAN’s policy outlined recommendations to help reverse that trend, including increasing funding for mental health agencies and training for nurses in regard to substance use disorder.

    In the press release, the AAN noted that the opioid epidemic has placed substance use disorder in the national spotlight, but in the absence of a “public health response,” expecting and parenting women with SUD have been subjected to criminal and civil actions, including arrests and incarceration.

    Currently, a number of states, including Tennessee, Alabama, Wisconsin, Ohio and Kentucky have laws in place that consider drug use during pregnancy as grounds for child abuse protection.

    The threat of arrest and sentencing has created what the AAN dubbed a “culture of fear and barriers” for pregnant and nursing mothers, who may avoid “essential health services” over concerns of prosecution.

    As the press release noted, “Early entry into maternity care plays a vital role in long-term health and social outcomes,” a notion supported by scientific research that shows that preschool-aged children (3-5 years old) with supportive mothers show significant increases in areas of the brain related to learning, memory and emotional regulation.

    To facilitate that crucial level of interaction, the AAN recommended a shift in public health policy away from punitive measures toward mothers and in the direction of recovery and treatment.

    The academy offered policy suggestions for federal and state agencies, as well as for individual providers. These included increased funding for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and expanded access to its Clinical Guidance for Treating Pregnant and Parenting Women with Opioid Use Disorder and Their Infants, as well as increased funding for community-based treatment programs for women with SUD and their children.

    Additionally, the AAN called on nurses to make sure that clinical assessments of women with SUD are “accurate and comprehensive,” and to keep providers in concert with a “therapeutic health justice approach.”

    “The Academy is helping to shape the conversation around providing care to pregnant and parenting women and reducing the stigma of SUDs in the age of the opioid epidemic,” the press release’s authors concluded.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • John Oliver Takes On Sackler Family, Opioid Epidemic

    John Oliver Takes On Sackler Family, Opioid Epidemic

    “Last Week Tonight” tackled the opioid epidemic again—this time putting the spotlight on the Sackler family members who have reportedly played a role in it.

    John Oliver spotlighted the opioid epidemic for the second time on HBO’s Last Week Tonight. This time, the late-night host recruited the help of actors Michael Keaton, Bryan Cranston and more, to bring to life the 2015 deposition of former Purdue Pharma president Richard Sackler about the company’s marketing of OxyContin. 

    Oliver addressed the Sackler family members’ alleged role in the opioid epidemic, drawing from pages of legal documents that are being made public as more and more municipalities sue the giant drug manufacturer, most famous for marketing OxyContin. 

    He pointed out that the billionaire Sackler family, while donating to arts and research institutions around the world, has made an effort to stay out of the public eye. In fact, Oliver said, there are very few photos, let alone video footage, of Richard Sackler available in the public domain. 

    So, Oliver brought in actors to read the transcript of Sackler’s deposition in a 2015 case brought by the state of Kentucky. Purdue settled with the state on the condition that millions of pages of documents brought as evidence be destroyed, but the deposition was leaked and Last Week Tonight made the entire 140-page document available online. 

    The show also put together a website, The Sackler Gallery, to showcase the family’s role in the opioid crisis. On the website, actors Bryan Cranston, Michael Keaton, Richard Kind and Michael K. Williams give life to Richard Sackler’s testimony. 

    “The launch of OxyContin tablets will be followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition,” Williams says in one clip, repeating Sackler’s infamous proclamation. “The prescription blizzard will be so deep, dense and white.” The Sacklers have said that this comment was taken out of context.

    In another clip, the actors repeat Sackler’s proclamation that people who abused opioids were to blame for the epidemic. He referred to them as “criminals,” trying to shift the blame away from himself. 

    Oliver rightly noted that while Sackler seemed to take issue with these people’s excessive drug use, his company did nothing to curb suspicious drug sales that were earning the company billions. 

    “He is furious at the people who are part of the problem, but the people he’s angry at helped make him incredibly rich,” Oliver said. “You don’t see Adam Levine making a song condemning horny middle aged women because that would make him hypocritical.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Clark Gable III Died from Accidental Fentanyl, Oxycodone Overdose

    Clark Gable III Died from Accidental Fentanyl, Oxycodone Overdose

    The grandson of Hollywood legend Clark Gable was found unresponsive in his home on February 22.

    Actor and television host Clark Gable III’s untimely death at the age of 30 was due to an accidental overdose of fentanyl, as well as oxycodone and alprazolam (Xanax).

    Several news sources, including TMZ and the New York Daily News, revealed that an autopsy report from the medical examiner’s office in Dallas County, Texas, determined that Gable, who was best known as the host of Cheaters, died on February 22, 2019 from the “combined effects” of the three drugs. 

    TMZ also quoted its conversation with Cheaters producer Bobby Goldstein, who said that Gable’s drug use was known on set.

    Gable III—the grandson of Hollywood legend Clark Gable—was found unresponsive in his home in Dallas by his girlfriend on the morning of February 22 and transported to an area hospital, where according to the medical examiner’s report, he died at 9:11 a.m.

    At the time of his death, Gable’s passing was credited to undisclosed causes, but in an interview with Radar Online, former girlfriend Heather Chadwell said that they both struggled with addiction during their relationship.

    “We were together on-and-off for several years, and during that time, we went through a lot,” she told Radar. Chadwell also noted that after their split, Gable called her from the hospital, where he had undergone surgery to treat a stab wound that caused one of his lungs to collapse.

    Sources on the set of Cheaters, which Gable hosted in its 13th and 14th season, said that Gable’s drug use concerned some crew members to the point that they spoke to producer Goldstein about his health.

    Goldstein told TMZ on April 12 that he addressed the issue with Gable, but was told that there was no cause for concern.

    At the time of his death, Gable, who had a daughter with his girlfriend Summer in 2017, had either completed or was working on acting roles in several independent features, and was reportedly compiling a documentary about his grandfather, who starred in Gone with the Wind. 

    Gable is the most recent celebrity whose death has been attributed to fentanyl.

    Musicians Prince and Tom Petty both succumbed to overdoses caused by the powerful synthetic opioid, as did hip-hop musicians Mac Miller and Lil Peep and Jay Bennett of the band Wilco.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Delaware Passes Opioid Prescription Tax

    Delaware Passes Opioid Prescription Tax

    New York passed a similar measure earlier this month.

    Lawmakers in Delaware have passed a measure to tax prescription opioids, a move that they expect will generate $8 million over three years to support addiction treatment in the state. 

    Democratic Sen. Stephanie Hansen, who sponsored the bill, said that it will pass on costs to the manufacturers who contributed to the opioid epidemic, according to the Associated Press.  

    “These multi-million dollar companies that have reaped record profits after flooding our doctors’ offices and getting people in pain hooked on these drugs will no longer be able to avoid responsibility for the pain and suffering caused by their products,” she said. 

    However, people who oppose the measure say that manufacturers will pass the costs on to insurance companies, which will then pass them to consumers. Others said that the tax is a misguided and unfair way to address opioid addiction. 

    “Unfortunately, what’s being proposed—taxing legitimately prescribed medicines that patients rely on for legitimate medical needs to raise revenues for the state—ignores evidence-based solutions, sets a dangerous precedent and ultimately won’t help patients and families,” said Nick McGee, a spokesperson for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an industry group that opposes the measure. 

    The tax rates depend on the dosage, and whether an opioid is a brand name or generic. It ranges from a few cents per pill, to up to a dollar per pill. The bill sets the tax rate of one cent for every morphine milligram equivalent, or MME, a measure of an opioid’s strength. In addition, there is a surcharge for brand-name pills. 

    For example, a 10-milligram pill of oxycodone would be taxed at 4 cents, while OxyContin, the brand-name alternative, would have a 15-cent tax. 

    Johns Hopkins University health economist Jeromie Ballreich said that these amounts would not change what people can expect to pay for their pain medication. 

    He said, “I do not expect copays to change based on this fee, just as they don’t change for drug price increases.”

    Delaware isn’t the only state that hopes to fund treatment through taxing opioids. New York passed a similar measure last week, its second attempt since 2018. Last year the measure was struck down by a federal judge because of the way that it would affect interstate commerce. 

    While New York lawmakers also insisted that patients would not be affected, an academic report on the measure found a different result. 

    “While the language of the proposed law attempts to place the burden of the tax on drug manufacturers, in practice market forces determine how the burden of the tax is shared between producers and consumers,” Lewis Davis, professor of economics at Union College, wrote in the report.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Carly Rae Jepsen Parodies "This is Your Brain on Drugs" PSA

    Carly Rae Jepsen Parodies "This is Your Brain on Drugs" PSA

    The pop star parodied the infamous PSA to promote her new single “No Drug Like Me.”

    In a promotional video, the pop star hearkened back to the “just say no” public service announcements of yesteryear.

    Carly Rae Jepsen remade the classic “this is your brain on drugs” public service announcement, complete with egg-smashing and frying pan-swinging.

    She made the video to announce her new single, “No Drug Like Me.” In it, Jepsen holds up an egg, representing your brain, and a large frying pan, representing “No Drug Like Me.” She places the egg on the countertop, and winding up to crush the egg with the frying pan, she delivers her riff on the classic line:

    “This is what happens to your brain when you listen to ‘No Drug Like Me.’”

    After smashing the egg on the counter, she goes to town on the rest of the kitchen, swinging the frying pan through fragile objects that represent your family, friends, money, job, self-respect, future, and life.

    This isn’t the first time the PSA has been remade. Notably, Rachel Leigh Cook, who starred in the original PSA, reprised her role to take aim at how drug policy has fallen short. Cook especially focused on how drug policy has been a conduit for systematic racism.

    “This is one of the millions of Americans who uses drugs and won’t get arrested,” Cook said while holding a white egg. 

    Picking up a brown egg, she continues: “However, this American is several times more likely to be charged with a drug crime.”

    In this version, the frying pan crushes the job prospects of the brown egg who has drug charges on its record.

    “The War on Drugs is ruining people’s lives,” Cook says at the end of the video. “It fuels mass incarceration. It targets people of color in greater numbers than their white counterparts. It cripples communities. It costs billions. And it doesn’t work. Any questions?”

    Comparatively, Jepsen’s is pretty tongue-in-cheek, remixing the PSA to say that her song is so catchy it will destroy your relationships and ruin your life. At the end of her video, she throws whole eggs, shell included, into the frying pan as a snippet of her new song plays.

    “No Drug Like Me” comes from her upcoming album, Dedicated, due to be released on May 17th.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Discontinuing Opioids Too Quickly Can Be Harmful, FDA Warns

    Discontinuing Opioids Too Quickly Can Be Harmful, FDA Warns

    The FDA issued guidance to help address the issue of opioid-dependent patients discontinuing or tapering off too quickly and becoming sick. 

    Since the national crackdown on prescription opioids, many pain patients have been forced to taper their dose of painkillers. Now, the Food and Drug Administration is warning doctors that tapering too quickly can have unintended and dangerous consequences. 

    “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received reports of serious harm in patients who are physically dependent on opioid pain medicines suddenly having these medicines discontinued or the dose rapidly decreased,” the agency said in a statement. “These include serious withdrawal symptoms, uncontrolled pain, psychological distress, and suicide.”

    The FDA issued guidance to help address the problem. 

    “These changes will provide expanded guidance to health care professionals on how to safely decrease the dose in patients who are physically dependent on opioid pain medicines when the dose is to be decreased or the medicine is to be discontinued,” the agency wrote. 

    The agency said that providers should make an individualized plan for patients who need to taper off opioids, and should never stop the pain pills suddenly. The plan should take into consideration the type of opioid and dosage, as well as the patient’s pain and psychological concerns. 

    “Create a patient-specific plan to gradually taper the dose of the opioid and ensure ongoing monitoring and support, as needed, to avoid serious withdrawal symptoms, worsening of the patient’s pain, or psychological distress,” the FDA wrote. 

    The agency also warned that patients should not discontinue opioids without talking to their providers. They should be candid about any side effects they have as their dose of opioids is being tapered. 

    “Even when the opioid dose is decreased gradually, you may experience symptoms of withdrawal,” the agency warned. “Contact your health care professional if you experience increased pain, withdrawal symptoms, changes in your mood, or thoughts of suicide.”

    Although many public health officials applaud efforts to reduce the amount of opioids prescribed, pain patients say that the regulations have gone too far, and have left vulnerable pain patients unprotected. 

    Speaking with The Fix last fall, Lauren DeLuca, a pain patient and founder of the Chronic Illness Advocacy and Awareness Group, said that not being able to access pain medications can be devastating for patients. She said she regularly hears from pain patients who are not able to access enough medications to alleviate their symptoms. Sometimes, these people begin to consider suicide.

    “It is borderline genocide,” she said. “You are allowing them to go home and essentially suffer until they kill themselves.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • West Virginia Teachers “Burned Out” From Dealing With Students Affected By Opioid Abuse

    West Virginia Teachers “Burned Out” From Dealing With Students Affected By Opioid Abuse

    “We expected to hear that the opioid epidemic had an impact in classrooms, but not to this extent,” said one researcher.

    The results of a unique survey illustrate the harms that the opioid epidemic has inflicted not only on young children, but their education as well. Teachers surveyed throughout West Virginia reported feeling “burned out” from having to deal with students affected by opioid abuse at home.

    Among the 2,205 teachers surveyed across 49 counties, 70% say they observed a rise in the number of kids who are affected by substance abuse at home. Only 10% of teachers say they felt confident in knowing how to support students in this situation.

    The survey’s findings were presented to the state Board of Education in March.

    “The comments from the teachers were pretty shocking. We expected to hear that the opioid epidemic had an impact in classrooms, but not to this extent,” said Frankie Tack, addiction studies minor coordinator and clinical assistant professor at West Virginia University.

    When kids are not taken care of at home, they carry those needs to the classroom.

    “Teachers talked about having to wash the kids’ clothes at school. Letting kids not participate in class and go over to a corner on a mat and sleep because they hadn’t gotten sleep the night before because people were in and out of the home. Having extra snacks during the day because they don’t have enough food at home. Just all kinds of things that normally wouldn’t happen in the classroom,” said Tack.

    These kids not only affect teachers, their behavior affects other students as well.

    “What we’re also seeing is that the impact on students extends beyond those with direct experience with substance use disorders at home,” said another researcher Jessica Troilo, associate professor in the Department of Learning Sciences and Human Development. “The students who don’t have those experiences at home are witnessing behaviors in the classroom that they aren’t accustomed to. This is what we call the tertiary effect of higher classroom stress linked to the opioid crisis.”

    The goal of the study is to use the findings to develop a teacher training module for dealing with the effects of addiction in the classroom, to implement statewide.

    “West Virginia teachers are in desperate need of support in this area, and that’s what we hope to provide,” said Troilo.

    Based on the findings, the research team recommends more training for teachers on how to handle students affected by substance use disorder, and how to interact with their families. They also recommend increasing support from counselors and other mental health professionals, and providing teachers information on 12-step support groups for friends and family members.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • The Opioid Epidemic Is A "Very American Crisis"

    The Opioid Epidemic Is A "Very American Crisis"

    One of the hosts of the NPR podcast Throughline, broke down America’s history with opioids and how it evolved into the crisis it has become. 

    Opioid use disorder has its roots in the powerful biological processes that opioids tap into, but there are also cultural factors that make Americans particularly susceptible to opioid addiction, both now and in the past, according to one journalist. 

    “Our culture has gotten so good at marketing and that marriage of capitalism and marketing and medicine has been perfected here in America, for good or bad,” Ramtin Arablouei, one of the hosts of the NPR podcast Throughline, told Rolling Stone. “That has made it a very American crisis.”

    Arablouei and his cohost, Rund Abdelfatah, followed American’s use of opioids starting with morphine in the 1800s. 

    “There was a recurring question of whose pain is taken as ‘real pain’ and how do we address it?” Abdelfatah said. “There was definitely a gender bias in the 19th Century around treating pain; there was a racial bias, and a lot of these biases remain in different forms today.”

    Morphine was prescribed to Civil War soldiers, and later used to treat ailments ranging from cramps to cough. 

    “When the war ended, not only do you have a lot of soldiers addicted, but you have this new drug introduced into American life,” Abdelfatah said, pointing out that doctors often prescribed morphine to women, who were thought to be weaker and thus have a lower pain tolerance. 

    When doctors began to realize that morphine was addictive, they turned to heroin as a “safer” alternative. It was even advertised as a medication that was safe for children, Arablouei said.

    “It’s fascinating how in-your-face it is, and it shows the evolving attitude we and the advertising community have had toward opiates in our culture,” he said.

    When heroin was criminalized in 1924, opioids became a law enforcement issue, particularly in communities of color. This reflects the way that racist policies have affected the war on drugs in modern America. 

    “There tends to be a more aggressive response to drug epidemics—as in, more criminalization—when it happens in communities that are urban, black or brown. That tends to be the historical pattern,” said Arablouei.

    “You see that play out with heroin, when the problem plays out underground. And you can see that today: a lot of attention is paid to the opioid crisis, and there’s a lot more empathy from politicians than you saw from them toward, say, the heroin epidemic [in urban communities], or the crack epidemic in the Nineties.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Rejected Depression Drug Could Provide Relief For Opioid Withdrawal

    Rejected Depression Drug Could Provide Relief For Opioid Withdrawal

    A rejected depression drug is being reexamined as a potential non-addictive treatment for opioid withdrawal symptoms. 

    A drug that was developed to treat depression but was ultimately shown in clinical trials to be ineffective could have a new purpose: helping people overcome withdrawal symptoms when they stop using opioids. 

    The drug, rapastinel, binds to the same receptors as ketamine, NMDA receptors, and was being explored as a treatment for depression, similar to the newly-approved esketamine. However, in March, clinical trials showed that rapastinel was not effective in alleviating depression symptoms. 

    Yet, researchers found that in rats, rapastinel provided relief from opioid withdrawal symptoms, according to a press release. The findings were presented at the 2019 Experimental Biology Meeting of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, held April 6-9 in Orlando. 

    Researchers Julia Ferrante, an undergraduate at Villanova University, and Cynthia M. Kuhn, a professor of pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University, say that rapastinel could serve as a non-addictive medication to treat opioid withdrawal symptoms. 

    “We have found that rapastinel has potential as a new treatment for opioid dependence, as it is effective in reducing withdrawal signs and has not been shown to produce any negative side effects,” Ferrante said. “By reducing withdrawal symptoms, the patient feels less discomfort during treatment, and we hypothesize this would lead to a decreased risk of relapse.”

    Currently, buprenorphine and methadone are used to manage symptoms of opioid withdrawal, but since both are opioids they are problematic for people with opioid use disorder. Ketamine has been explored as a possible way to manage withdrawal symptoms, but it also has the possibility for abuse, and can cause hallucinations that are particularly problematic for people with underlying mental health issues. 

    During the research, rats with opioid dependence were given saline, ketamine, or rapastinel. Those given rapastinel showed the fewest withdrawal symptoms. With that data in mind, Ferrante said that in humans rapastinel could potentially be delivered intravenously in an outpatient setting, in order to help people through the painful opioid withdrawal process. 

    “Our research suggests that new alternatives to standard treatments for opioid dependence have potential to be safer and more effective,” Ferrante said. 

    Unfortunately, that goal may be a long way off, since additional research is needed before rapastinel could even begin human trials. 

    “Rapastinel research for opioid dependency is currently only being done in rodents, but if the drug continues to have successful trials, it may enter clinical trials for use in humans,” Ferrante said. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Sackler Family Says Opioid Lawsuit Is "Misleading"

    Sackler Family Says Opioid Lawsuit Is "Misleading"

    The family’s lawyers have filed motions to dismiss the complaint filed against them by the Massachusetts Attorney General.

    Members of the billionaire Sackler family say that public outrage over their alleged role in the opioid epidemic—as the owners of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma—is all a big misunderstanding. 

    According to lawsuits filed across the country, including one in Massachusetts, members of the Sackler family played an active role in pushing opioid painkillers marketed by Purdue Pharma, despite knowing about the addiction risks.

    As the national opioid crisis worsened, the company even considered selling addiction medication to further profit off of opioid addiction, the lawsuits allege. 

    However, a statement made by the family’s attorneys this week said that prosecutors and the press are cherry-picking information to make the family look bad, according to WGBH Boston. 

    “We are confident the court will look past the inflammatory media coverage generated by the misleading complaint and apply the law fairly by dismissing all of these claims,” the statement read. 

    The Sacklers are one of the richest families in the U.S. and are major donors to museums, colleges and other institutions. However, the family has been subject to more scrutiny as the lawsuits against them pile up.

    In February, activists staged a “die-in” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City to highlight the role of the Sacklers in promoting addictive opioids. The family had donated extensively to the museum. More recently, a donation to the UK’s National Portrait Gallery was mutually cancelled because of public outcry. 

    “It has become evident that recent reporting of allegations made against Sackler family members may cause this new donation to deflect the National Portrait Gallery from its important work,” a spokesperson for the Sackler Trust told NPR. “The allegations against family members are vigorously denied.”

    Those allegations include that family members, particularly former Purdue Pharma President and Chairman Richard Sackler, were actively involved with marketing OxyContin in misleading ways even when they knew the risk of addiction to the pills was high. The Massachusetts lawsuit alleges that Sackler even visited doctors to help push OxyContin, something that the family denies. 

    Richard Sackler also reportedly made a comment in 1996 about OxyContin’s launch being “followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition.”

    This week, attorneys for the family said that the statement was taken out of context, and that Sackler was actually referring to a snow blizzard that had made him late for the event. 

    The statement goes on to say that the lawsuit “mischaracterizes and selectively quotes from the hundreds of documents it cites to create the false impression” that the family “micromanaged every aspect of Purdue’s marketing strategy.” Rather, the family was not that closely involved with the operations of Purdue, the statement said. 

    However, the Sackler family (not just Purdue) was ordered to pay $75 million over five years as part of a settlement with the state of Oklahoma last week. After that, New York added the family to its ongoing lawsuit against Purdue. 

    View the original article at thefix.com