Posts Tagged ‘Oxycontin’

Is Your Teenager Hooked On Oxycontin

Oxyontin has become close to an epidemic the last few years; teenagers and adolescents are a big reason why. Oxycontin is both physically addicting and psychologically and emotionally addicting as well. The oxy endemic has been ruining lives all over the country almost since its introduction. Teenagers addicted to oxy are unstable, and can easily turn very volatile. This behavior- outbursts, threats- will make family members in the home nervous. A young person addicted to Oxy’s can make life at home feel unsafe. If this is your story, you need to commence planning an intervention immediately.

The chances are that you won’t hear your teen say oxy or Oxycontin.  Street slang is used by  teenagers  to talk about getting high. Generally they are referred to simply as pills, but you  might also hear your teenager refer to them as “blues” or as that “deaf”. If you overhear your adolescent say “got any pills” or “want to get some medicine” you can be sure he or she is not talking about vitamins or allergy tablets.

If you discover they are addicted to Oxycontin, you need to take action right away.

Taking stock of the lengths adolescents and teenagers will go to use Oxycontin could surprise you. Some teens smoke the substance by crushing it on aluminum foil and heating it with a lighter from underneath. The smoke causes a fast, bitter euphoria and the harsh chemicals are exceptionally damaging to the lungs. Other teens also crush the time-release pills, but then go a step further and snort the drug which is now a fine powder. Still others get hooked abusing Oxycontin Intravenously; using needles to shoot up the drug. This is even more dangerous as it lowers the “what is okay/what is not okay” standards and can easily lead to heroin use. Heroin is cheaper, and much more inconsistent- even from one drug dealer to another. In addition, any drug use that requires injection with needles and syringes can often lead to viruses including hepatitis and AIDS.

When you are hooked on opiates, all of you is addicted. With a large percentage of other drugs there is a psychological addiction. With opiates, the psychological addiction can be considered stronger than other drugs, but in addition to that the user gets physically addicted. And a sudden stoppage from using Oxycontin and other opiates will send the user’s body into violent withdrawal symptoms, including nausea, stomach cramps, diarrhea, leg “kicks”, back spasms, sweats, chills, depression, lethargy and aggressiveness. Vomiting repeatedly and having the chills despite running a high fever is absolutely no ones idea of fun. While in a non-medical setting, their bodies will continue to ache intolerably and they will be in extreme physical pain and emotional torment.

A planned, professional Intervention is usually the right course of action in this situation. In a teen intervention, the teen child will be forced to realize the destruction their addiction has caused; both to themselves and to those those around them.  When faced with these truths, very often times the teen decides it is time for a change. They come to the conclusion that they are really hurting the only people that love them and most of all hurting themselves.

If your son or daughter is bringing drugs and drug abuse into the home, you need a solution. You need to a reputable consultant to guide you through the maze of Interventionists, teen rehabs and State and County resources…fast. It’s a very small window-but if you and your child can get through it, you both stand a good chance of leading sober, fulfilled and happy lives.

Oxycodone and Pain Management

Oxycodone and Pain Management


Oxycodone hydrochloride is an opiate agonist. Opiate agonists provide pain relief by acting on opioid receptors in the spinal cord and the brain, and provide the most effective pain relief available. Oxycodone has an extremely high abuse potential and is prescribed for severe pain associated with injuries, bursitis, dislocations, fractures, neuralgia, arthritis, lower back pain, and
cancer. It is also used postoperatively and for pain relief after childbirth. Individuals who take the drug repeatedly can develop a tolerance or resistance to its effects. Thus, a cancer patient who has developed a tolerance for the drug can take a dose of oxycodone on a regular basis that would be fatal to a person never exposed to oxycodone.


The prescription drug OxyContin contains the narcotic oxycodone hydrochloride and is available in controlled-release tablets of 10, 20, 40, and 80 milligrams. OxyContin is prescribed in the United States to treat moderate to severe pain and is abused for its heroin-like effects. The diversion and abuse of OxyContin have increased sharply since the drug became available in 1996, raising concerns among law enforcement and public health agencies.


Most OxyContin abused in the United States is diverted by illegally written or forged prescriptions, “doctor shopping”-when individuals, who may or may not have a legitimate ailment, visit numerous doctors to obtain drugs in excess of what should be prescribed legitimately, and theft. According to law enforcement reporting, the availability of diverted OxyContin may be stabilizing and has decreased in some areas. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), OxyContin abusers also steal or buy OxyContin from friends or family members with legitimate prescriptions who often are prescribed a 30-day supply of the drug.

Fraudulent OxyContin Prescriptions

The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that an Indiana doctor was sentenced to serve 51 months’ imprisonment following his guilty pleas to unlawful trafficking in OxyContin and healthcare fraud. In a 5 month period, the doctor prescribed OxyContin to a woman in amounts that were not medically necessary. For example, in one 14-day period the doctor prescribed 860 80-mg tablets of OxyContin. In just one year, $130,000 was paid by the Indiana Medicaid program for OxyContin prescribed to this individual. After the prescriptions written by the doctor had been filled, the OxyContin was allegedly sold for cash. The woman pled guilty to unlawful trafficking in OxyContin and healthcare fraud and was sentenced in to 41 months’ imprisonment.

Physical Dependence and Opiate Withdrawal

Opiate withdrawal is caused by stopping, or dramatically reducing, opiate use after heavy and prolonged use (several weeks or more). Opiates include heroin, morphine, codeine, Oxycontin, Dilaudid, Methadone, and others.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors:

About 9% of the population is believed to misuse opiates over the course of their lifetime, including illegal drugs like heroin and prescribed pain medications such as Oxycontin.

These drugs can cause physical dependence. This means that a person relies on the drug to prevent symptoms of withdrawal. Over time, greater amounts of the drug become necessary to produce the same effect. The time it takes to become physically dependent varies with each individual.

When the drugs are stopped, the body needs time to recover, and withdrawal symptoms result. Withdrawal from opiates can occur whenever any chronic use is discontinued or reduced. Some people even withdraw from opiates after hospitalization for painful conditions without realizing what is happening to them. They think they have the flu, and because they don’t know that opiates would fix the problem, they don’t crave the drugs.

Symptoms

Symptoms of drug addiction withdrawal include:

Dilated pupils
Diarrhea
Runny nose
Goose bumps
Abdominal pain.
Sweating
Agitation
Nausea
Vomiting

Treatment of withdrawal includes supportive care and medications. The most commonly used medications are clonidine, Suboxone and Valium, primarily to reduce or prevent physical symptoms.

Another detox method is to use a slowly tapered (reduced overtime) dose of methadone to reduce the intensity of withdrawal symptoms.

Methadone maintenance involves ongoing use of methadone. This was the most effective treatment for opiate addiction, according to the Institutes of Medicine.

A new medication called buprenorphine has been shown to be more effective than other medications for treating withdrawal from opiates, and can shorten the length of detox. It may also be used for long-term maintenance like methadone.

Some drug treatment programs have widely advertised treatments for opiate withdrawal called detox under anesthesia or rapid opiate detox. This involves anesthetizing the patient and injecting large doses of opiate-blocking drugs, with hopes that this will speed up the transition to normal opioid system function.

There is no evidence that these programs actually reduce the time spent suffering withdrawal. In some cases, they may reduce the intensity of symptoms. However, there have been several deaths associated with the procedure, particularly when it is performed outside a hospital.

Because opiate withdrawal produces vomiting, and vomiting during anesthesia significantly increases death risk, many specialists think the risks of this procedure significantly outweigh the potential (and unproven) benefits.

Support Groups

Support groups, such as Narcotics Anonymous and SMART Recovery can be enormously helpful to people suffering opiate addiction.

Expectations (prognosis)

Withdrawal from opiates is painful, but not life-threatening.

Complications

The biggest complication is return to drug use. Most opiate overdose deaths occur in people who have just withdrawn or detoxed. Because withdrawal reduces a previously-developed tolerance, recently withdrawn addicts can overdose on a much smaller dose than they used to take daily. Addicts should be warned about this possibility.

Longer term treatment is recommended for most addicts following withdrawal. This can include self-help groups, like Narcotics Anonymous or SMART Recovery, outpatient counseling, intensive outpatient treatment (day hospitalization), or in-patient treatment.

Addicts withdrawing from opiates should be assessed for depression and other mental illnesses. Appropriate treatment of such disorders can reduce the risk of relapse. Antidepressant medications should NOT be withheld under the assumption that the depression is only related to withdrawal, and not a pre-existing condition.

Treatment goals should be discussed with the patient and recommendations for care made accordingly. If an opiate addict has withdrawn repeatedly only to relapse repeatedly, methadone maintenance is strongly recommended.