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Friday, October 17, 2014
FACES AND VOICES OF RECOVERY
ORGANIZING THE
RECOVERY COMMUNITY
With a shared history of losing loved ones to the struggle of addiction, Natural High was proud to be the Presenting Partner for the 2014 Faces & Voices America Honors Recovery celebration earlier this year.
Natural High is a national nonprofit organization committed to bridging the gap between prevention and recovery, as addiction continues to be an ongoing epidemic. By providing nearly 50 celebrity prevention videos and research-based curricula – completely free of charge – to treatment centers, parents and more, we’re inspiring over 7 million youth every year to pursue their natural high, giving them a reason to say no to drugs and alcohol.
Please join us and the 18,000 educators, counselors and therapeutic centers across the country using our FREE program. We’re on this journey together.
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Deaths From Painkillers Drop, While Heroin Fatalities Rise: Government Report
October 15th, 2014/
Prescription painkiller deaths are on the decline, while deaths from heroin are increasing, according to a new government report. The findings suggest some people may have switched from prescription medications to illicit drugs in response to laws aimed at reducing prescription drug abuse, USA Today reports.
Between 1999 and 2011, prescription painkiller overdose deaths quadrupled, from 4,030 to 16,917, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. In 2012, painkiller overdose deaths dropped 5 percent to 16,007. The findings will be released Wednesday by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the newspaper notes.
“It’s some really encouraging news after many years of really grim news,” Michael Botticelli, Acting Director of ONDCP, told USA Today. He said the findings give him hope that some government strategies to reduce prescription drug abuse have worked. These include prescription drug monitoring programs that make it harder for people to get prescriptions from multiple doctors, and crackdowns on physicians who overprescribe painkillers.
Heroin overdose deaths increased 35 percent from 2011 to 2012, from 4,397 to 5,927. Dr. Mark Publicker, President of the Northern New England Society of Addiction Medicine, says he has seen a dramatic shift from prescription painkillers to heroin. “My patients tell me that as prescription opioids become less available and more expensive, that heroin has rushed into that breach,” he said. “It was as if somebody flipped a switch.”
Botticelli said fewer than 5 percent of people who abuse prescription painkillers switch to heroin, and the proportion of deaths from the drug is much smaller. “We know we clearly have some work to do in intervening with people who are progressing from prescription narcotics to heroin,” he said.
Most Doctors Registered to Use Prescription Database Check it When They Suspect Abuse
October 15th, 2014/
A survey of doctors in Oregon who are registered to use their state prescription drug monitoring database finds 95 percent say they consult it when they suspect a patient is abusing or diverting medication. The survey found 54 percent of doctors registered to use the database report they have made mental health or substance abuse referrals after consulting it.
Thirty-six percent said they sometimes discharge patients from their practice because of information in the database. Fewer than half say they check it for every new patient or every time they prescribe a controlled drug. Almost all doctors who use the program say they discuss worrisome data with patients.
Registered users of the state’s database were more frequent prescribers of controlled substances than non-users, Newswise reports. The survey included 650 doctors who frequently used the database, 650 who used it infrequently and 2,000 who did not use it at all.
Database registrants were most likely to be practicing in emergency medicine, primary care and addiction medicine. “Clinicians reported frequent patient denial or anger and only occasional requests for help with drug dependence,” the researchers report in The Journal of Pain.
Prescription drug monitoring programs are designed to reduce doctor and pharmacy shopping to obtain prescription medications. The Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have endorsed the programs.
Missouri is the only state that does not have a prescription drug monitoring database. Almost all states either allow or require pharmacists to enter filled prescriptions into the database. Doctors or pharmacists review the data before deciding to fill another prescription. Rules vary from state to state. Forty-eight states have operational databases, and New Hampshire will begin using its database this year.
Children More Likely to Take ADHD Drugs During School Year Than in the Summer
October 15th, 2014/
A new study finds children are 30 percent more likely to take drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) during the school year than in the summer.
The study found children from wealthier families who live in states with stricter academic standards are more likely to use ADHD drugs only during school months, compared with children in lower-income families in states with less strict school standards.
The findings suggest higher-income families are more likely to make their own decisions about when their child needs ADHD medications, while lower-income families tend to follow doctors’ recommendations to fill prescriptions for the drugs throughout the year, according to USA Today.
“As schools become more academic, as a consequence we’re seeing an increase in school-based stimulant use,” said researcher Marissa King of the Yale School of Management. “Kids are actually just trying to manage a much broader shift in the way the school day is structured.” She said higher-income families want to help their children stay focused in class, which can be difficult without regular physical activity or diversions from academic subjects. “Kids are having more pressure on them to have more sustained attention,” she said.
The researchers found even when children from wealthier and less-wealthy backgrounds were treated by the same doctor, children from wealthier families were more likely to use ADHD drugs only during the school year.
The findings appear in the American Sociological Review.
The prevalence of children ages 4 to 17 who take ADHD medication increased from 4.8 percent in 2007 to 6.1 percent in 2011, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Do you have a favorite book that helped you with especially pertaining to being an addict's mom? Did you write a book on addiction? Would you like to share a page from the book with us? Or just share your story. Sharing is so powerful!
Tomorrow Night October 16th on The Addict’s Mom Live Video Online Meeting on In the Rooms www.intherooms.com at7:00pm EST we will be sharing pages, poems and stories from our fav...orite books.
If you would like to share please pm me. Please include your phone number.
To join us create an account if you do not have one sign up or if you do sign in for f.ree at www.intherooms.com. Please use Google Chrome of Firefox. Log in Tomorrow Night at 6:55pm EST. You will see a link to go to the Addict’s Mom, click on the link and you will be in the meeting. Please check your settings to make sure you are not muted.
Remember you can remain anonymous or not.
Much love to all Addict’s Moms and their families.
Visit The Addict's Mom at: http://addictsmom.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
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