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Is opiate pain medication safe for addicts? Part I
A recent user question on VYou (see my response here) addressed the issue of prescribing addicts with opioid pain medication. Since prescription medication abuse and addiction is on the rise and getting more and more attention in the media every year, the question of whether addicts in recovery, or people who have dealt with substance…
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U.S. Drug overdose deaths are increasing
The second leading cause of accidental death in the US is drug overdose (JAMA 2007). Prescription painkiller overdose deaths (opioid analgesics like OxyContin, Vicodin and methadone) account for nearly half of the 36,450 total fatal overdoses with 15,000 deaths that have claimed a number of celebrity lives including famous actor Heath Ledger (CDC 2011). With…
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About Addiction: Alcohol and the Elderly, Oxycontin, and Drug Stigma
Are you ready for some more exciting information about addiction? Well, it’s here anyway so you might as well look. We try to make A3 the central place where you can find out about addiction matters (saving you the typing work) so if there are any topics we’re not covering, make sure to write us!…
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Monitoring the Future by NIDA: Teen alcohol and drug use data from a national survey
One of the perks of being an alcohol, drug use, and addiction researcher, as well as of writing for a website like this and Psychology Today, is that sometimes we get to talk to people that most can’t reach or to receive information that others might not have access to. NIDA‘s Monitoring the Future, a…
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Oxycontin and Gambling Addiction on A&E’s Intervention
On last week’s episode of A&E’s Intervention, we were able to see how a prescription drug abuse problem can devastate the lives of addicts and their families. As we’ve already mentioned on A3, prescription drug abuse is the fastest growing drug problem in the U.S. at the moment having gone up more than 400% in…
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Great coverage of the prescription drug abuse problem – The oxycontin express on Vanguard
On the way to New York city to visit my father this morning (he’s not doing so well), I saw an amazing journalistic piece on the prescription drug problem, especially as it relates to loose prescription-record keeping laws in Florida, which is apparently the reason for the five times higher rates of prescription pain medication…