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Tag: pain

  • Is opiate pain medication safe for addicts? Part II

    In our previous article on pain medication and addicts we looked at how common opiate prescriptions are among people who are, or ever have been, identified as having substance abuse issues. We saw that although clinicians are often aware of the problem of possible prescription addiction developing, the issue of managing pain often results in…

  • 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…

  • Prescription opiates (pain killers) and NFL careers

    There’s been a lot of talk about athletes using drugs in the last decade. Still, most of the attention has been either to steroids and other performance enhancing drugs or to illegal drug use, the kind that has cost some players their careers (Ricky Williams anyone?). But how many people know that prescription medication abuse…

  • Sometimes it just takes blind faith – Depression and drug use

    I don’t normally like sharing this kind of stuff, but I think that if the point of the blog is be truthful, I need to cover all bases. When it comes to depression and drug use, I have personal experience with the connection. When depression hits – Drug use and self-medication I don’t always wake…

  • Opioid prescription overdose and abuse – Staying safe while reducing pain

    A new article just published in JAMA (see here) reports a strong relationship between high-dose opiate prescribing and accidental overdose deaths. The authors focused on a sample of Veterans and found that those prescribed more than 50mg of morphine per day, or the equivalent of other opiate drugs, we much more likely to die of…

  • Trauma and Addiction – The often ignored reality about addiction

    In previous post, I’ve talked about some of the links between addiction concepts like cravings and trauma disorders like PTSD (see here). The reality is that there is a closer link between addiction and trauma that is often overlooked. I spend a lot of time on this site covering some of the neuroscience that explains…

  • Crystal meth withdrawal – It’s not like heroin, but don’t expect it to be easy

    Heroin, or opiate, withdrawal symptoms is the gold standard of addiction withdrawal. Imagine the worst flu of your life, multiply it by 1000, and then imagine knowing that taking a hit of this stuff will make it all better. Think sweats, fever, shaking, diarrhea, and vomiting. Think excruciating pain throughout as your pain sensors get…

  • Addiction brain effects : Opiate addiction – Heroin, oxycontin and more

    Okay, we’ve talked about crystal meth and cocaine and how they affect the brain during drug use. As I mentioned, both cocaine and meth interfere with the way the brain stores and cleans up important neurotransmitters, including, most importantly, Dopamine and Norepinephrine. The class of drugs known as opiates, which includes morphine, heroin, codeine, and…