"America's fatal addiction to prescription drugs"

[financeguy]

Brittany Murphy, Michael Jackson, Heath Legder... America's fatal addiction to prescription drugs
The biggest killer drugs in the States right now are legal and have been prescribed. Here's how easy it is to score and to get hooked.

I went to my appointment with “Dr C’ in Los Angeles with a shopping list of the most commonly abused types of drug: pain relievers, tranquillisers, stimulants and sedatives. Beforehand, a local addiction specialist, Bernadine Fried, had briefed me on how to approach your doctor like an addict and still come away with fistfuls of pills.

The script went like this: “Say, ‘I just went to my first NA meeting, I’m struggling with my addiction. I’m super anxious, but I also have these pain issues from an old injury.’” Fried stops to think. “Right, what do we have there? He should have given you an opiate [painkiller], Xanax [benzodiazepine tranquilliser, a new-generation Valium] and maybe an antidepressant. Now we just need a stimulant, such as Adderall, and a sleeping pill. Say, ‘I’m having a hard time focusing and my work is so important to me and it’s all that’s keeping me going at this difficult time.’ Oh, and then say, ‘I can’t sleep.’”

America is in the grip of what emergency doctors describe as an epidemic. The National Institute of Drug Abuse has watched the use of all illicit drugs and cigarettes drop steadily over the past five years, while prescription and over-the-counter drug abuse has risen. Oxycontin, the brand name of the strongest opiate on the market, has been called hillbilly heroin because of its abuse among the working classes, but Courtney Love, Winona Ryder and, ironically, the right-wing, antidrug shock jock Rush Limbaugh have had well-publicised problems with the drug. Then there is Adderall, and the new-generation “benzos”, such as Klonopin and Xanax. Adderall’s name crops up around fashionable thinness; when the size-zero debate first flared, it was rumoured to be a significant agent to that alarming skin’n’bone’n’suntan Hollywood look. “Adderall is really a treatment for ADHD, but it’s handed out like candy,” Fried says. “Its abuse usually indicates eating disorders.”

Karim never believes what patients say. “You can see their disappointment when I say, ‘And by the way, I am not giving you Adderall.’ These drugs are used by a fast-paced, instant-gratification society that doesn’t want to do things the long way, the right way. We’ve had the age of the speakeasy, cocaine, ecstasy — we like to be altered. Right now, pills are the flavour of the month. It’s not right, but this time it’s not illegal.”

Brittany Murphy, Michael Jackson, Heath Legder... America's fatal addiction to prescription drugs - Times Online

 

[corianderstem]

I was at a seminar recently for work, regarding health care, and there were some shocking statistics about Washington state Medicare users and prescription drugs, and deaths within the Medicare system that were prescription drug related.

I wish I had them on me - I wrote them down because it was a horrifying statistic.

 

[INDY500]

Not to mention performance enhancing steroids.

By far the most disparaging aspect of my 25 years of practice. The rise of the "there's a pill for everything" ethos that permeates the United States health care system. Not that these pills don't work or do amazing things for many people. But they shouldn't replace common sense health practices and their overuse is the fault of everyone from the medical community to the drug companies to patients themselves.

I could spend the rest of the weekend on a thread like this... which I can't afford to do.

 

[financeguy]

I don't know much about prescription anti-depressants having never felt the need for one, but I am not one to judge those who do. It is interesting to me, speaking as a nicotine addict (and nicotine is both a stimulant and depressant), that one can go for literally years in succession on NRT without a pharmacist ever commenting or suggesting that it is time to plan for withdrawal; and that's just in Ireland, in the US, NRT's can be bought in normal shops without even going to a pharmacist.

Addiction is a profitable industry.

 

[financeguy]

I could spend the rest of the weekend on a thread like this... which I can't afford to do.

For partially selfish reasons and also just as a matter of interest, if a patient asks you about giving up cigarettes, what do you advise?

 

[coolian2]

Not to mention performance enhancing steroids.

By far the most disparaging aspect of my 25 years of practice. The rise of the "there's a pill for everything" ethos that permeates the United States health care system. Not that these pills don't work or do amazing things for many people. But they shouldn't replace common sense health practices and their overuse is the fault of everyone from the medical community to the drug companies to patients themselves.

I could spend the rest of the weekend on a thread like this... which I can't afford to do.

by god, a topic where i agree with you.

 

[the iron horse]

Is it true that countries in Europe do not allow these ads from drug companies on television?

Here in the States these ads are on all the time.

If I see one more ad on "restless leg syndrome"
I may kick the TV through the wall!

 

[corianderstem]

If I see one more ad on "restless leg syndrome"
I may kick the TV through the wall!

Ah, but as one who sometimes gets The Jimmy Leg, that would be the most satisfying kick ever.

 

[financeguy]

Is it true that countries in Europe do not allow these ads from drug companies on television?

I rarely watch TV, but I have seen adds for OTC drugs here.

 

[INDY500]

If I see one more ad on "restless leg syndrome"
I may kick the TV through the wall!

I wouldn't do that. You might be diagnosed with the very disease you lash out at.

 

[INDY500]

For partially selfish reasons and also just as a matter of interest, if a patient asks you about giving up cigarettes, what do you advise?

1) patient motivation. Which is why cold turkey works well for a surprising number of people. Health isn't the only motivating factor now. You now have social pressure and economic factors.
2) support groups
3) Zyban, may go by a different name in Europe but the chemical name is bupropion.
4) would be nicotine replacement but it has it's place.

 

[the iron horse]

1) patient motivation. Which is why cold turkey works well for a surprising number of people. Health isn't the only motivating factor now. You now have social pressure and economic factors.
2) support groups
3) Zyban, may go by a different name in Europe but the chemical name is bupropion.
4) would be nicotine replacement but it has it's place.

Might I add as a former smoker, that nicotine is not as addictive as heroin.
Big Brother and the Drug companies promote that propaganda.

Don't believe it.

Smoking is a simply a habit. It's not meth or cocaine!!!!

Just stop for 21 days and it's over.


I did that years ago and now I only light up a Lucky Strike when I want to.


Don't believe the propaganda.

Trust yourself.

 

[financeguy]

Might I add as a former smoker, that nicotine is not as addictive as heroin.
Smoking is a simply a habit.........

and now I only light up a Lucky Strike when I want to.

I'm seeing a bit of a disconnect here.

 

[the iron horse]

I'm seeing a bit of a disconnect here.

That's why I always keep a Zippo in my left pocket.

 

[AliEnvy]

Is it true that countries in Europe do not allow these ads from drug companies on television?

Health Canada does not allow direct-to-consumer Rx drug ads.

Once the pharma companies discovered that patients get the drug they ask for by name 80% of the time, the customer they needed to woo switched from being the physician to the patient. That's when all the crazy tv advertising started in the US.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

Is it true that countries in Europe do not allow these ads from drug companies on television?

i don't know about europe, but i don't recall seeing any (or hardly any at least) ads for medicines. otc stuff, sure. but i've always subscribed to the thought that it should be up to my doctor to recommend something (if anything) for an ailment i mention.

i really, really cannot stand people who are addicted to prescription drugs. granted, it isn't all their fault, and i do think some doctors are a bit too free and easy with their prescription pads, especially for things that can be abused. and that can happen so easily. a person takes one pill, and suddenly it isn't enough. so they take two in a day every so often. before they know it, they're getting their dosage upped repeatedly. and then there's some that struggle with addictions as it is and the ease of getting pills to chill you out and jack you up are ridiculously tempting.

i could go on about this for hours, but i should probably just end here.

 

[coolian2]

i don't know about europe, but the only prescription medications advertised in new zealand are wang pills.

oh, and i did once see an ad campaign for losec (omeprazole) when government funding switched to a generic option. but that was basically "ask for our brand, not the generic!" and was a couple of bus shelter ads.

 

[Popmartijn]

Is it true that countries in Europe do not allow these ads from drug companies on television?

In the Netherlands, I think they're not allowed to advertise prescription drugs. So paracetamol-like products are OK, but anything you need to go to the doctor (and pharmacist) for are out of bounds.

 

[deep]

Here is just one exaple I can think of

Arthritis Treatment CELEBREX � (celecoxib)

these commercials are in all print ads that old people read, magazines, and on T V that draw retirees

Background
Celebrex has been a highly profitable drug for Pfizer, with sales of over $2.7 billion in 2004. From 1999 through 2003, Pfizer spent about $400 million on direct-to-consumer advertising for Celebrex. In 2003 alone, Pfizer spent $483 million in promotions to doctors and $87 million in direct-to-consumer advertising for Celebrex.


Celebrex is no more effective, as a pain reliever, than ibuprofen or naproxen (marketed as Aleve). The only supposed improvement Celebrex offered over older, trusted pain relievers was a claimed decrease in the risk of stomach bleeding and ulcer. However, no more than 2-4% of patients are at risk for developing these stomach problems. For the majority of Americans, ibuprofen or naproxen provides the exact same pain relief at a fraction of the cost. Cheaper pain relievers sell for only $0.21 to $0.31 per day while Celebrex costs $2.53 to $6.45 per day, depending on the dosage.

 

[AliEnvy]

From wiki with source footnoted:

This great amount of advertising has been successful in raising the prescription rate of DTC drugs by 34.2%, compared to only a 5.1% increase in other prescriptions.[1]

 

[Liesje]

i don't know about europe, but the only prescription medications advertised in new zealand are wang pills.

oh, and i did once see an ad campaign for losec (omeprazole) when government funding switched to a generic option. but that was basically "ask for our brand, not the generic!" and was a couple of bus shelter ads.

Yep, the ED ads abound here as well. Omeprazole (Prilosec) is over-the-counter here. I've seen those ads on TV.

I've also seen ads for prescription celebrex, boniva, abilify, Caduet, Chantix, cyalis, Cymbalta, Effexor, flowmax, levitra, lyrica, pristiq, Requip, Restasis, Rozerem, Singulair, Spiriva, Symbicort, Trilipix, Yaz, Sesonale, Seasonique, lunesta, viagra, ambien, lipitor (I was looking at a lists and copied the ones I remember seeing). Also plenty of OTC stuff like Tylenol, Advil, Exedrin, Bayer aspirin, Claritin, Prilosec, Mucinex, Zicam.

 

[yolland]

New York Times, April 19

PORTSMOUTH, OHIO — This industrial town was once known for its shoes and its steel. But after decades of decline it has made a name for itself for a different reason: it is home to some of the highest rates of prescription drug overdoses in the state, and growing numbers of younger victims...Nearly 1 in 10 babies born last year in this Appalachian county tested positive for drugs...In Ohio, fatal overdoses more than quadrupled in the last decade, and by 2007 had surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of accidental death, according to the Department of Health.

The problem is so severe that Gov. John R. Kasich announced $36 million in new spending on it this month, an unusual step in this era of budget austerity. And on Tuesday, the Obama administration announced plans to fight prescription drug addiction nationally, noting that it was now killing more people than crack cocaine in the 1980s and heroin in the 1970s combined.

The pattern playing out here bears an eerie resemblance to some blighted cities of the 1980s: a generation of young people who were raised by their grandparents because their parents were addicts, and now they are addicts themselves. “We’re raising third and fourth generations of prescription drug abusers now,” said Chief Charles Horner of the Portsmouth police, who often notes that more people died from overdoses in Ohio in 2008 and 2009 than in the World Trade Center attack in 2001. “We should all be outraged,” Chief Horner said. “It should be a No. 1 priority.” Scioto County (pronounced sy-OH-tuh), of which Portsmouth is the seat, has made it one, bringing what had been a very private problem out into the public. A coroner and a pharmacist are among its state lawmakers, and a bill in the state legislature would more strictly regulate pain clinics where drugs are dispensed.

The most popular drug among addicts here is the painkiller OxyContin...The problem is so bad that a storage company with business in the county recently complained to Chief Horner that it was having trouble finding enough job candidates who could pass drug tests. “Around here, everyone has a kid who’s addicted,” said Lisa Roberts, a nurse who works for the Portsmouth Health Department. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a police chief, a judge or a Baptist preacher. It’s kind of like a rite of passage.”

A vast majority of young people, officials said, get the drugs indirectly from dealers and other users who have access to prescriptions. [Former addicts] Nina and Chad’s father, Ed Mannering, said he caught a 74-year-old friend selling the pills from his front door. The sales were a supplement, the man said sheepishly, to his Social Security check...Nina Mannering tried to quit, her mother said. She had a small daughter to care for. She was in a counseling program for a few months, but was told to leave when her boyfriend brought her pills. At one point, Ms. Mannering counted the number of schoolmates in four graduating classes who had died from overdoses, her mother recalled. The total was 16.

...In January 2010, Ms. Mannering was killed less than a mile from her parents’ house. A man broke into the house where she was staying with a 65-year-old veteran who had access to prescriptions, and shot them both, looking for pills, the police said. She was 29. Her daughter, who was 8 at the time, watched. “It was like your worst fear that could ever come true,” said Judy Mannering, who discovered her daughter’s body at dusk, bathed in the light of a flickering, soundless television. Her son, Chad, served three years in prison for robbery. He is now sober.

The authorities have had some successes. Last month, agents raided a doctor’s office and revoked his license. Another doctor from the area, Paul Volkman, is on trial in federal court in Cincinnati and accused of illegally disbursing prescription painkillers. But the drugs are legal, and it is hard to prosecute the people selling them. There are still five clinics in the county, several of them run by felons, officials said. Chief Horner believes the problem will continue to fester without a coordinated effort by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. The state is stepping up efforts with prevention and rehabilitation, a spokeswoman for Governor Kasich said, but there are no plans to increase local financing for law enforcement, which remains, in the view of Chief Horner, woefully inadequate.

The trial of the man who shot Nina Mannering begins in June. Her mother awaits it with a mixture of dread and anticipation. For a while Judy Mannering felt so suffocated by grief that she could not leave the house, but that has passed. Her grandchildren keep her going, as does her husband, Ed, a logger, who at 59 is still working full time, having spent their entire retirement savings on legal fees and rehab programs. “I miss her so much,” she said of Nina. “If you had 100 kids, you’ll never replace the one you’ve lost.”

Pretty grim stuff.

 

[Billy Rotten]

The U.S. government spends billions and billions of dollars on a failed illegal drug war and a lot of people make money from that.

U.S. citizens spend billions of dollars on health insurance and over-prescribed drugs and a lot of people make money from that.

Capitalism hard at work gouging the common man.

 

[Canadiens1131]

 

[yolland]

^ I almost got killed several years back by a guy who turned out to be driving (while asleep) on an overdose of Ambien. Had to veer into a deep ditch to avoid him because he was speeding down the wrong side of a divided two-lane road and never moved over, never even saw me. He did wind up hitting someone else further down, not fatally, fortunately.

 

[Dfit00]

I wish I had them on me - I wrote them down because it was a horrifying statistic.

The average number of people per state who die everyday from an overdose is close to about 70.

Is that what you saw? The number would be expected to be lower in Washington due to its educated population; however, drug use is also linked to high middle class individuals.

 

[corianderstem]

No, it was something specific Washington state and had something to do with the percentage of deaths of people enrolled in the state health coverage (or Medicaid) who died from prescription ODs.

If I recall correctly. It's been ages since I made that comment. But I know it wasn't an average per state kind of thing. It was very specific.

 

[BVS]

The number would be expected to be lower in Washington due to its educated population; however, drug use is also linked to high middle class individuals.

I'd be careful with such statements...

 

[Dfit00]

I'd be careful due their truthful nature?

 

[BVS]

Um, no...

Do you have any statistics that show Washington state having a lower number of drug related deaths? Or that somehow "educated" populations have less of a prescription drug problem?