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Tag Archives: hydrocodone
Painkiller market to reach $8.4B by 2017: WSJ
Prescription painkiller sales are set to increase by 15% and hit $8.4 billion by 2017, due in part to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent decision to ban any generic versions of OxyContin based on the powerful painkiller’s original formulation, which does not include anti-abuse features designed to make the pill harder to abuse. Experts are predicting a race across the pharmaceutical industry to create a market where all opioids have abuse-deterrent properties, according to the Wall Street Journal.
According to the FDA, “because original OxyContin provides the same therapeutic benefits as reformulated OxyContin, but poses an increased potential for certain types of abuse, the FDA has determined that the benefits of original OxyContin no longer outweigh its risks and that original OxyContin was withdrawn from sale for reasons of safety or effectiveness.”
OxyContin’s manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, reformulated the drug in 2010 to make it more difficult to crush, break, or dissolve; the reformulated pill forms a viscous hydrogel and cannot be easily prepared for injection. The FDA noted Tuesday that abuse of OxyContin by these routes, as well as the oral route, is still possible.
Posted in Informational, Pharmaceutical Industry, Policy & Regulation, Trends
Tagged addiction, Big Pharma, FDA, hydrocodone, narcotics, Opana, opiates, oxy, oxycodone, OxyContin, pain medication, painkillers, pills, politics, prescription drug abuse, Purdue Pharma, Roxycodone, Schedule II narcotics, Vicodin, Xanax
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Painkiller abuse among the elderly on the rise
Although prescription drug addiction is often portrayed as an issue affecting teens and young adults, America’s 78 million aging baby boomers are also experiencing the effects of the epidemic, according to this article in the New York Times. A 2011 study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that among adults aged 50 to 59, the rate of current illicit drug use increased to 6.3% in 2011 from 2.7% in 2002; opiates were among the most commonly abused drugs, the article says.
Other studies have estimated that up to 10% of the elderly misuse prescription drugs with major abuse potential, most often anti-anxiety benzodiazepines like Klonopin, sleeping aids like Ambien, and opiate painkillers such as OxyContin, the article says. In addition, women far outnumber men when it comes to nonmedical use of prescription medication: 44% of women as opposed to 23% of men, according to SAMHSA.
One major generational difference seems to be that the elderly rarely use alcohol or drugs to “get high” — rather, they turn to alcohol and drugs in response to the physical and psychological pain due to medical and psychiatric illness, the loss of loved ones, or social isolation, the article notes.
Posted in Informational, Surveys & Statistics, Trends
Tagged addiction, aging, Ambien, American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, Deaths, elderly, hydrocodone, Klonopin, narcotics, New York Times, opiates, opioid, oxycodone, OxyContin, pain medication, painkillers, pharmaceutical, pills, prescription drug abuse, prescriptions, Schedule II narcotics, Vicodin, Xanax
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Driven by pills, U.S. death overdose rates doubled since 1999
The rate of reported drug overdoses in the U.S. more than doubled between 1999 and 2010, with about half of the additional deaths falling under the pharmaceuticals category, according to this article in Popular Science. The data, which was compiled from WONDER, the CDC National Center for Health Statistics’ multiple cause of death database, showed that nearly three-quarters of the pharmaceuticals deaths were due to opioid analgesics such as OxyContin and Vicodin.
The CDC recently found that drug overdose deaths increased for the eleventh consecutive year in 2010. According to the agency, 38,329 people died from a drug overdose in the U.S. that year, up from 37,004 deaths in 2009.
Overdose deaths involving opioid analgesics have shown a similar increase, the CDC found: starting with 4,030 deaths in 1999, the number of deaths increased to 15,597 in 2009 and 16,651 in 2010.
In 2010, nearly 60% of the drug overdose deaths (22,134) involved pharmaceutical drugs. Opioid analgesics, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone, were involved in about 3 of every 4 pharmaceutical overdose deaths (16,651), according to the CDC.
Posted in Informational, Surveys & Statistics, Trends
Tagged addiction, CDC, Deaths, heroin, hydrocodone, methadone, narcotics, Opana, opiates, opioid, overdose, overdoses, oxy, oxycodone, OxyContin, pain medication, painkillers, Percocet, pharmaceutical, pills, prescription drug abuse, prescriptions, Roxycodone, Schedule II narcotics, Vicodin, Xanax
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Teen pill abuse up 33% since 2008: study
One in four teens has misused or abused a prescription drug at least once in their lifetime – a 33% increase over the past five years – up from 18% in 2008, according to a new survey, The Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS), by the Partnership at Drugfree.org and MetLife Foundation. That translates to about 5 million teens.
In addition, one in eight teens reported that at least once in their lifetime, they had taken the stimulants Ritalin or Adderall when those medications weren’t prescribed for them, the survey found.
Even more disturbing was the fact that almost one in four teens (23%) said their parents didn’t care as much if they were caught using prescription drugs without a doctor’s prescription, as compared to getting caught with illegal drugs. And more than a quarter of teens (27%) mistakenly believed that misusing and abusing prescription drugs was safer than using street drugs, with 33% saying they believed it was “okay to use prescription drugs that were not prescribed to them to deal with an injury, illness or physical pain.”
Of those kids who said they abused prescription medications, one in five (20%) had done so before age 14, the survey found.
Posted in Informational, Surveys & Statistics, Trends
Tagged addiction, education, hydrocodone, narcotics, Opana, opiates, opioid, oxy, oxycodone, OxyContin, pain medication, painkillers, Partnership at Drugfree.org, Percocet, pharmaceutical, pills, prescription drug abuse, prescriptions, Roxycodone, Schedule II narcotics, teen drug abuse, teens, Vicodin, Xanax
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Calif. doctor pleads guilty to illegal pill sales
A Southern California doctor will plead guilty to charges of illegally prescribing powerful prescription painkillers to patients at nightly meetings in Starbucks coffee shops, ABC News reports.
The patients paid up to $600 to see Dr. Alvin Mingczech Yee at Starbucks locations across suburban Orange County in exchange for drugs such as OxyContin and Vicodin, according to ABC.
His plea agreement recommends a prison sentence between eight and 10 years, ABC says.
One of Yee’s patients, a 21-year-old woman, died of a drug overdose in 2011 after he prescribed drugs for her, and Yee may be associated with several other overdose deaths as well, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The LA Times recently issued a report finding that the California Medical Board has repeatedly failed to protect patients from reckless prescribing by doctors: it rarely tries to suspend the prescribing privileges of doctors under investigation, and even when it imposes sanctions, in most cases it allows doctors to continue practicing and prescribing. The Times’ examination of board records and county coroners’ files from 2005 through 2011 found that eight doctors disciplined for excessive prescribing later had patients die of overdoses or related causes; prescriptions those doctors wrote caused or contributed to 19 deaths.
Posted in Crime, Informational
Tagged ABC News, addiction, Alvin Yee, California, Crime, Deaths, doctor shopping, doctors, hydrocodone, LA Times, narcotics, opiates, Orange County, overdoses, oxy, oxycodone, OxyContin, pain medication, painkillers, pharmaceutical, pills, prescription drug abuse, prescriptions, Schedule II narcotics, Starbucks, Vicodin, Xanax
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Drug fatalities rose 3% in 2010: CDC
Drug fatalities increased 3% in 2010, driven largely by prescription painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin. The latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that overdose deaths involving prescription painkillers rose to 16,651 in 2010, comprising 43% of all fatal overdoses, according to this article citing the CDC’s research. The article quotes CDC director Tom Frieden as saying about the prescription drug addiction epidemic:
“While most things are getting better in the health world, this isn’t. It’s a big problem, and it’s getting worse.”
He adds:
“The data supporting long-term use of opiates for pain, other than cancer pain, is scant to nonexistent. These are dangerous drugs. They’re not proven to have long-term benefit for non-cancer pain, and they’re being used to the detriment to hundreds of thousands of people in this country.”
In February, the CDC found that drug overdose deaths increased for the 11th consecutive year in 2010, and that most of those deaths were accidents involving addictive painkillers.
Posted in Informational, Surveys & Statistics, Trends
Tagged addiction, CDC, Deaths, hydrocodone, narcotics, Opana, opiates, overdoses, oxy, oxycodone, OxyContin, pain medication, painkillers, Percocet, pharmaceutical, pills, prescription drug abuse, prescriptions, Roxycodone, Schedule II narcotics, Teen deaths, Vicodin, Xanax
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Fentanyl, hydromorphone replacing Oxy in Canada
Tighter controls on the popularly abused painkiller OxyContin in Canada have had positive results, but experts say the country’s massive pill addiction problem is still spiraling out of control: in 2010, for the first time, Canada surpassed the United States to become the highest opioid-consuming country, per capita, in the world, according to this article.
Moreover, in 2011, twice as many Ontarians were killed by opioid overdoses as drivers killed in car accidents, and addiction treatment programs are overflowing with people addicted to publicly funded drugs, the article adds.
As you may remember, OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma replaced the painkiller last March in Canada with OxyNEO, an alternative billed as “tamper-resistant” because it is harder to crush. Today, Ontario’s OxyNEO prescriptions are about 60% what OxyContin prescriptions were a year ago; in Newfoundland, they’re 22%; in B.C., 67%, according to the article.
But other long-acting opioids such as fentanyl and hydromorphone — including Hydromorph Contin, also made by Purdue — are now among the fastest-growing causes of Ontario’s opioid overdose deaths, the article says.
Posted in Informational, Trends
Tagged addiction, Big Pharma, Canada, Deaths, fentanyl, hydrocodone, Hydromorph Contin, hydromorphone, narcotics, OP, opiates, opioid, overdose, oxy, oxycodone, OxyContin, OxyNEO, pain medication, painkillers, prescription drug abuse, Purdue Pharma, Schedule II narcotics
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Naloxone awareness can combat opiate deaths: WRCPC
Although opiate overdoses are skyrocketing in the U.S., many people still don’t know about naloxone, which literally reverses the dangerous effects of taking too much OxyContin or heroin by counteracting the depression of the central nervous system and respiratory system. (This always amazes me, but I myself didn’t know about naloxone until well after my brother’s heroin overdose death in 2009. It took less than 10 minutes for me to get trained in Narcan use by the wonderful folks at the DOPE Project, a nonprofit whose mission is to reduce fatal overdose deaths by providing overdose prevention education and naloxone to drug users and their loved ones — and if you live in the Bay Area, I highly suggest contacting them to get trained.)
In Canada — which is second only to the U.S. in per-capita consumption of prescription opiates — naloxone costs less than $12, but isn’t widely distributed or acknowledged, according to the Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council. In a powerful new short film, the WRCPC explains how naloxone can help save lives and highlights the need for expanding overdose prevention.
Distributing the life-saving opioid overdose reverser naloxone can save one life for every 227 naloxone kits distributed, a study found earlier this year.
Posted in Informational, Personal Stories
Tagged addiction, Canada, Deaths, DOPE Project, education, heroin, hydrocodone, methadone, naloxone, Narcan, narcotics, OP, Opana, opiates, opioid, overdose, overdoses, oxy, oxycodone, OxyContin, pain clinics, pain medication, painkillers, Percocet, pharmaceutical, pills, prescription drug abuse, prescriptions, Roxycodone, Schedule II narcotics, Teen deaths, Vicodin, WRCPC, Xanax
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How did we get here?
The numbers are staggering: in the United States, the number of overdose deaths from prescription opioids has more than tripled in the past decade, resulting in nearly 15,000 fatalities in 2008 alone and now accounting for more than 40 deaths every single day – not to mention the fact that estimated annual health care costs from this epidemic are as high as $72.5 billion.
How did we get here?
In the latest issue of Emergency Medicine News, Dr. Leon Gussow, a physician and editor of The Poison Review blog, examines how opioid analgesics – once feared as dangerous medications with high risk for addiction and overdose – became the drug class most frequently prescribed in the U.S., with four million patients a year receiving scripts for these powerful medications.
Posted in Editorial, Informational, Pain Advocates, Pharmaceutical Industry, Trends
Tagged addiction, Big Pharma, Deaths, FDA, heroin, hydrocodone, narcotics, Opana, opiates, opioid, overdose, overdoses, oxy, oxy-to-heroin, oxycodone, OxyContin, pain management history, pain medication, painkillers, Percocet, pills, politics, prescription drug abuse, Purdue Pharma, Russell Portenoy, Schedule II narcotics, Teen deaths, Vicodin, Xanax
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Calif. medical board under fire amid rising OD deaths
Parents whose children died of drug overdoses urged California’s medical board on Monday to utilize a tracking database of prescriptions to help identify doctors who over-prescribe powerful narcotics amid the state’s growing addiction epidemic. The testimony came from members of advocacy organizations, including the National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse, and other individuals and experts who said the board’s failure to investigate complaints of physician misconduct in a timely manner has often had deadly results.
By the time parents were allowed to start their testimony, several of the board’s members had wandered out of the hearing, leaving only five active listeners (the board currently has 15 members.) When one of the parent speakers – a registered nurse whose son was addicted to pills and died of a heroin overdose last year – asked when the full board would be available, one of the members replied “soon” and added that everyone’s testimony would be transcribed.
Not very reassuring.
Among the powerful speakers were Bradley DeHaven, whose son was previously addicted to OxyContin; April Rovero, the founder of NCAPDA after her son died of a prescription drug overdose; and Jodi Barber, producer of the short film Overtaken who lost her son to an Opana overdose.
Posted in Informational, Policy & Regulation
Tagged addiction, California, Crime, CURES, Deaths, doctor shopping, doctors, drug monitoring program, education, hydrocodone, medical board, narcotics, Opana, opiates, overdose, overdoses, oxy, oxycodone, OxyContin, pain clinics, pain medication, painkillers, Percocet, pharmaceutical, pharmacy, pill mills, pills, politics, prescription drug abuse, prescription drug monitoring program, prescriptions, Roxycodone, Schedule II narcotics, Teen deaths, Vicodin, Xanax
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