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How do emergency rooms treat acute opiate w/d syndromes?

Cyc said:
I suppose, but I think it's a fact that recreational drug users get mis/under-treated because they've been profiled by the medical community.

By giving validity to this (sometimes false) claim, it simply ensures that this will continue to be the case.

My point is that we should discourage doctors from withholding effective pain and anxiety treatments, and we can't do that if we reaffirm their bias.

Maybe I did miss some sarcasm, and if I did, I apologize. I just see this as a very real and serious issue, and the example you gave was doing nobody any favors.
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I see the issue the same way, as you can see by my other posts in this thread.

But when I was still in my active addiction, this was something I did. I'm not going to lie and claim I have always been an upstanding and honest junkie that never tried to screw the system because that would be a lie.

And really, it is what most junkies would do in the situation, which is why I am against giving abusable meds out to addicts in wd without them being in some kind of inpatient care. It's just too much in an addicts nature to abuse as it is to screw the people trying to help them and burn those bridges.

I had to detox several times after the example I gave, and I never again received any kind of controlled substance unless I was in an inpatient detox, and even then, I was only given Suboxone and one time, I was given Ativan. And yeah, I abused the Ativan too. I'm not going to tell you how to give other people's ideas, but I did. When I was in the depth of wds, I was willing to do anything. I tried to snort sugar once in jail just to see what would happen.

The desperate addict is desperate.


On top of this, if my post was the worst thing some surfing BL came across when looking for reasons to distrust the junkie, they probably only looked at my post.

People on here openly talk about doctor shopping and how to get around slow-release mechanism and how to shoot pills meant for oral consumption. That is probably a lot more shocking that a junkie ODing on pills her doctor gave her.
 
Cyc said:
Maybe I did miss some sarcasm, and if I did, I apologize. I just see this as a very real and serious issue, and the example you gave was doing nobody any favors.
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Dude, my sarcasometer was litterally buzzing off the charts...how could you have missed that?!?!

Anyway, her example was the cold, hard, honest reality. It's part of being a junky, to abuse anything that's abusable (or even nonabusable, per the sugar snorting example :D). Furthermore, it's a reality that the medical profession knows all too well. It's not like the surgeon general's gonna scan this page and be like "Holy fuck! Junkies abuse pills! Goddamn those souless bastards!"

Ya know?
 
i came into the er from drinking my way to where i wasnt breathing and tested positive for opiates, the previous day i had done 6 shots of 80mg of morphine and a couple blasts of oxy, and the put me on narcan/naxolene, witch was fucking horrible, for a whole day i kicking the bed sheets, all they gave me was 2 shots of 2mg ativan, withch for you benzo guys, aint shit.
fucked up thing was i just had surgery on my hand and had a script for oxys, and they wouldnt give em to me the the 2 days i stayed.
 
I went to the ER due to many reasons when dropping from 100mg of methadone. I was on it for about a year. I remember i would wake up in the middle of the night as if i stopped breathing, along with anxiety so bad i wanted to rip my chest open.

Sawing my own legs off seemed like a good idea too. Anyways, they gave me Clonidine, and told me to take x4 three times a day for 3 days, then 2 three times, then 1 in the same manner. They ran out in about 7 days, but did help pretty decently.

I was on my ass for the duration of Clonidine use and felt extremely crappy as my blood pressure was very low. So yeah, my ER in CT. gave me clonidine, and without it, things would've been much worse.

The most important thing in my opinion is, respect the people there, carry you're self in a confident, and precise manner. If you're gonna open you're mouth at all, make sure you use the same terminology, and language that the physicians do.

In other words, don't be stupid, be smart! A dumb ass fill no doubt fail to achieve any success when heading to the ER for withdrawals
 
^ I'd agree with everything except for using the same language and terminology as the physicians. For the most part they despise it when patients do that (unless the patient is actually a doctor etc.). No one likes a dumb ass but also no one likes a smart ass as well.
 
Heres the deal children.

I have heard about a hundred (firsthand) stories of people going to the ER, about 90 percent of the time the person gets nothing aside from a clonidine patch if theyre lucky.

sure you can luck out and get an ativan shot (big fuckin woop)...or maybe even hit the holy grail of a 2 mg dilaudid shot, that should fix you for oh idk four to six hours.

Don't go to the E.R. because your taking yourself out of the game. You at that point relinquish all control and very well may end up in some 30 day inpatient, or the psych ward, or just stuck to ride out your wds in a hospital bed instead of your own.

however it breaks down, I always figured I got a better chance of taking care of myself at home. I.E. finding benzos, and especially opiates (if thats the only reason im wd).

Shit, Im guessing the chances of the streets showing you mercy and kicking forward a couple stamps on the front are higher than compassion from the US medical system.

btw im also in michigan, one time my aunt (prescribed 120 mg morphine a day) went to the ER and they refused to let her take her meds because "they were handling medications for now and didn't want to worry about interactions or OD's)

She was horribly sick, and they convinced her non-streetsavvy ass that a clonidine patch was a fentanyl patch somehow. (she came back all happy her meds got upgraded, only to find out it was a BP med)
 
smokeymcpot42088 said:
Heres the deal children.

I have heard about a hundred (firsthand) stories of people going to the ER, about 90 percent of the time the person gets nothing aside from a clonidine patch if theyre lucky.

sure you can luck out and get an ativan shot (big fuckin woop)...or maybe even hit the holy grail of a 2 mg dilaudid shot, that should fix you for oh idk four to six hours.

Don't go to the E.R. because your taking yourself out of the game. You at that point relinquish all control and very well may end up in some 30 day inpatient, or the psych ward, or just stuck to ride out your wds in a hospital bed instead of your own.

however it breaks down, I always figured I got a better chance of taking care of myself at home. I.E. finding benzos, and especially opiates (if thats the only reason im wd).

Shit, Im guessing the chances of the streets showing you mercy and kicking forward a couple stamps on the front are higher than compassion from the US medical system.

btw im also in michigan, one time my aunt (prescribed 120 mg morphine a day) went to the ER and they refused to let her take her meds because "they were handling medications for now and didn't want to worry about interactions or OD's)

She was horribly sick, and they convinced her non-streetsavvy ass that a clonidine patch was a fentanyl patch somehow. (she came back all happy her meds got upgraded, only to find out it was a BP med)
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For some people getting 'out of the game' is actually a good thing as it removes temptation. That's pretty much common sense though and I'm sure you realize that.
 
Fucking dilaudid? Really? We've either got some big ass liars or lucky motherfuckers in our midsts. At best you might get some blood pressure meds and/or zofran. ER docs seem to love passing out zofran, which is not a bad thing as recent studies have shown that it is surprisingly effective in dealing with w/d symptoms beyond nausea. Still, it ain't THAT great. However, worst and most likely case: nothing plus a stern lecture and shitty, bordering on inhumane treatment.
That being said, I can't really blame doctors for acting that way. They have a busy, stressful job and treating someone with a relatively minor, non fatal condition that, face it, you brought on yourself is something of a waste of time. Do them and yourself a favor and ride it out at home or some other comfortable place. Do you really want to be withdrawing in a shitty, noisy, overly bright, uncomfortable white room? That way the doctors can deal with the real patients and your withdrawal, while still unpleasant, will go a hell of a lot better.
 
I have never went into the ER for opiate w/d's but I have went in for asthma related issues awhile back. I was strung out on heroin and my doctor came down from his office to see what was up and I told him I was going to use heroin in a little bit because I was getting sick. He gave me IV dilaudid 4mg x 3 hours. Very nice GP I have been with him for eh' 25 yrs give or take.

Peace,
Seedless
 
Artificial Emotion said:
For some people getting 'out of the game' is actually a good thing as it removes temptation. That's pretty much common sense though and I'm sure you realize that.
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^Absolutely true.

Furthermore, looking back at that post, whenever you start your paragraph off "heres the deal children" your gunna come across like a complete tool.

but still I hate that lack of control that goes along with institutionalization
 
Shambles said:
I've never heard of anyone getting anything whatsoever if they walk into a hospital in the UK in acute opiate withdrawal - however severe it is. Maybe alcohol or benzos as they are physically dangerous to withdraw from but on opiates you'd have no chance, in my experience. And believe me I've tried it a few times and so have many others :|

For opiates in the UK you'll probably be referred to a drug counsellor but given no treatment until you'd been assessed by an addiction specialist, in my experience. Policy varies slightly around the country slightly but I doubt anyone in the UK in that situation would walk out of hospital having had any treatment or with a script for anything - although some GPs will prescribe a few days worth of diazepam and maybe some codeine or DHC to tide you over till you get to see the specialist. Even in rehab I was only allowed 2 paracetamol every four hours, a single 2mg dose of loperamide in the morning and an unknown sublingual dose of mirtazapine at night. They turned a blind eye to smoking cannabis but it actually made my w/d worse so I didn't smoke much. Other rehab facilities may be less strict but us UK addicts are just plain hardcore ;)
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not anymore, now they are giving heroin junkies actual heroin
 
^what are you talking about? Heroin maintenance? From what I've read this is very small scale and only for addicts who have repeatedly failed every other treatment option. A junkie withdrawing is not going to get a shot of diacetylmorphine if they walk into an ER in ANY country.
 
Cane2theLeft said:
^what are you talking about? Heroin maintenance? From what I've read this is very small scale and only for addicts who have repeatedly failed every other treatment option. A junkie withdrawing is not going to get a shot of diacetylmorphine if they walk into an ER in ANY country.
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i saw on cnn where they are giving it to anyone who is an iv heroin user
 
There is a certain logic to this. Heroin is good for combating heroin withdrawals.
 
Atlien3 said:
i saw on cnn where they are giving it to anyone who is an iv heroin user
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CNN tells you lies ;)

There was a recent pilot study involving just 1000 long-term addicts in three UK cities who have repeatedly failed every other treatment programme. Trials appeared to be successful but there's no news on if/when larger scale trials will be tested. Given the current furore of the government sacking it's chief advisor on drugs policy for contradicting the official line that "cannabis can be lethal" I'm not sure the government (and most of the public) are quite ready for legal, scripted heroin yet. We can but hope.
 
^ I saw that on CNN too, and they did kind of vaguely imply that anyone who shows up "as an addict" can just have free IV heroin.

real bad on the details and of course used to shock us about how horrible the world is becoming.
 
My drug worker told me she was involved in the Rx diamorphine maintenance trial and it actually went quite poorly. I wonder why she said that if it's not true?
 
I live in michigan and I went to the hospital for w/d's and they gave me clonidine and some .5 mg ativan and set me up to see a drug and alcohol counseler. The clonidine did more then i thought it would. Just be careful standing up or you 'll black out.(it lowers ur blood pressure) And of coarse the ativan was a great help. Good luck.
 
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