Health Canada approves injectable hydromorphone to treat opioid addiction

[S.J.B.]

Health Canada approves injectable hydromorphone to treat opioid addiction
Rafferty Baker
CBC
May 16th, 2019

Health Canada has approved injectable hydromorphone — a drug commonly used to manage pain — to treat patients with severe opioid use disorder.

According to the department, the change makes Canada the first in the world to approve the drug for such use, all in an effort to get the tragic overdose crisis under control.

"Increased access to a safe supply of prescription opioids is an innovative tool that will help save lives," said Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor in a social media post on Wednesday

According to Health Canada, 10,337 people were killed by opioid-related drug overdoses between Jan. 2016 and Sept. 2018.

...

Health Canada's new rules require that hydromorphone is administered under the supervision of a doctor trained in injectable opioid treatment with suitable experience.

Read the full story here.

 

[S.J.B.]

Wonderful! Unfortunately the impact will be limited by requiring that the drug be administered under physician supervision, but this is a big step that should make doctors more willing to prescribe hydromorphone for maintenance.

 

[Chris42393]

Definitely jealous!

 

[G_Chem]

So is this going to kind of be like those clinics that give addicts diacetylmorphine/heroin? Only with hydromorphone instead? Probably 3-5 shots a day?

-GC

 

[Jabberwocky]

I don't think that it's very effective because of the amount of times you have to get your shot per day but it's a start in considering other option than methadone/subs

 

[noflers]

What in the fuck? I'm probably not gonna read that.

Hydromorphone is better, to me, than H. The rush that feel like an angel tickling your belly. Seriously buckled multiple times shootimg that stuff.

So yeah, if I was still on H, I'd most definitely switch over to Dilaudid. It's got a real high unlike suboxone, and a much better high compared to methadone.

Hydromorphone with it's ultra short half life, why did they choose this?

Is Europe still doing Dimorphine (H) maintenance treatment?

 

[G_Chem]

They chose it for exactly the reasons you stated. It actually gives a high comparable to heroin, it’s rush is even better, and of course it’s a pharmaceutical so someone’s making money.

Idk I think this is a good first step but should be followed up with other forms of treatment. I already think it’s ridiculous to have to go to the methadone clinic once a day, imagine having to go 3-5 times a day. You’d have to live like right next to it.

-GC

 

[noflers]

Perhaps this isn't meant to be used for continued maintenance... There is no way they could expect people to go to a clinic 3-5 times a day. That's hardly a tease for any real user anyway, lol.

Sure, you have to go to the Methadone clinic once a day, at least until you've gained the clinics "trust" and can take home 1-day, 2-day, 3-day supplies. But this really is for good reason, I mean I know that if the clinic had started ME off with take-home doses, 95% of them never would have made it to my stomach. Going to the clinic once a day really isn't so bad once they rope you into 200mg or so a day.

 

[S.J.B.]

Probably 3-5 shots a day?

I don't think that it's very effective because of the amount of times you have to get your shot per day but it's a start in considering other option than methadone/subs

Hydromorphone with it's ultra short half life, why did they choose this?

They chose it for exactly the reasons you stated. It actually gives a high comparable to heroin, it’s rush is even better, and of course it’s a pharmaceutical so someone’s making money.

The choice to use hydromorphone is based on a study done in Vancouver where long-term IV opioid users who had not had success with methadone or buprenorphine were given either heroin or hydromorphone via injection at a clinic. They were allowed to have up to 3 shots per day. The study found that hydromorphone and heroin were more-or-less interchangeable: the study participants could not tell whether they were on one or the other, both groups chose to have an average of 2.5-2.6 shots per day, and outcomes (how good the program was at keeping people off street drugs) were the same within the confidence interval of the study. However, the hydromorphone group had significantly fewer serious adverse events (overdoses and seizures) and less drowsiness. They concluded: "This study provides evidence to suggest noninferiority of injectable hydromorphone relative to diacetylmorphine for long-term opioid dependence."

 

[Nicomorphinist]

There is the best of both: Acetylate hydromorphone and you get acetylmorphone -- the League of Nations banned it in 1930 because it was very popular with heroin users after smack was banned in 1924 and pharmaceutical companies were making mountains of the stuff. A South Adriatic Crank-Stinging Jellyfish var acetylmorphonephorum full of the stuff envenomated me pretty seriously a few times and it felt amazing and took about five hours to recover.