spini4
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Doctors who treat drug addicts have a new option at their fingertips, thanks to a decision Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA gave its blessing to an injectable medicine, Vivitrol, as a treatment for opiate addiction. That's addiction to drugs including heroin as well as powerful prescription painkillers such as OxyContin.
Vivitrol is a time-release version of a drug called naltrexone, which blocks brain receptors from responding to opiates. Without that internal reward, the craving for the drug goes away.
The FDA was able to consider only a single controlled study, conducted in Russia, which found that Vivitrol was 50 percent more effective than a placebo in keeping opidate addicts clean for five months. However, some addiction specialists are already familiar with the drug, which was previously approved as a treatment for alcoholism, and thus available “off-label” for other uses.
In practice, the vast majority of addicts don’t get it. Most insurance companies won’t pay the cost of nearly $1,000 for each monthly shot; treatment often takes a year or more. Dr. Paul Earley, an addiction specialist at Talbott Recovery Campus, a center near Atlanta, says cost is a big hurdle and predicts the FDA decision will lead to much wider availability: “It’s going to help tremendously.”
The quality of addiction treatment varies widely, often depending on what a patient can afford. Still, for rich or poor, the basic approaches to opiate addiction are much the same: Group therapy, sometimes a 12-step program, sometimes “replacement” therapy – treatment that replaces the drug of abuse with a different drug, such as methadone, that leaves the user somewhat more clear-headed, but still addicted.
Naltrexone in pill form is another option, but Earley says daily medication is less effective in the long run. “Every day, the person that’s addicted to drugs has to make a decision on whether or not to use that day,” he says. “The majority of narcotic addicts will just stop taking the drug.”
There’s a crying need for better treatment. Federal statistics show a 12 percent increase in the number of people addicted to these drugs, between 2008 and 2009. An even more alarming trend: Between 2004 and 2008 the number of emergency room visits linked to painkillers more than doubled, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prescription narcotics are tied to 12 times as many ER visits as heroin.
continued at Doctors who treat drug addicts have a new option at their fingertips, thanks to a decision Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA gave its blessing to an injectable medicine, Vivitrol, as a treatment for opiate addiction. That's addiction to drugs including heroin as well as powerful prescription painkillers such as OxyContin.
Vivitrol is a time-release version of a drug called naltrexone, which blocks brain receptors from responding to opiates. Without that internal reward, the craving for the drug goes away.
The FDA was able to consider only a single controlled study, conducted in Russia, which found that Vivitrol was 50 percent more effective than a placebo in keeping opidate addicts clean for five months. However, some addiction specialists are already familiar with the drug, which was previously approved as a treatment for alcoholism, and thus available “off-label” for other uses.
In practice, the vast majority of addicts don’t get it. Most insurance companies won’t pay the cost of nearly $1,000 for each monthly shot; treatment often takes a year or more. Dr. Paul Earley, an addiction specialist at Talbott Recovery Campus, a center near Atlanta, says cost is a big hurdle and predicts the FDA decision will lead to much wider availability: “It’s going to help tremendously.”
The quality of addiction treatment varies widely, often depending on what a patient can afford. Still, for rich or poor, the basic approaches to opiate addiction are much the same: Group therapy, sometimes a 12-step program, sometimes “replacement” therapy – treatment that replaces the drug of abuse with a different drug, such as methadone, that leaves the user somewhat more clear-headed, but still addicted.
Naltrexone in pill form is another option, but Earley says daily medication is less effective in the long run. “Every day, the person that’s addicted to drugs has to make a decision on whether or not to use that day,” he says. “The majority of narcotic addicts will just stop taking the drug.”
There’s a crying need for better treatment. Federal statistics show a 12 percent increase in the number of people addicted to these drugs, between 2008 and 2009. An even more alarming trend: Between 2004 and 2008 the number of emergency room visits linked to painkillers more than doubled, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prescription narcotics are tied to 12 times as many ER visits as heroin.
continued at http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/12/fda-oks-drug-to-fight-opiate-addiction/?iref=allsearch
Vivitrol is a time-release version of a drug called naltrexone, which blocks brain receptors from responding to opiates. Without that internal reward, the craving for the drug goes away.
The FDA was able to consider only a single controlled study, conducted in Russia, which found that Vivitrol was 50 percent more effective than a placebo in keeping opidate addicts clean for five months. However, some addiction specialists are already familiar with the drug, which was previously approved as a treatment for alcoholism, and thus available “off-label” for other uses.
In practice, the vast majority of addicts don’t get it. Most insurance companies won’t pay the cost of nearly $1,000 for each monthly shot; treatment often takes a year or more. Dr. Paul Earley, an addiction specialist at Talbott Recovery Campus, a center near Atlanta, says cost is a big hurdle and predicts the FDA decision will lead to much wider availability: “It’s going to help tremendously.”
The quality of addiction treatment varies widely, often depending on what a patient can afford. Still, for rich or poor, the basic approaches to opiate addiction are much the same: Group therapy, sometimes a 12-step program, sometimes “replacement” therapy – treatment that replaces the drug of abuse with a different drug, such as methadone, that leaves the user somewhat more clear-headed, but still addicted.
Naltrexone in pill form is another option, but Earley says daily medication is less effective in the long run. “Every day, the person that’s addicted to drugs has to make a decision on whether or not to use that day,” he says. “The majority of narcotic addicts will just stop taking the drug.”
There’s a crying need for better treatment. Federal statistics show a 12 percent increase in the number of people addicted to these drugs, between 2008 and 2009. An even more alarming trend: Between 2004 and 2008 the number of emergency room visits linked to painkillers more than doubled, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prescription narcotics are tied to 12 times as many ER visits as heroin.
continued at Doctors who treat drug addicts have a new option at their fingertips, thanks to a decision Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA gave its blessing to an injectable medicine, Vivitrol, as a treatment for opiate addiction. That's addiction to drugs including heroin as well as powerful prescription painkillers such as OxyContin.
Vivitrol is a time-release version of a drug called naltrexone, which blocks brain receptors from responding to opiates. Without that internal reward, the craving for the drug goes away.
The FDA was able to consider only a single controlled study, conducted in Russia, which found that Vivitrol was 50 percent more effective than a placebo in keeping opidate addicts clean for five months. However, some addiction specialists are already familiar with the drug, which was previously approved as a treatment for alcoholism, and thus available “off-label” for other uses.
In practice, the vast majority of addicts don’t get it. Most insurance companies won’t pay the cost of nearly $1,000 for each monthly shot; treatment often takes a year or more. Dr. Paul Earley, an addiction specialist at Talbott Recovery Campus, a center near Atlanta, says cost is a big hurdle and predicts the FDA decision will lead to much wider availability: “It’s going to help tremendously.”
The quality of addiction treatment varies widely, often depending on what a patient can afford. Still, for rich or poor, the basic approaches to opiate addiction are much the same: Group therapy, sometimes a 12-step program, sometimes “replacement” therapy – treatment that replaces the drug of abuse with a different drug, such as methadone, that leaves the user somewhat more clear-headed, but still addicted.
Naltrexone in pill form is another option, but Earley says daily medication is less effective in the long run. “Every day, the person that’s addicted to drugs has to make a decision on whether or not to use that day,” he says. “The majority of narcotic addicts will just stop taking the drug.”
There’s a crying need for better treatment. Federal statistics show a 12 percent increase in the number of people addicted to these drugs, between 2008 and 2009. An even more alarming trend: Between 2004 and 2008 the number of emergency room visits linked to painkillers more than doubled, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prescription narcotics are tied to 12 times as many ER visits as heroin.
continued at http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/12/fda-oks-drug-to-fight-opiate-addiction/?iref=allsearch
