"Weight loss" is on the sign and when its being prescribed by a doctor and is being advertised like this you can be sure that it will be an amphetamine of some sort "Dexedrine" "Phentremine" or something of that nature now what are these pills you ask? well they are defined as:
Amphetamine and related drugs such as methamphetamine are a group of drugs that act by increasing levels of nor epinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine in the brain.[3] The group includes prescription CNS drugs commonly used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults and children. It is also used to treat symptoms of traumatic brain injury and the daytime drowsiness symptoms of narcolepsy and chronic fatigue syndrome. Initially, amphetamine was more popularly used to diminish the appetite and to control weight.
You see I have asked a lot of people in my time that are using these drugs what they do and what they are and i find it unfortunate that not many of them actually know what it is that they are. These drugs are not only addictive but can cause many a problems with people taking them. I don't think its okay that doctors can use them for weight loss.
And the other writing on the sign was for suboxone, now i don't think that this is bad in itself as "Suboxone" is Buprenorphine (or colloquially, "Bupe") is a semi-synthetic opiate with partial agonist and antagonist actions. Buprenorphine hydrochloride was first marketed in the 1980s by Reckitt & Colman (now Reckitt Benckiser) as an analgesic, . In October 2002, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States of America additionally approved Suboxone and Subutex, buprenorphine's high-dose sub lingual pill preparations for opioid addiction, and as such the drug is now also used for this purpose. In the European Union, Suboxone and Subutex, buprenorphine's high-dose sub lingual pill preparations were approved for opioid addiction treatment in September 2006. In the Netherlands, Buprenorphine is a List II drug of the Opium Law, though special rules and guidelines apply to its prescription and dispensation. In the USA, it has been a Schedule III drug under the United Nations.
Now that you know what the drug is I have seen a lot of success with this drug for opioid addiction but the one thing that I see all the time is that it is for way to long, I know of successful detoxes that use this an can ween people of all opioids or opiates in 7-15 days and I see doctors using it for people for months which I don't agree as it will, like any other drug or substance either become addictive or you become dependant to it.
I just had to get this out there as it is frustrating to see that when someone walks into a doctors office for help with either pain or weight loss etc that they can be taken advantage of by doctors whom they trust.
Agree? Disagree? I want to know.
Later - Monty
3 comments:
We first used Suboxone as you suggested, but found through study that patients treated less than 6 months almost always relapse. Your idea sounds good, but only from a perspective of not understanding that opiate dependence is a disease of relapse that lasts a lifetime. I am a recovering physician; my own relapse waited 7 years; I went to meetings religiously for 5 years, but then stopped-- as most busy people do. I NEVER would have imagined that I would return to the misery of addiction-- but it found me. The people I know and treat for addiction are like me in that relapse was not for the sake of 'getting high', but rather the sudden loss of insight, like being driving beyond one's own control.
I lost my anesthesia career from addiction, but returned to residency, and now am a Board Certified Psychiatrist. I treat addiction with, or without, Suboxone. In two years I have lost 3 patients (to death)-- all were opiate addicts, and none were on Suboxone. None of my 100 plus patients treated with Suboxone over the past few years have died; most have done very well. Once on Suboxone there is no 'high', and no ability to use opiates.
Your concern over people 'staying on Suboxone' is, in my opinion, part of the stigma that keeps addicts using and sick. Buprenorphine is very, very close to a perfect medication for addiction. The issue isn't 'being on an opiate'-- the issue is the relationship with the drug; with the constant obsession that crowds out intimacy and causes impulsive, self-destructive behaviors. Buprenorphine eliminates the desire, the obsession, the need, for opiates-- almost instantly. I have had patients break into tears (often) during follow-ups, so grateful to be freed from an obsession that they knew was killing them, and hurting everyone they cared about. Why would you want to take that from them?
Again, they feel NORMAL on buprenorphine-- there is no 'high'. Take away the stigma and you have a chronic condition with a treatment-- which is what medicine is. Look at depression, or high blood pressure, or diabetes, or any other disease-- we manage them. They all have choice components-- but we don't tell an obese, diabetic patient that 'you need to lose 50 pounds, because I am stopping your metformin in two months'.
Nobody has a problem with naltrexone for addiction; the only difference is that buprenorphine has enough activity to prevent the obsession to use-- otherwise it is just like naltrexone (an opiate blocker used after sobriety-based treatment that blocks use, but does not affect the desire to use).
As for advertising, I have mixed feelings... there is such a shortage of docs in most areas that the sign that needs to be put up is 'no longer accepting new patients', since we are capped at 100 total. I know all patients on Suboxone very well; there are surely some docs who simply hand it out with too little work on getting the person employed and functional again. But you find that type of medicine for every illness-- current medicine stinks, as it consists of 7 minute appointments where nothing important gets discussed... but that's another issue!
Feel free to visit my blog or write back-- I'm at suboxonetalkzone.com .
Thank you for the comment and I appreciate the data that you have shared. I guess that the main difference in opinion whether right or wrong is the fact that addicts are addicts and will remain that way the rest of their lives. If in that perspective I do understand what you are saying.
However, The Addiction treatment facilities that I send my Clients to are not in the frame of mind that its a disease and give them tools and learning skills and answers to why they have been using the drugs so that the need for them are no longer there, that being done when they are done with the program the need for suboxone of any other drug for that matter is thus null.
Thanks for your comment, I found it informative and concise.
I had a conversation with a smoker about friends that used Chantix to quit smoking, and I remember thinking " I wonder if it's a psychotropic drug?". Sure enough they repackaged a powerful psychotropic ( black box warning and all ) to smokers who want to quit. The first time I heard of pharma marketing psychotropics for things other than mental managing was a story in the news about them being studied to be used as antibiotics, and I thought great, now I have to check everything they give me to be sure it's not one of them. Unfortunatly several years ago I took one pill of some antibiotic and it mentioned mental effects, I got spaced out on it and was like "heck no!" and "darn.. they got me!" , tossed them away, and went back for an alternate solution.
Incidently I got the flu several years ago and called my wife from work, so excited, yup excited, cause I fealt GREAT! How? I took olive leaf extract and grape seed extract and while I still had the head cold symtoms and body symptoms I had no fever and fealt better than before I ot sick! I will let anyone out there do thier own research and find out how that could be, but yup, no antibiotics needed, yippy!
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