When you think of a devastating and common cause of death among women, you probably think about breast cancer, the most common cancer among women in the United states. You probably don’t think about prescription drug overdoses. But it’s true—recent data shows that more women die from prescription painkiller overdoses than from breast cancer. The CDC (Centers … Read More
When Purdue Pharma released a new, abuse-resistant version of Oxycontin in 2010, many thought we had taken a solid step toward reducing the abuse of prescription drugs. As it turns out, they were correct; the new coating on Oxycontin did reduce prescription drug abuse. A study released by the drug manufacturer reported that since the reformulation of the … Read More
Painkiller addiction has hit the news pretty hard this year, shocking the nation with triple digit statistics about the prescription drug epidemic. If your someone who has just been prescribed pills from your doctor, you might be wondering what your chances are of getting addicted to them. The data out there is confusing with studies citing vast differences, … Read More
Update: the content in this blog has been modified as of January 2018 to reflect the most recent national survey.* Although it is impossible to measure the extent of drug use, drug use is everywhere. From bathrooms and refrigerators to cars and street corners, alcohol and drug use touch every part of our culture. Recent national data from the Substance … Read More
When taking a prescription drug, it’s important to consider the addictive qualities of the drug. Some kinds of prescription drugs are more addictive than others. Prescription pain relievers can be highly addictive and include drugs such as oxycodone, or “oxy,” Xanax, Valium, and Vicodin. How addictive each is depends on several factors. Warning Signs for … Read More
In general, we addicts and alcoholics pop our pills and drink our alcohol because the substance makes us feel better. Maybe we just fought with our spouse. Maybe we just had a bad day at work. Maybe we just watched our favorite TV show. Either way, we needed to escape reality, so we could feel … Read More
OFF THE SHELVES OxyContin, or Oxy, just came off the shelves—in Canada that is. So, it must be serious, right? In efforts to fight problems with increasing addiction, some provinces in Canada no longer publically fund OxyContin. Some of the provinces even chose not to fund the new replacement (put into U.S. pharmacy cabinet in … Read More
Earlier on this blog, we shared that the San Diego pharmaceutical company Zogenix was planning to file an application in early 2011 to release its new drug—Zohydro. This product would put the *opioid drug hydrocodone on the market for the first time in its 100% pure form. (Traditionally, hydrocodone has been mixed with non-addictive drugs like acetaminophen.) … Read More
