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Thursday, December 29, 2016

Treating Depression and Anxiety With Marijuana

cannabis
When looking for a silver lining in the American electorate's ever changing stance on marijuana, two things often come to mind. 1) Medical marijuana and legalized recreational use will keep countless Americans out of jail or prison. 2) The loosening of the legislative grip on marijuana allows for some long awaited (previously impossible) research to be conducted. The findings of which will hopefully lead to more informed decisions regarding the use of cannabis.

Marijuana, like alcohol, is often used as a stress reliever at the end of a long day of work. While the stereotypical “pot” smokers are teenagers and young adults with Bob Marley shirts and healthy appetites, your average pot smoker is often the farthest thing from that picture. In fact, with the lightening of policies related to marijuana, we can now see a more accurate picture of cannabis users, free from what is portrayed in Hollywood. And what is being seen is college freshmen to businessmen partaking in marijuana use.

More American adults than ever can now easily access marijuana, so it is vital that they know the risks. When people think about the risks associated with cannabis use, cognitive and memory problems often come to mind. But, past research has found connections between heavy cannabis use and mental illness, especially among teenagers and young adults. Users beware!

There are also many pot smokers who use marijuana to self-medicate anxiety and depression. However, it has long been uncertain how effective marijuana is for treating mental illness, and it is likely that the drug may actually worsen one’s symptoms. Researchers at Colorado State University conducted a questionnaire-based analysis of 178 college-aged, legal users of cannabis to shed some light on how the drug affects emotional processing, KDVR reports. The findings were published in PeerJ.

The researchers found that people who use cannabis to treat their depressive symptoms, had less anxiety but were more depressed, according to the article. Those who used the drug to lessen anxiety symptoms had fewer symptoms of depression, but were more anxious.

The findings are important, and hopefully will influence some people’s choice to use the drug for alleviating symptoms of depression or anxiety.

Friday, December 9, 2016

Reversing Overdose Has A Heavy Price

naloxone
In a perfect world, opioid addicts would have free-access to the lifesaving drug naloxone. The drug can reverse the deadly effects of an opioid overdose, and one could argue that doctors should co-prescribe naloxone when they write an opioid prescription and community outreach programs should handout naloxone free to heroin addicts who cannot afford to buy it from a pharmacy. Sadly, that is not the world we live in, but some lawmakers in the United States have been fighting to expand access to the miracle drug, which has proved difficult because of price.

If one were looking to buy naloxone, they can expect to pay upwards of $150 for two doses. Certainly, you cannot put a price tag on life, but if you can’t afford the naloxone kit you may lose yours. Lawmakers have received a lot of pressure from addiction experts to reign in the ever-increasing price of the lifesaving drug. This week, experts called on the government to act in The New England Journal of Medicine, according to HealthDay. The experts write:

“Naloxone’s price increase is part of an overall trend of increasing prescription-drug prices for both new brand-name drugs and old, off-patent generics. Public frustration with rising drug prices has led to a number of recent policy proposals, including Vermont’s new legislation requiring companies to justify price increases, California’s attempt to constrain drug payments, and the recently proposed and bipartisan-supported Fair Accountability and Innovative Research Drug Pricing Act. None of the federal or state initiatives expanding naloxone’s availability, however, address the drug’s rising cost.” 

Part of the issue is that there are limited options. An increase in demand for the drug has the expected effect of drug makers seeing an opportunity to increase profit, regardless of the deadly consequence of people being unable to afford the drug. Here are the numbers:
  • Hospira (a Pfizer Inc. company) charges $142 for a 10-pack of naloxone —a 129 percent increase since 2012.
  • Amphastar's 1 milligram version of naloxone costs around $40—a 95 percent increase since September 2014.
  • A two-dose package of Evzio (naloxone) costs $4,500, a more than 500 percent increase over two years.
“The challenge is as the price goes up for naloxone, it becomes less accessible for patients,” said study lead author, Ravi Gupta, a fourth-year Yale medical student. "Taking action now is essential to ensuring that this lifesaving drug is available to patients and communities."

Saturday, December 3, 2016

The Naloxone Yo-Yo Effect

overdose
It could easily be argued that naloxone, the lifesaving overdose reversal drug sold under the brand name Narcan, is one of the most important drugs ever produced. If it's administered in a timely manner, the life of an opioid addict can be spared from what would have otherwise resulted in an overdose death.

In the United States, practically every first-responder has been trained to administer the drug, in response to the staggering overdose death rates linked to the epidemic plaguing America. Additionally, a number of states have taken certain actions, making it much easier for addicts and their families to acquire the ever important drug—in many cases a prescription is not required for obtaining the miracle drug.

While the United States has the highest overdose death rates in the world, after decades of over prescribing painkillers and a burgeoning heroin market, our neighbors from the North have hardly been spared. In fact, between November 17-23, there were nearly 500 overdoses that required paramedics in the greater British Columbia (B.C.) area, CTV reports. Situations that would usually be considered routine, involving naloxone treatment. However, it turns out that addicts have begun mixing naloxone with their heroin in an attempt to protect oneself from an overdose.

Obviously, the method is far from the right course of action. The act of using an opioid, followed by naloxone, is being called “yo-yoing” or the “yo-yo” effect, according to the article. Heroin causes feelings of euphoria; naloxone reverses those effects by essentially starting a process of drug withdrawal—a real up and down experience. One that is far from pain-free.

In B.C. paramedics are arriving at the scene of overdoses and seeing empty vials of the overdose reversal drug, the article reports. Addicts are getting a false sense of safety from yo-yoing, but Paramedic Sophia Parkinson says that a person who uses naloxone needs to be followed up with by medical personnel, as the effects of the antidote can be fleeting.

Please take a moment to watch a short video on the Yo-Yo Effect:


If you are having trouble watching, please click here.
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