AAN on Pregant Women and Addiction

The United States has come a long way in regard to putting an end to draconian drug laws. We are still far from the goal of decriminalizing addiction, a form of mental illness, but there is hope that one day, treatment will be the answer to all things mental health.

In many states across the country, the response to a low-level drug offense (simple possession for instance) is drug court. More and more people are being offered treatment over jail. Lawmakers are slowly discovering that addiction is not a problem that we can sweep under the rug, i.e., arrest away. For the first time, politicians are acknowledging that the “war on drugs” has done far more harm than good.

As the nation continues to wrestle with the opioid use disorder crisis, one that steals roughly 130 lives each day, compassion is quickly becoming a primary response. Stigmatizing and demonizing addicts harms us all. Who among us does not know someone who has struggled with addiction?

We are, all of us, touched by the deadly epidemic of addiction and the solution is treatment and long-term recovery. States and municipalities across the U.S. now realize that when those struggling find empowerment they are more likely to seek assistance. With help, individuals can avoid becoming an overdose death statistic. While many opioid addicts are finding that society is exercising a more compassionate understanding of addiction, at least one demographic has been left behind. Pregnant women and new mothers.

AAN Addresses Pregnant Women with a Substance Use Disorder

As the prescription opioid epidemic gained momentum, many hospitals began seeing an uptick in Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). The condition affects newborns who were exposed to opioids in utero. Once born, babies experience the symptoms that an addict withdrawing from opioids faces. Extended hospital stays and close monitoring is required to mitigate the risk of the infant experiencing further complications.

In a fair number of states, using drugs during pregnancy is grounds for child abuse charges. In Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, mothers found to be exposing their unborn or newborn children to drugs face the threat of arrest. Just as with the war on drugs, punitive actions have the unintended effect of causing people to hide their problems. In the case of pregnant women, this can mean disastrous consequences for the child.

The American Academy of Nursing (Academy) released a policy brief calling for an end to criminal prosecution and punitive civil actions for pregnant and new mothers. The organization, 2,700-members strong, calls for a public health response rather than disciplinary actions. They contend that laws in the above states cause women to live in fear, which prevents them from accessing essential health services. The AAN writes:

“At the forefront of the national stage for the past several years, the opioid epidemic has expanded the public’s awareness of substance use disorders (SUDs) and treatments during this public health emergency. For pregnant women with SUDs however, punitive actions in place of a public health response have resulted in criminal charges, arrests, and incarceration for these women. This has reinforced a culture of fear and barriers to essential health services. Early entry into maternity care plays a vital role in long-term health and social outcomes. Recovery-oriented public health responses are urgently needed to shift the culture of punishment to one of enduring therapeutic intent for women as well as their infants, children, and families affected by SUDs.” 

Included in the policy brief are several suggestions to assist doctors and state and federal agencies, such as increasing:

• Federal funding for SAMHSA State Targeted Response to the Opioid Crisis grants (Opioid STR) and Opioid STR Supplement grants that include SUD services for pregnant and parenting women and that develop community-based partnerships to ensure safe access to health services including prevention, treatment, and recovery supports for women, their children, and families.
• State funding to ensure accessible community-based treatment, recovery supports, and health and social services for women, their children, and families affected by substance use regardless of immigration status or ability to pay for services.

 

Substance Use Disorder Treatment

At Celebrate Hope, we can help you or your loved one overcome and recover from substance use disorder. Please contact our team today to learn more about our faith-based addiction treatment program. With cutting-edge treatment and Christian counseling, you can start celebrating hope today.

Opioid Addiction Report: Declare A National Emergency

There is a good chance that you have been affected by the widespread misuse of opioid painkillers. Either yourself personally, or you have a loved one or close friend who's been touched by the disease of addiction. Right now, there are millions of Americans living with an untreated opioid use disorder. You may have heard tell that the White House appointed a Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis. The hope is to find viable solutions to our nation’s most serious public health crisis.

Solutions are desperately needed, people are dying and many more are meeting the criteria for opioid addiction with each day that passes. Confronting this epidemic has proved to be a serious challenge. While there have been efforts to both assist addicts get help and make it harder to acquire prescription opioids, still around 142 Americans die of an overdose every day.

Last year, Congress approved and President Obama signed into law a couple piece of legislation aimed at putting an end to the epidemic. Legislation that called for funding addiction treatment services, expanding access to the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone and training doctors to be more frugal prescribers. The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) and the 21st Century Cures Act have yet to bear quantifiable proof. Only time will tell. The current administration has placed their trust in the opioid commission to address the epidemic.

 

Opioid Crisis Report

Many addiction experts have eagerly awaited what conclusions the commission would make. This week, the Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis released a preliminary report, according to the Associated Press. Wherein, the first order of business calls for the President to declare the opioid addiction epidemic a national emergency. Report says that roughly 142 deaths each day is "equal to September 11th event every three weeks."

“Your declaration would empower your cabinet to take bold steps and would force Congress to focus on funding and empowering the Executive Branch even further to deal with this loss of life. It would also awaken every American to this simple fact: if this scourge has not found you or your family yet, without bold action by everyone, it soon will.” 

The commission included several recommendations in their report, including:

• Enforcing mental health parity laws, ensuring people get the coverage they need for addiction treatment.
• Equipping “all” law enforcement officers with naloxone.
• Funding federal agencies to develop fentanyl detection sensors.
• Increasing the use of opioid addiction medications, such as buprenorphine.
• Require doctors and other people working in the medical field to get buprenorphine prescribing waivers.
• Facilitate state prescription drug monitoring programs data sharing nationally by July 1, 2018.

The commissioner stated that it will release another report later this fall.

 

Addiction Treatment

Opioid addiction is difficult to recover from, but it is possible. The process usually begins with detox to help you get through the withdrawal process, the pain of which often leads to immediate relapse without assistance. Then followed by residential addiction treatment to teach you how a life in recovery can be achieved, teaching you skills and providing tools to help achieve success. After treatment, a continued program of spiritual maintenance is how one holds on to their recovery for years to come.

If you are ready to take the journey of addiction recovery, please contact Celebrate Hope at Hope by The Sea today.

Opioid-Tax In California

The American opioid addiction epidemic has put a serious burden on society, both the human and financial costs of the crisis are staggering. It is widely agreed upon that the best shot of gaining control of the scourge of opioid abuse in America is by way of education and addiction treatment. If health experts can properly educate people about the dangers of experimenting with opioids, fewer people may follow down the road towards addiction. For those who have already become snared by addiction, science-based treatment is the most effective way to throw a monkey wrench into the gear-works of the disease.

In recent years, federal and state lawmakers have been scrambling to provide and fund adequate addiction treatment services. In many states, people often wait long periods of time to get a bed at a treatment center. There is a serious lack of treatment facilities, counselors and funding to pay for both. If you consider for a moment that there are over 2 million Americans who meet the criteria for opioid use disorder, then you can see that it will cost a considerable amount of money to ensure that they all get the treatment they need, but may not be able to afford.

When looking for the root causes of the opioid addiction epidemic, fingers will point towards over reliance on prescription opioid painkiller—more times than not. While efforts to reign in prescribing practices have been successful in a number of ways, the problem didn’t disappear because individual addiction was not addressed. Making it more difficult to acquire prescription opioids often results in turning to heroin as an alternative means of avoiding withdrawal.

So, if we can agree for the moment that treatment is the answer, then finding the necessary funds to provide it is of the utmost importance. Look no further than opioid wholesalers to finance the vital cause. Or, that is what one California lawmaker has suggested. Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) introduced a bill that would impose a one-cent-per-milligram tax on opioid painkillers sold statewide, The Los Angeles Times reports. According to KTLA, "The tax would be imposed on wholesalers who import the medication into the state, not at the point of sale, and it would require a two-thirds approval vote in the Legislature." The companies making money on the drugs people are becoming addicted to would, in effect, pay for the treatment those patients now require.

The prescription opioid business is a multi-billion-dollar industry. While the drugs do effectively treat pain as advertised, they also carry a serious risk of addiction. It is hard to argue against the pharmaceutical industry covering some of the costs of treatment in America.

“California’s opioid epidemic has cost state taxpayers millions and the lives of too many of our sons and daughters,” McCarty said in a statement. “We must do more to help these individuals find hope and sobriety. This plan will provide counties with critical resources needed to curb the deadly cycle of opioid and heroin addiction in California.”

Ocean Holds Opioid Alternatives

In the United States, we are in desperate need of opioid alternatives when it comes to the treatment of pain. It is fair to say that the problems we face with opioid addiction today, would not be so severe if opioid painkillers were not so effective. Calls to look for alternative forms of pain management have been loud in recent years, yet physicians may be scratching their heads about what to prescribe instead. Unfortunately, many pain sufferers do not respond to meditation and acupuncture. And frankly, severe pain can require the use of powerful opioids.

Those tasked with developing opioid alternatives for pain relief are researchers at any one of a number of colleges/universities around the country. But effective research requires large teams working thousands of hours. The point being, finding opioid alternatives could take years to accomplish—when we need solutions now. Nevertheless, researchers trudge sedulously to find such alternatives, sometimes looking for answers in the strangest of places.

A number of medications currently used today have their origins in the tropical rain forests of the world. But when it comes to pain management, new options may be residing in the deep blue sea. Meet Conus regius, a species of sea snail that is both predatory and venomous.

Conus regius (Credit: Zsnapper)

Researchers at the University of Utah have isolated a compound from the snail's venom that acts on a pain pathway different from the pathway targeted by opioid painkillers, GEN reports. The compound, RgIA4, was successful at blocking alpha9alpha10 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) pain pathway receptors in rodent models. The research was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

"RgIA4 works by an entirely new pathway, which opens the door for new opportunities to treat pain," said J. Michael McIntosh, M.D., professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah Health Sciences. "We feel that drugs that work by this pathway may reduce the burden of opioid use." 

The Conus regius sea snail could be vital for the development of new painkillers that do not carry the same risks as opioids. What’s more, while RgIA4 works its way through the body in only 4 hours, the pain-relieving effects of the compound were still working 72 hours after the injection, according to the article. Dr. McIntosh points out that the majority of painkillers used today are not sufficient in addressing chronic pain. Better alternatives may be found in the ocean. Really exciting stuff.

“Nature has evolved molecules that are extremely sophisticated and can have unexpected applications," says Baldomera Olivera, Ph.D., professor in biology at the University of Utah. "We were interested in using venoms to understand different pathways in the nervous system."