Ecstasy Use Increases Dramatically
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Published: Friday, 10 January 2014 23:04
As Emergency Departments swell while suffering the repercussions of the Affordable Healthcare Act, our nation's youth increase their use of mind-altering drugs, in particular, Ecstasy (Mollys).
The number of emergency department (ED) visits related to the use of Ecstasy (MDMA) (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) has increased by a staggering 128% in just 6 years, new research shows.
Also known as Ecstasy or Molly, a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shows that MDMA-related visits among individuals younger than 21 years jumped from 4460 in 2005 to 10,176 in 2011.
In addition, 33% of ED visits involving MDMA use in this patient population also involved alcohol use.
"These findings raise concerns about the increase in popularity of this potentially harmful drug, especially in young people. Ecstasy is a street drug that can include other substances that can render it even more potentially harmful. We need to increase awareness about this drug's dangers and take other measures to prevent its use," Peter Delany, MD, SAMSHA's director of the Center for Behavioral Health and Statistics and Quality, said in a release.
MDMA has both stimulant and hallucinogenic properties. Although it is usually taken by mouth, it can also be snorted or smoked. The drug produces feelings of increased energy and euphoria and distorts users' sense and perception of time.
The report authors also note that the drug can produce a variety of negative health effects, including anxiety and confusion, that can last a week or longer. In addition, it has been associated with hypertension, as well as renal and cardiac failure.
The increase in this population is "a cause for concern due to the serious health risks involved with Ecstasy use and the higher potential for abuse when Ecstasy is mixed with alcohol," the report authors write.
The full report is available on the SAMSHA Web site.
New Dangerous Narcotic Medication
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Published: Wednesday, 18 December 2013 11:42
Prescription narcotic abuse is a major public health problem. Physicians prescribe too much oral narcotic medication. The most popular short-acting narcotics are indicated for the relief of acute pain, but are not a good option for long-term chronic pain management. The long-term use of these medications result in opioid tolerance, dependency, and addiction. The over-prescribing and inappropriate use of oral narcotic medication is an important substance abuse issue that is now being vigorously dealt with by state and federal governments as well as independent medical associations.
The following is a Medscape news brief about the latest drug, Zohydro ER which will for sure exacerbate the problem:
The attorneys general of 29 states and territories have sent a letter to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asking that the agency consider reversal of its recent approval of a single-entity extended-release hydrocodone product (Zohydro ER, Zogenix Inc).
The letter is addressed to Margaret Hamburg, MD, FDA Commissioner of Food and Drugs.
"We believe your approval of Zohydro ER has the potential to exacerbate our nation's prescription drug abuse epidemic because this drug will be the first hydrocodone-only opioid narcotic that is reportedly 5 to 10 times more potent than traditional hydrocodone products, and it has no abuse-deterrent properties," the attorneys general write.
"We hope that the FDA either reconsiders its approval of Zohydro ER, or sets a rigorous timeline for Zohydro ER to be reformulated to be abuse-deterrent while working with other federal agencies on how Zohydro ER can be marketed and prescribed," they conclude. "Law enforcement officers, public health workers, and substance abuse treatment providers are just now beginning to stem the tide of prescription drug addiction. We do not want to see their dedicated work undone."
Asked for comment, the FDA press office told Medscape Medical News that the agency is reviewing the letter and plans to respond directly to the attorneys general.
On November 1, Zogenix announced a new collaboration with Altus Formulation Inc to develop an abuse-deterrent formulation of Zohydro ER.
A "Vicious Cycle"
Zohydro ER was approved in October "for the management of pain severe enough to require daily around-the-clock long-term treatment and for which alternative options are inadequate," the FDA said in a statement at that time.
"Zohydro ER will offer prescribers an additional therapeutic option to treat pain, which is important because individual patients may respond differently to different opioids," the FDA statement said. "Due to the risks of addiction, abuse, and misuse with opioids, even at recommended doses, and because of the greater risks of overdose and death with ER/LA [extended-release/long-acting] opioid formulations, Zohydro ER should be reserved for use in patients for whom alternative treatment options are ineffective, not tolerated, or would be otherwise inadequate to provide sufficient management of pain."
The decision to approve the product had many puzzled, both because the FDA's decision went against the recommendation of the agency's advisory panel and because of its proximity to another decision, to reschedule all other combination hydrocodone formulations, including the hydrocodone-acetaminophen combo Vicodin, from Schedule III to Schedule II, increasing security measures associated with its use in an effort to reduce misuse.
"By early December, FDA plans to submit our formal recommendation package to HHS [US Department of Health and Human Services] to reclassify hydrocodone combination products into Schedule II," Janet Woodcock, MD, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statementposted on the FDA Web site October 24.
The approval of Zohydro ER was "more shocking to me than this announcement," Edward Michna, MD, member of the American Pain Society, told Medscape Medical News at that time. That these 2 events happened back-to-back is "kind of odd," added Dr. Michna, who is director of the Pain Trials Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, both in Boston, Massachusetts.
"Zohydro is another drug that doesn't have abuse-deterrent technology; so you have another opioid in high dose that is going to be released [in the midst] of pressure on drug companies to develop abuse-deterrent drugs," Dr. Michna noted.
Signing the letter addressed to the FDA are attorneys general from Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.
What they don't want, they write, is "a repeat of the recent past, when potent prescription painkilling drugs entered the market without abuse-deterrent qualities and without clear guidance on how they were to be prescribed. This created an environment whereby our nation witnessed a vicious cycle of overzealous pharmaceutical sales, doctors over-prescribing the narcotics, and patients tampering with these drugs, ultimately resulting in a nationwide prescription drug epidemic claiming thousands of lives."
