Enterhealth, a Dallas-based drug and alcohol addiction treatment company, has come out in support of current efforts made this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide clearer guidelines for doctors and providers for prescribing opioid medications. Enterhealth Chief Medical Strategist Harold Clifton Urschel III, M.D., M.M.A., author of the 2009 New York Times bestseller Healing the Addicted Brain, suggests that the burden for stemming the growing opiate epidemic lies heavily on those providers who are currently overprescribing.
“We, both prescribers and patients, are fortunate to have effective prescription opiates like hydrocodone and OxyContin, and benzodiazepines like Valium and Xanax available for the treatment of pain and anxiety,” said Dr. Urschel. “Whereas patients may not understand the risks widely associated with these drugs, prescribers must—given their authoritative role in providing firsthand medical or psychiatric treatment to those at risk for addiction.”
The United States uses approximately 80 percent of all opiates prescribed in the world, though it only has about 5 percent of the global population. According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), approximately 1.9 million Americans live with prescription opioid abuse or dependence, of which 17,000 fatally overdose each year, averaging 46 people per day that die from a prescription drug overdose; about two per hour.
“Over-prescription often starts somewhere as innocuous as a dentist’s office after a routine procedure,” added Dallas resident Dr. Urschel. “The patient’s pain is gone in two days, but she still has 23 pills left, and so she finishes off the bottle. When those pills run out in 10 days, not only does she have to face the psychological angst of not having any more, but in many cases she also feels physical symptoms from the sudden absence of the medication in her system. This significant ‘uncomfortable condition’ moment, we have found, presents a widespread misunderstanding in terms of how our bodies rebalance under normal circumstances.”
Currently, the government and medical societies are working to better educate physicians to change their prescribing habits, which will hopefully stem the tide of new prescription opiate abuse cases. For those already experiencing physical dependence, however, it’s important to not see a hopeless fight against an inevitable addiction, but rather an illness that can be treated effectively and immediately with medication.
“There are anti-addiction medications such as Suboxone and Vivtrol to treat opiate addiction and withdrawal that will help the brain recover from the intense opioid cravings and discomfort associated with withdrawal,” said Dr. Urschel.
This approach, which is gaining broader appeal nationally, is the method used at Enterhealth when treating opiate addiction under the oversight of Dr. Urschel at both the Enterhealth Ranch, an exclusive treatment facility just 30 minutes north of Dallas/Fort Worth, and the Enterhealth Outpatient Center of Excellence located in the Park Cities, just north of downtown Dallas.