Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Linked to Exorbitant Costs

May 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

baby“A single hospital’s costs to treat neonatal abstinence syndrome in infants born to opioid-dependent mothers who received opioid replacement therapy during pregnancy totaled more than $4 million during a 3-year period, a new study shows.

The average length of stay for infants in the study ranged from 15.1 days in year 2 to 16.2 days in year 3, Dr. Roussos-Ross reported. The average total charge per infant and per hospitalization ranged from $19,535 in year 2 to $28,592 in year 3. Hospital costs per year for treating these neonates were $1.1 million in the first year, nearly $1.5 million in the second, and $1.8 million in the third year, according to the data presented.”

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/803656

Source: Medscape.com – May 6, 2013

Filed Under: 2013-05-14, Addiction, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Methadone, News Updates, Opioid Abuse/Addiction, Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs) Tagged With: , , , , ,

Blog: The State of Denial (Tennessee) gets Another Chance/Update on the State of Denial: Is the Tide Finally Turning?

May 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

“A new opioid treatment program has applied for a certificate of need with Tennessee’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, asking for permission to locate a methadone clinic in Eastern Tennessee. Sources say this is the eleventh attempt to locate an opioid treatment program that prescribes methadone in that part of Tennessee. In 2002, approval was given but then withdrawn due to a technicality.

Even if the certificate of need is approved, this company faces stiff opposition from the modern-day equivalent of villagers with pitchforks, demanding that no treatment center be located near them. This is the ugly face of modern day NIMBYism, and it violates the American with Disabilities Act, a topic of a past blog. (See November 14, 2012) It’s illegal, and past federal court rulings have sent a clear message to towns that violated the ADA in this way, with high six-figure fines.”

http://janaburson.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/the-state-of-denial-tennessee-gets-another-chance/

Source: Jana Burson – April 7, 2013

 Blog: Update on the State of Denial: Is the Tide Finally Turning?

“After my last post, I heard from Steve Kester, the co-owner and manager of the company seeking to open an opioid treatment program in Johnson City, Tennessee. He’s had great news: the certificate of need was approved. In addition, he was invited to write a Sunday editorial in the Johnson City Press, correcting mistaken information and explaining more about how an opioid treatment program works. It’s a great article.

Granted, it’s still posted in the paper as an opinion piece, though every bit of data he describes is science, proven in multiple studies. That’s much more than an opinion. But still, it’s progress for the paper to print this side of the treatment issue.”

Correction from the author, “I misread news about the certificate of need submitted to the state of Tennessee for an opioid treatment program in Johnson City. The certificate of need has been accepted, meaning it is complete. It has not been approved, as I said in this blog entry.”

http://janaburson.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/update-on-the-state-of-denial-is-the-tide-finally-turning/

Source: Jana Burson – April 11, 2013

Filed Under: 2013-05-08, Blog, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Methadone, News Updates, Opioid Abuse/Addiction, Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs) Tagged With: ,

Bangor Committee Backs Methadone Bill That Would ‘Decentralize’

May 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Maine flag“The city’s Government Operations Committee unanimously backed a bill that would allow health care facilities to administer methadone treatments, leading to reduced costs for the state and relieving the city of a portion of its hefty share of methadone patients.

The proposal, titled An Act to Reduce Costs and Increase Access to Methadone Treatment, would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to license federally qualified health centers, health care providers or medical practices as methadone treatment clinics. It is being pitched as a cost-saving measure that will allow Mainers fighting their addictions to receive treatment closer to home.”

http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/01/news/bangor/bangor-committee-backs-methadone-bill-that-would-decentralize-treatment-reduce-citys-share-of-patients/

Source: BangorDailyNews.com – April 1, 2013

Filed Under: 2013-05-08, Healthcare Reform, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Methadone, News Updates, Opioid Abuse/Addiction, Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs) Tagged With: ,

Bob Newman is Retiring, But You Haven’t Heard the Last From Him

April 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

BobNewmanphotoLegendary methadone treatment advocate Robert G. Newman, MD, is retiring. But, he hastens to add, he is not leaving the field. “What I’m leaving,” he told AT Forum in February, “is the office.”

Dr. Newman announced via a January 26 e-mail that he would be giving up his “formal role” as director of Beth Israel’s Baron Edmond de Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute. He will continue to work through June, but Hindy Bernstein, his assistant of the past 25 years, will be leaving in April. “Hindy is leaving me for Florida,” he said. Although he will no longer have the financial support of Beth Israel, he will continue advocacy efforts.

An Advocate

“The challenges are at least as great today as they were 40 years ago when I started my advocacy work,” Dr. Newman said. He will continue to be a fly in the ointment, but he does want to see more “noise” from the rest of the opioid treatment program (OTP) community.

His days will continue to begin and end the way they have for years, he told AT Forum. “I go to the Internet, I get the Google alerts, which very often have some particularly horrendous feature that I’m obliged to respond to.”

There is a lot of “bad news” for Dr. Newman to blog, write letters to the editor, and send e-mails about. And he does so very articulately. For example, some states are cutting off methadone treatment arbitrarily, trying to limit it to one or two years. Regulators are confounding addiction and dependence, not recognizing that maintenance medication is treatment, not a “substitute” for heroin. Unbelievable as it is that this non-science is going on today, some 50 years after medication-assisted treatment (MAT) has been proven effective, and in the face of federal officials, Dr. Newman sees it happening. And he isn’t going to be quiet about it.

NIMBY

NIMBY—the “not in my back yard” phenomenon in which even people who claim to support MAT don’t want programs in their neighborhoods—is illegal, violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). But despite the various ADA wins that OTPs have achieved, they are never “precedent-setting,” and therefore need to be fought over and over again. “This is terribly frustrating to me,” said Dr. Newman.

Dr. Newman said the opioid-treatment field can help with this fight. “There are many reasons for NIMBY, and some of those reasons have to do with the field, how we have allowed our treatment, our patients, our services to be viewed,” he said. “It isn’t just misperception on the part of communities and politicians. Some of the anti-methadone- patient bias reflects the way the field has chosen to isolate itself and adopt and embrace unique practices that make this treatment separate.”

 Office-based Methadone

 Dr. Newman is glad that buprenorphine has been made available to OTPs and to office-based opioid treatment (OBOT) providers, as a treatment tool for caring for opioid dependence. He notes that more than 40 years ago he proposed that private physicians be permitted to offer methadone maintenance, in addition to OTPs. And now that buprenorphine can be utilized in OBOT, why not methadone, he asks rhetorically. Dr. Newman also notes the extremely limited willingness of office-based physicians to become “waivered” to prescribe buprenorphine. “I think some of the practices of programs are so foreign to what is done in every other field of medicine that medical colleagues view this as something that is from Mars and refuse to get involved in any form of opioid-dependence treatment.”

In fact, the requirement that patients go to a clinic every day is a barrier to care. Dr. Newman is skeptical about the effect of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on OTPs in particular. “I have seen repeated references to the notion that under the ACA, there’s going to be a sudden upsurge of demand for addiction treatment,” he said. “Increased demand, maybe,” he said. “But how is that demand going to be met? You can have all the insurance you want, but an awful lot of people who need treatment will avoid OTPs because of the requirements and the stigma, and there are not that many OBOT providers.”

Nevertheless, he noted that hundreds of thousands of patients do go to OTPs for MAT, which shows how motivated these patients are. “How many people would have the motivation to deal with obesity, smoking, hypertension, or a great many other medical problems if the treatment regimen required many months of daily attendance and a host of other demands? The fact that there are 300,000 people enrolled in MAT is amazing.”

 Methadone Safety and Dosing

With an appropriate dosage schedule, methadone is an extremely safe medication, said Dr. Newman. But he warned that some OTPs give induction increments that are too great. The federal regulations state that the dose on the starting day must not be more than 40 milligrams—the first dose has to be no more than 30, and an additional dose that day can be 10, said Dr. Newman. But after that, there are some programs that raise the dose too quickly. “Some programs have induction protocols of 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,” with the dose going up daily, he said. The rule of thumb—“start low, go slow, aim high”—needs more of an emphasis on “go slow.”

 Federal Exclusions

Finally, Dr. Newman would like to see more support for methadone treatment at the federal level. The insurance plans of the federal Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense have an exclusion against methadone and buprenorphine maintenance treatment, something Dr. Newman has long railed against. “Tom McLellan (then deputy director of the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy) and other very high-level officials have said the exclusion is bad, and that they were trying to change it,” said Dr. Newman. “But it persists, and that’s inexcusable and shameful. “

What Dr. Newman wants advocates to do is to speak up. “Silence equals death,” he said, citing an oft-used slogan of AIDS activists years ago. And he is not going to be silent. “There are a lot of windmills still out there.”

Filed Under: Healthcare Reform, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Methadone, Newsletter, Opioid Abuse/Addiction, Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs), Patient Advocacy, Spring 2013 Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Two Kinds of Roles for OTP Peers under the Affordable Care Act

April 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

flag and stetPeers—patients in medication-assisted treatment (MAT) who are in recovery—are gradually being enlisted into the workforce, thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Two kinds of roles are surfacing: recovery coaches, and “navigators” who help enroll uninsured people in private insurance through health insurance exchanges. The recovery coaching idea is not new, but the navigator one is—especially at the level of actually enrolling patients.

Community-based organizations in New York City have already signed up to be navigators, and the National Alliance for Medication Assisted Recovery (NAMA) hopes to be a part of this, says Joycelyn Woods, executive director.

Ms. Woods, like many observers, thinks there are going to be many glitches in getting people enrolled, and doubts that everyone who isn’t insured will be by next January. NAMA received a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for educating patients and training navigators. “What SAMHSA is trying to do is to educate people,” explains Ms. Woods.

Recovery coaches will be a great asset to opioid treatment programs (OTPs), because they will make the programs more like the early ones in which “half the staff were patients,” says Ms. Woods. “They would hire patients and social workers and pair them together. The social worker would teach the patient about the academic part, and the patient would teach the social worker about the other part.” The “other part” is the experience of being a patient, a person with addiction, a person in a program.

Training

Training is based on the Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR) protocol. As it is being used in the FOR-NY Recovery Coach Academy, the training consists of 30 hours. CCAR includes regular follow-up telephone calls—that probably won’t happen with Medicaid, which requires face-to-face contact, says Ms. Woods. But in New York City, which is not rural like Connecticut, it’s likely that face-to-face counseling can be done.

There are also issues with the payment structure for the peers doing coaching, and the state is still working on those.

Some methadone counselors have already participated in training, because they want the recovery coach credential, says Ms. Woods. Although recovery coaching spans all addiction, including alcohol, in New York State anyone doing recovery coaching in a methadone program must also have four hours of training in MAT. This is essential, says Ms. Woods. “Can you imagine people from abstinence-based programs doing recovery coaching in an OTP?”

The NYCB recovery coach credential which requires 60 total hours of training requires 4 hours of MAT training for all coaches wanting the credential, explains Mr. Ginter. The NYCB is the only certification board currently requiring this for their recovery coach credential.

Navigator vs Peercoaching

There’s a subtle difference between what a navigator does, and what the peer acting as a navigator does, says Tom Hill, director of programs at Faces and Voices of Recovery, which has been a major guiding light in the peer recovery coaching movement. “The peer assister or navigator does outreach and pulls people in to walk through the insurance enrollment process,” says Mr. Hill. “There’s one port of entry, and depending on the income, the person would be routed to Medicaid or the exchanges.”

The enrollment process for Medicaid has always been cumbersome, but the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) says it has simplified that process, notes Mr. Hill. “An organization that is able to conduct outreach and get someone to a computer can walk them through the process and get them enrolled.” The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is soon to issue a request for applications for navigator grants, says Mr. Hill.

The SAMHSA grants are small: only $25,000 for and there were only eight awarded, says Mr. Hill. “They’re not very detailed because there’s only so much you can do with that amount,” he says. “Some of the grants deal directly with developing enrollment strategies—but others are more generally focused on educating the community,” he says.

There’s a lot of pressure to enroll uninsured people by October 1, says Mr. Hill. “We’ve been pretty clear that the folks we have on the ground in addiction recovery communities are capable of doing the assisting and the navigating,” he says. “Now it’s just a matter of everything falling into place.”

New York City is a good litmus test for the navigator grants, says Mr. Hill, noting that the NAMA grant is good model.

The NAMA contract is to educate MAT patients about the ACA, says Walter Ginter, project director of the Medication Assisted Recovery Support (MARS) project at NAMA. “We’re going to contact all the doctors, and through focus groups and webinars, provide the education about the exchanges,” he says. But he is concerned that the education isn’t going to go far enough, and that actually enrolling people in insurance is a task that has not been well thought out.

“There’s a lot going on at breakneck speed right now,” he says. “It’s exciting and scary and terrifying.”

Filed Under: Healthcare Reform, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Methadone, Newsletter, Opioid Abuse/Addiction, Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs), Prescription Drugs, Spring 2013 Tagged With: , ,

NASADAD Issues Consensus Statement Endorsing Medication-Assisted Treatment

April 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

health insurance approved1The top state officials in substance abuse treatment approved a consensus statement in December that states that medication-assisted treatment (MAT) should be paid for by public and private health insurance plans. This was the first time that the board of directors of the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD) approved a statement that endorsed MAT as evidence-based treatment. The statement was released January 15. It focuses on MAT for opioid addiction, and is essentially an anti-stigma document, aimed at supporting single state agencies (SSAs)—the authorities over the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment block grant.

The consensus statement is footnoted and includes the following assertions:

  •  Dependence on alcohol and drugs is a complex but treatable disease that affects brain function and behavior.
  •  No one treatment protocol is appropriate for everyone.
  •  For some individuals, use of medication is recommended as a recovery tool.
  •  Where clinically appropriate, use of medication as a recovery resource should be utilized as an adjunct to other treatment services.

 Medications such as methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone (both oral and extended release injection) have been shown to reduce opioid use; and naltrexone, disulfiram, and acamprosate have been shown to be effective in the treatment of alcohol dependence. The appropriate use of these medications allows individuals to experience sustained recovery from opioid and alcohol dependence, including through long-term management using medication maintenance. The medications should be made available to individuals who could benefit from them.

 It is recommended that any medication-assisted treatment be combined with psychosocial and behavioral strategies that are clinically matched to the severity of the individual’s addiction.

 Longitudinal studies show that treatment initiated in the criminal justice system and continued in the community garners lasting reductions in criminal activity and drug abuse. This includes medication-assisted treatment (e.g., methadone, buprenorphine/naloxone, and injectable naltrexone) for some prisoners with opioid dependence.

 “There is still ambivalence around the use of addiction medications,” says Belinda Greenfield, PhD, the State Opioid Treatment Authority (SOTA) for New York. “That’s why NASADAD and the Opioid Treatment Network say MAT is important to be considered as a treatment option.” The SOTAs became part of NASADAD last year when the association formed the Opioid Treatment Network (OTN). Dr. Greenfield, president of the OTN, is also director of the Bureau of Treatment, Addiction Medicine & Self Sufficiency Services of the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) in New York State.

 The problem—not accepting MAT—is particularly significant outside of the methadone field, but even in the substance abuse treatment world, a substantial number of providers espouse “drug-free” treatment, says Henrick Harwood, research director for NASADAD. “Many public-sector programs feel on principle that drug-free is the best approach,” he says. . However, he points out that over the last several years, many have been changing their point of view. “There’s been growing support for MAT.”

 Fight Stigma from Within

Dr. Greenfield says that opioid treatment programs (OTPs) themselves could be better advocates for MAT: they need to be vocal about the fact that patients in MAT are in recovery—they should be called “drug-free” because they’re taking a medication, not seeking a drug. “People in MAT are stable and drug-free, and are maintained on an addiction medication.”

Unfortunately, to some degree, Dr. Greenfield says, patients don’t consider themselves part of the recovery community, and that’s something that OTPs should be working to correct, partly by educating staff. “OTPs should be really actively involved in ROSC functions,” she says, referring to Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care.

 It also would help for OTPs to acknowledge that it is not only methadone that constitutes treatment, but buprenorphine, and behavioral therapies as well, says Dr. Greenfield. “We need to consider addiction medications as one of the options. We can’t say we use only methadone. Patients aren’t that cookie-cutter anymore.”

The Medical Mainstream

Stigma relates directly to the mainstreaming of OTPs, says Mr. Harwood. “It’s important to communicate that methadone treatment has moved in the direction of mainstream medication.” Accreditation by the Joint Commission and CARF are helping to promote the fact that OTPs are in the medical mainstream, he says.

Dr. Greenfield also says part of making MAT better accepted means involving patients more—something that is being encouraged in the rest of medicine, as well. “The language around patient-centered care needs to be better integrated in an OTP setting,” she says, noting that patient advisory committees can be helpful in implementing patient-centered care.

Finally, OTP staff need support as well, because they feel stigmatized, says Dr. Greenfield. They should be proud to tell their family and friends that they are working in an OTP, with patients on MAT. “As long as working in an OTP setting doesn’t seem desirable, this is a problem,” she says. “How do we elevate the cachet of working in an OTP and having staff feel proud of the work we do?”

Challenges for SOTAs

In some states, SOTAs themselves have challenges promoting MAT with their own governors and legislature.

“SOTAs are doing everything they can to advocate within their own states,” says Dr. Greenfield. The problem is that despite the scientific literature, methadone isn’t well understood—the fact that it prevents relapse. “Why can’t this rest with the clinicians and physicians?” she asks. Unfortunately, there are places where the legislature and state administrations oppose methadone and OTPs. This hasn’t been a problem in New York. “But the SOTAs and the SSAs in many states have a huge undertaking and a huge task in trying to advocate for methadone.”

One argument that might help sway some MAT opponents is cost-effectiveness. Mr. Harwood notes that the literature documents the cost-effectiveness of methadone and OTPs. “This is something that advocates need to keep in mind,” he says. “It’s not just that MAT is effective. It’s a win-win for society and communities to provide MAT, especially for opioid addiction.”

For the consensus statement, go to http://nasadad.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/13-January-15-NASADAD-Statement-on-MAT.pdf

Filed Under: Addiction, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Methadone, Newsletter, Opioid Abuse/Addiction, Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs), Spring 2013 Tagged With: , , , ,

NASADAD Prescription Drug Inquiry Reveals SSAs Very Concerned About Prescription Drug Misuse and Abuse

April 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

doctor and prescription bottlePrescription drug abuse—something a whole industry of monitoring and law enforcement is growing up around—is a public health problem first, according to the state substance abuse officials responsible for treatment and prevention. That said, these same directors—the single state agencies (SSAs) with authority over the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment block grant—also want to participate in the prescription drug abuse conversation, explains Rob Morrison, executive director of the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD).

Based on an inquiry of its entire membership, NASADAD staff found that single state agencies consider prescription drug misuse and abuse very important—for some, the most important—issue they face. The inquiry took place last year and was released in fall of 2012.

Forty-seven states responded to the inquiry, which yielded the following results:

  • Prescription drugs are the most important issue affecting states (23%), very important (58%), or important/moderately important (19%)
  • Of the states surveyed,
    • 62% currently have a task force addressing prescription drugs
    • 15% had a task force on prescription drugs that completed its work
    • 68% passed legislation in the past 5 years addressing prescription drug misuse and abuse
    • 83% have undertaken education efforts about prescription drug abuse for the general public
  • Among states with prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs),
    • 54% have some single state agency (SSA) involvement with the PDMP
    • 43% have no SSA involvement with the PDMP
    • 64% find PDMP data very useful or useful
    • 13% describe the data as somewhat useful in addressing prescription drug abuse issues

There are continued challenges to SSAs trying to address prescription drug misuse and abuse “related to data, funding constraints, collaboration, workforce development, public education, and ease of access to pills,” according to the report. It found that “although PDMPs and the data they provide are useful to SSAs, the level of oversight, access, and involvement of SSAs continues to be limited.”

Great emphasis has been placed on addressing the utility of PDMPs, but it’s important for the SSAs, as the public health and treatment experts, to be involved. SSAs would like to have more oversight, access, and involvement with PDMPs, according to the report.

In only three states—Vermont, Maine, and Maryland—is the PDMP operated under the purview of the SSA, and the agency could use the information to help get people who are misusing or abusing medications into appropriate treatment. “We have a steep growth curve here,” says Henrick Harwood, research director of NASADAD. “We need to increase the education so prescribers can help people get into treatment.”

The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has been very helpful in issuing a strategy and structure around which to build a public health approach to prescription drug abuse, says NASADAD’s Mr. Morrison.

 Connection to MAT

There is a clear connection between prescription opioid abuse and medication-assisted treatment (MAT). Many patients newly admitted to treatment are dependent on opioids—either because they started taking them for pain, then began misusing them, or abused them from the beginning. When they try to stop, they go into withdrawal. So some states have increased training for treatment staff, in particular on prescription drug abuse and on MAT.

And there are particular challenges for states in addressing prescription drug abuse. For example, PDMP data aren’t always of good quality or easy to utilize, according to the report. And substance use disorder treatment providers don’t always have a way to access it. There is also a dearth of financial resources, with lack of adequate funding for MAT and lack of funding for naloxone overdose kits, a promising public health response to overdoses, according to the report. And there are problems with states’ proposing to restrict MAT funding.

The NASADAD report is available at: http://nasadad.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/NASADAD-Report-SSAs-and-Prescription-Drug-Misuse-and-Abuse-09.20121.pdf

Filed Under: Addiction, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Methadone, Newsletter, Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs), Prescription Drugs, Research/Surveys, Spring 2013 Tagged With: , , , ,

Why MMT Patients Exchange Prescription Drugs

April 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Patients in methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) exchange a variety of prescription drugs—but little is known about why this happens, and how common it is.

pills and moneyGiven the risks of this practice—drug interactions, side effects, addiction, antibiotic resistance, birth defects, and possible interruption of MMT—a group affiliated with Butler Hospital and Brown University, Providence, RI, decided to find out. They published their findings in the January 1, 2013 issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence. From December 2008 through January 2012, the team screened 767 individuals who enrolled in a smoking cessation trial in nine MMT sites in Southern New England. Characteristics of the 315 participants recruited were:

  • Average age 40 years
  • 49% male
  • 79% non-Hispanic white, 12% Hispanic, 2.5% black
  • Health insurance: public, 56%; private, 14%
  • 42% received disability payments
  • Average length of methadone treatment, 154 weeks
  • Past-30-day use of heroin, 7%; cocaine, 8%

Study Results

About 79 percent of participants had been prescribed at least one medication during the previous year. The drugs include allergy medications, antibiotics, blood pressure medications, erectile dysfunction drugs, antidepressants, tranquilizers, and drugs of abuse: sedatives, medications for ADHD, sleep medications, pain medications, and Suboxone (buprenorphine and naloxone).

About 20 percent of participants reported sharing their medication, and almost 40 percent said they had used medication not prescribed to them. While these rates may not be significantly higher than those in the general population, they represent a substantial risk to MMT patients. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people with substance abuse histories are particularly vulnerable to overdose and adverse events related to illicit prescription drug use. Moreover, the authors note that MMT confers significant health benefits, and continued use of non-prescribed prescription medications may interrupt treatment.

Medications most often shared (given or sold) and received (borrowed or bought) were those with abuse potential—pain medications, sleep medications, and sedatives.

Sources of Drugs of Abuse

Sources, by Patients’ Responses

Drug

No. of Patients

No. of Responses

Given by Friend or Family Member,

No. (%)

Bought From Someone Patient Knew, No. (%)

Bought on The Street, No. (%)
ADHDa medications

8

9

 6
(66.7)		 0
(0.0)		 3
(33.3)
Pain medications

61

71

 39
(54.9)		 2
(2.8)		 30
(42.3)
Sedatives

61

78

 45
(57.7)		 10
(12.8)		 23
(29.5)
Sleep medications

43

41

 40
(97.6)		 1
(2.4)		 0
(0.0)
Suboxoneb

34

40

 16
(40.0)		 0
(0.0)		 24
(60.0)

aAttention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

bBuprenorphine and naloxone.

As the table shows, patients generally received medications of abuse from friends or family, rather than buying them. Of interest, the only exception was Suboxone; 40 percent of patients (n=16) received the buprenorphine and naloxone medication from friends or family, and 60 percent (n=24) bought it on the street. In contrast, 66.7 percent of patients received their ADHD drug from friends or family, and 33.3 percent bought on the street; the corresponding percentages for pain medications were 54.9 from friends or family, 42.3 from street purchases, and 2.8 from acquaintance purchases.

The authors commented that the frequent receipt of buprenorphine from nonmedical sources “is consistent with an earlier study of opioid users, where 76% reported that they had used illicit buprenorphine.”

The authors did not list the specific prescription sedatives and pain medications bought on the street, but the former group includes benzodiazepines and barbiturates, and the latter group, opioids and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) combinations.

Reasons for Exchanging Medications of Abuse

The only factor significantly associated with sharing drugs of abuse was younger age.

Four factors were significantly associated with receiving medications of abuse: younger age, being male, recent use of heroin or cocaine, and financial hardship.

The authors noted the important impact of financial hardship and low socioeconomic status on sharing and receiving. In the previous 6 months, 21 percent of the study population had at times gone without food, clothing, or housing to pay for medicine, and 8 percent had gone without needed medical care to pay for those necessities.

Moreover, the MMT population “has high rates of being uninsured or underinsured”—thus is more likely to share and receive various medications, not just illicit opioids. Many participants had public rather than private insurance, so “medication access, continuity, and affordability may still be a concern,” the authors said.

Value of the Study

This early study sheds light on the high rate of medication exchanges among MMT patients, and on some characteristics that lead to sharing and receiving—in particular, vulnerability, financial hardship, “and the need to self-medicate a physical health problem.”

These reasons underscore the need for better approaches to help this at-risk population. The authors note that while many resources for studying, defining, and understanding prescription drug exchange focus on trafficking, “doctor shopping,” and internet purchase of illegal prescriptions, prescription medication sharing also contributes to illegal use.

Reasons for sharing and receiving need further examination both to prevent the exchange of prescription drugs and to “maximize care to a vulnerable and underserved population,” the authors said.

    *     *     *

Caviness CM, Anderson BJ, de Dios MA, et al. Prescription medication exchange patterns among methadone maintenance patients. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2013; 127(1-3):232-238. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2012.07.007.

 

Filed Under: Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Methadone, Newsletter, Opioid Abuse/Addiction, Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs), Prescription Drugs, Spring 2013 Tagged With: , , ,

From the Editor – Maine Continuing to Push for Caps on Medication-Assisted Treatment

April 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

hour glass1First, Maine imposed two-year caps on methadone and buprenorphine treatment, if paid for by MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program. The caps were due to take effect January 1, but treatment advocates were able to work out a medical-necessity exemption, which said that as long as patients were doing well, they could stay past the two-year limit.

Never mind that this made no sense—patients who are not doing well should be kicked off treatment—to go where, the streets? In any event, it was better than nothing. But in March, a new bill was introduced that would have eliminated even the medical necessity exemption. Two years on treatment, and that’s it.

Mark Publicker, MD, president of the Northern New England Society of Addiction Medicine, who helped lead the advocates’ battle for the medical necessity exemption, is “back in the saddle”—pressing the state legislature and the regulators for a reasonable approach.

Under the proposed bill, as of January 1, 2015 no patient would be allowed to be on methadone or buprenorphine for more than two years, if paid for by Medicaid.

“It’s outrageous,” he told AT Forum.

Filed Under: Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Methadone, Newsletter, Opioid Abuse/Addiction, Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs), Spring 2013 Tagged With: , , , , ,

Forced Methadone Withdrawal in Jails Creates Barrier to Treatment in Community

April 4, 2013 by 1 Comment

jail croppedMethadone treatment for opioid dependence remains widely unavailable behind bars in the United States, and many inmates are forced to discontinue this evidence-based therapy, which lessens painful withdrawal symptoms. Now a new study by researchers from the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, a collaboration of The Miriam Hospital and Brown University, offers some insight on the consequences of these mandatory withdrawal policies.

According to their research, published online by the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment and appearing in the May/June issue, nearly half of the opioid-dependent individuals who participated in the study say concerns with forced methadone withdrawal discouraged them from seeking methadone therapy in the community after their release.

“Inmates are aware of these correctional methadone withdrawal policies and know they’ll be forced to undergo this painful process again if they are re-arrested. It’s not surprising that many reported that if they were incarcerated and forced into withdrawal, they would rather withdraw from heroin than from methadone, because it is over in days rather than weeks or longer,” said senior author Josiah D. Rich, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, which is based at The Miriam Hospital.

He points out that methadone is one of the only medications that is routinely stopped upon incarceration. “This research highlights that what happens behind bars with methadone termination impacts our ability to give methadone, a proven treatment, to people in the community,” he added. “Given that opioid dependence causes major health and social issues, these correctional policies have serious implications.”

For the past four decades, methadone has been the treatment of choice for opioid dependence, including heroin, and is on the World Health Organization’s list of “Essential Medicines” that should be made available at all times by health systems to patients. This “anti-addictive” medication prevents withdrawal symptoms and drug cravings and blocks the euphoric effects of illicit opioids. Additionally, methadone therapy has been shown to reduce the risk of criminal activity, relapse, infectious disease transmission (including HIV and hepatitis) and overdose death.

However, in the United States, a significant proportion of people who are opioid dependent are not engaged in methadone replacement therapy. Rich says the majority of patients terminate treatment prematurely, often within the first year.

In their study, Rich and colleagues surveyed 205 people in drug treatment in two states – Rhode Island and Massachusetts – that routinely enforce methadone withdrawal in correctional facilities. They found nearly half of all participants reported concern regarding forced methadone withdrawal during incarceration. Individuals in Massachusetts, which has more severe methadone withdrawal procedures, were more likely to cite concern.

“If other evidence-based medicines like insulin therapy were routinely terminated or withdrawn from those who were incarcerated, we would hear about these serious lapses in care. They would likely garner some attention. But routine termination of methadone maintenance therapy has been occurring in the criminal justice system for decades and remains a little discussed and highly neglected issue,” says lead author Jeannia J. Fu, Sc.B., a former researcher with The Miriam Hospital who is now affiliated with the Yale University School of Medicine.

Rich adds, “We should examine the impact of incarceration itself, and what happens behind bars, on public health and public safety outcomes, and tailor our policies appropriately. We have methadone, which has been shown to improve public health and public safety, yet we have policies that reduce access to this treatment. The correctional policies on methadone should be re-evaluated in terms of the impact they have on the individual and the community.”

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/l-fmw032713.php

Information on the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD) initiatives to increase access to methadone treatment in the Criminal Justice System is available at: http://www.aatod.org/projectseducational-training/methadone-treatment-in-the-criminal-justice/

Source: Eurekalert.org – March 27, 2013

Filed Under: 2013-04-08, Drug Courts & Criminal Justice, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Methadone, News Updates Tagged With: , , ,

AATOD Guidelines for Guest Medication

March 9, 2013 by 1 Comment

“Absent regulations or published practices for Guest Medication, AATOD is providing these recommended “Guest Medication” guidelines. Guest Medication provides a mechanism for patients who are not eligible for take-home medication to travel from their home clinic for business, pleasure or family emergencies. It also provides an option for patients who need to travel for a period of time that exceeds the amount of  eligible take-home doses to do so within regulatory requirements. While AATOD acknowledges there may be state and program variations, AATOD believes that Guest Medication should be patient centered, respectful, and compassionate.”

http://www.aatod.org/policies/policy-statements/aatod-guidelines-for-guest-medication/

Source: American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence, Inc. – March 6, 2013

Filed Under: 2013-03-11, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Methadone, News Updates, Opioid Abuse/Addiction, Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs) Tagged With: , , , ,

U.N. Report Suggests Some Autism & Addiction Treatments Are Akin to Torture

March 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment

“The report [PDF] singled out tactics such as forced labor, punitive use of electric shock, prolonged restraint and isolation, rape and other sexual violence in detention, as well as and denial of maintenance medications like methadone or buprenorphine (Suboxone) in treating addiction.  It also reported on failures to provide adequate pain treatment as potentially constituting torture.”

“A particular form of ill-treatment and possibly torture of drug users is the denial of opiate substitution treatment,” the report says, noting that this is considered a human rights violation when done in jails and prisons. “Similar reasoning should apply to the non-custodial context,” it says, meaning that provision of such treatment should be required when desired by patients and where evidence suggests it would help.  Some countries — like Russia — completely ban the use of maintenance treatments, despite the fact that they have been shown to cut overdose deaths dramatically.  American prisons also routinely deny access to maintenance medications, citing concerns about inmates selling them, which puts them in violation of these human rights.”

http://healthland.time.com/2013/03/06/u-n-report-suggests-some-autism-addiction-treatments-are-akin-to-torture/#

Source: Healthland.Time.com – March 6, 2013

Filed Under: 2013-03-11, Addiction, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Methadone, News Updates, Opioid Abuse/Addiction Tagged With: ,

Pennsylvania – Under the Influence of … Methadone, Others Want More Oversight of Opioid Connected to Fatal Crashes

March 9, 2013 by 1 Comment

“Under a new law that took effect in January, a Methadone Death and Incident Review Team will convene for the first time Monday in Harrisburg to examine the circumstances surrounding methadone-related deaths, including car crashes and overdoses, and will review other problems with the synthetic opioid, the most widely used drug to treat heroin addiction.

Calling methadone “dangerous,” state Sen. Mike Stack, D-Philadelphia supports new regulations that would make methadone clinics partly responsible for crashes involving drivers who leave their facilities. He said he began pushing for methadone reform about two years ago after learning about constituents overdosing.

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-methadone-clinic-crashes-20130302,0,3321816,full.story

Source: The Morning Call – March 2, 2013

Filed Under: 2013-03-11, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Methadone, News Updates, Opioid Abuse/Addiction, Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs) Tagged With: , , , ,

Blog – News Outlets Behaving Badly: Appalling Article by Bloomberg

February 28, 2013 by 1 Comment

“I don’t know if any of my readers caught that awful article on bloomberg.com, criticizing methadone clinics and their patients. I’m not going to post a link to it because it doesn’t deserve a link. But I did write to the editor, the writer of the story, and a comment to their post:

I read this disjointed and error-ridden article with sadness. I wish you could spend a day with me, talking to the patients I treat with methadone for their opioid addiction. You’d hear how, for many patients, methadone has been a life-saver. Most of my patients are ordinary people who became addicted before they knew what was happening. A very small number are criminals, and those few get media attention, propagating the myth that all methadone patients are irresponsible criminals. This just isn’t true. My patients are housewives, blue collar workers, secretaries, and schoolteachers. Anyone can become addicted.”

The blog can be accessed at: http://janaburson.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/news-outlets-behaving-badly-appalling-article-by-bloomberg/

Source: Janaburson’s Blog – February 9, 2013

Filed Under: 2013-03-01, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Methadone, News Updates, Opioid Abuse/Addiction, Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs) Tagged With: , , , ,

Addiction Expert: Treatment Providers Can Perpetuate Media Stereotypes of Patients

February 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment

“Stereotypes about addiction, perpetuated by the media, can be unintentionally reinforced by addiction professionals, according to a New York addiction expert.

“When you go to a diabetes clinic, you don’t expect your doctor to have diabetes. But many people treating those who are addicted have themselves been treated for addiction, and tend to use the same lingo as their patients to make them feel more comfortable,” Dr. Edwin A. Salsitz, MD, Medical Director, Office-Based Opioid Therapy at Beth Israel Medical Center, said at a recent meeting, “Solutions to the Addiction Crisis.” “They use terms like ‘dirty’ or ‘clean’ to refer to a urine drug test, instead of the more medical ‘positive’ or ‘negative.’ Using slang in addiction medicine can be confusing and demeaning, and reinforce the stigma attached to addiction.”

http://www.drugfree.org/join-together/addiction/addiction-expert-treatment-providers-can-perpetuate-media-stereotypes-of-patients

Source: JoinTogether.org – February 5, 2013

Filed Under: 2013-03-01, Addiction, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Methadone, News Updates, Opioid Abuse/Addiction, Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs), Patient Advocacy Tagged With: , , ,
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