Pubdate: Sat, 15 Nov 2003
Source: Post-Standard, The (NY)
Copyright: 2003, Syracuse Post-Standard
Contact:  http://www.syracuse.com/poststandard/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/686
Author:James T. Mulder

ADDICTION TO PAINKILLERS SKYROCKETS IN CNY

About Half Of Prescription Addicts Treated At Tully Hill Were Health 
Professionals.

A local addiction expert says he's seeing a dramatic rise in the number of 
patients hooked on the same kinds of prescription drugs that sent national 
radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh into rehab.

Referrals of patients addicted to the painkiller OxyContin, the drug 
Limbaugh abused, have doubled so far this year at Tully Hill Alcohol & Drug 
Treatment Center in Tully, according to Dr. Ronald Dougherty, the 
facility's medical director. Dougherty said he's also seeing more patients 
addicted to Hydrocodone, another narcotic pain reliever.

"This stuff is worse than heroin," he said.

And about half the people treated at Tully Hill last year for prescription 
drug abuse were doctors, pharmacists, nurses, other health care 
professionals, Dougherty said.

Most of the patients Dougherty sees start out taking the drug to treat 
legitimate pain, then develop a tolerance, prompting them to take more and 
more. By the time they come in for help, some patients who started out on 
four tablets a day of Hydrocodone are popping 40 pills a day, he said.

Of the 381 people admitted to Tully Hill last year, 41 were addicted to 
prescription drugs. About one-third of the 900 people treated annually for 
drug and alcohol addiction at Crouse Hospital are prescription drug 
abusers, according to Otto Feliu, who directs the hospital's program.

Nationally, there has been a dramatic surge in prescription drug abuse.

Prescription medications are the most widely abused type of drug after 
marijuana, according to a national survey recently released by the federal 
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Last year an 
estimated 6.2 million people, or 2.6 percent of the population ages 12 and 
older, abused prescription drugs, the survey showed. Of these, 4.4 million 
used narcotic pain relievers, more than 10 times the number of people 
abusing these drugs in the mid-1980s.

The number of emergency room visits linked to prescription drug abuse 
soared 163 percent between 1995 and 2002, according to SAMHSA.

"Some people think they are somehow taking something safer if they are 
taking a prescription drug rather than heroin," said Leah Young, speaking 
for SAMHSA. "They can pick it up at the drugstore and not meet somebody out 
on the street corner. They don't realize it's an equal narcotic."

Many of the prescription drug abusers Crouse sees don't start taking drugs 
to ease legitimate pain, but merely for the narcotic effects, Feliu said. 
Some addicts have a history of going from emergency room to emergency room 
where they complain of hard-to-diagnose back pains and ask doctors to 
prescribe specific drugs, he said.

The prescriptionof narcotics is tightly regulated in New York. Doctors have 
to use special forms and their prescribing patterns are monitored by the state.

Some patients try to get prescriptions improperly by visiting lots of doctors.

"They tell the physician the German shepherd swallowed their prescription 
or they lost it," Dougherty said. "When the physicians catch on, they won't 
treat them anymore. An awful lot of people know how to manipulate doctors."

Some doctors themselves get hooked. Most lost their licenses to practice in 
New York.

The Internet has become another source for drugs. Online pharmacies flood 
the Internet with e-mails advertising OxyContin, Hydrocodone and other 
drugs without prescriptions. Young, of SAMHSA, said there are no estimates 
of how many people are buying drugs over the Internet. "Obviously people 
are getting drugs wherever they are able to get them."

Rick Kinsella, president of Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare, a rehab 
program, said he knows of people who have developed serious addiction 
problems buying drugs over the Internet.

"It's an unregulated pipeline that certainly is causing problems," he said.

Prescription drugs are often diverted from their intended patients and sold 
on the street, according to Dougherty. Doctors frequently prescribe large 
amounts of OxyContin and other painkillers for patients dying of cancer, he 
said. Relatives and friends often misappropriate those drugs, which then 
find their way into the community, he said.

OxyContin is sold on the street for anywhere from $10 a pill to $30 a pill, 
while Hydrocodone goes for about $5 a pill, according to Dougherty.

Some of the prescription drugs also are being stolen by young people, said 
Tamara Henry-Kurtz, executive director of the Syracuse Onondaga Drug and 
Alcohol Abuse Commission.

"What I'm hearing is that kids, especially baby sitters, are walking into 
other people's houses and taking prescription drugs," Henry-Kurtz said. 
"They will do a bathroom medicine cabinet search."

The SAMHSA survey showed 4 percent of the nation's 12- to 17-year-olds 
abused prescription drugs last year.

Limbaugh toldhis radio listeners last month he became addicted to 
painkillers after spinal surgery several years ago. His former maid told 
the National Enquirer she bought thousands of pills for him.

After acknowledging his addiction on the air, Limbaugh went into rehab and 
is scheduled to return to his program Monday.
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