Pubdate: Sun, 19 Nov 2006 Source: Journal Standard, The (Freeport, IL) Copyright: 2006 The Journal Standard Contact: http://www.journalstandard.com/forms/letters/ Website: http://www.journalstandard.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3182 Author: Diana Roemer, The Journal-Standard Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone) PAINKILLER ABUSE CASES GROWING FREEPORT - The addiction begins innocently enough. A little brown bottle filled with a prescription medication for some kind of pain is dispensed by the pharmacy and stapled neatly inside a small, white bag. Some patients take the medication until the pain is gone and that's it. For others, that one little bottle can lead to more bottles, in what becomes a never-ending cycle of pill-popping and doctor shopping. Michael N. Martin, 40, of Orangeville, knows all about doctor shopping. He did that, he said, after back pain became so intense he felt a greater and greater need to use more and more medication. Martin, a paramedic, fell off a roof and injured his back in 1996. Surgeries came in 1997, 2000 and 2003. Another herniated disc after that resulted in doctors' recommendations for even more surgery. "I was all bent over and couldn't straighten up," Martin said. He said his discs dried out over time and caused bulging. Doctors told him he could eventually end up in a wheelchair. No one is immune from painkillers, not even senior citizens, who slip into addiction just as easily as anyone else. It is becoming increasingly recognized that the agony of arthritis, cancer treatments, osteoporosis, or difficult operations is turning grandma or grandpa - and sometimes their children and grandchildren - into unwitting drug abusers who are either confused and stumble into addiction; or just can't resist the high and the urge to increase the dose once it begins. In Freeport and Stephenson County, drug addiction among seniors is a growing concern, health officials say. "It's here, it's here," said Mildred Zimmerman of FHN's New Vision treatment center. "A Sunday School teacher you know and love can be addicted." Zimmerman said she has seen the addictions and the problems that stem from commonly prescribed medications such as Vicodin and OxyContin in the senior community in Stephenson County. So have the doctor's offices, which routinely turn away so-called "pill shoppers" from all demographic groups and income strata. OxyContin abuse made headlines when conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh admitted on his show Oct. 10, 2003, that he was an addict and abuser of pain medication. But the problem has been around much longer than that. Law enforcement officials say illegal distribution of OxyContin occurs through pharmacy diversion, "doctor shopping" by patients, fake prescriptions, and robbery - all means to satisfy an insatiable demand for the drug by individuals and on the street. Martin took drugs because he wanted to continue working and providing for his family. More surgeries increased his risk for more damage to his back, doctors told him. The pain was intolerable, he said. "The doctors just continually prescribed the pain medication," he said. In the beginning that was all right. "(Then) I became horribly addicted to Vicodin and OxyContin." He built a tolerance, he said, and ended up "doctor shopping," finally getting to a point where he had an unbelievable supply of drugs. And that's how it goes, experts say. It takes more pills to be normal, to accomplish what a few used to do. "You need more and more and more, and you end up going to multiple doctors, not telling each doctor where you've been and what you've been doing," he said. But everything all came tumbling down when Martin ended up in a hospital for 11 days in a coma, he said. Even before that, his family noticed the signs of abuse, he said, because his personality began changing. Sleep was his greatest desire. Away from home he put on an act, but his family knew better, as is often the case. He learned through family after six months of recovery how he was acting - chronically tired, irritable, and "just not being there ... in a fog a lot of the time." He went through drug-addiction treatment - a rapid detoxification - and during that time realized what he had done. It took about six months to rid himself of the addiction, he said. "I let my family down," he said. Now clean, he works as a paramedic and speaks out to help others about pain-killer abuse. Doing so shows people that recovery is possible, Martin said. The problem now, he says, is with the elderly or people in their 40s or 50s. Paramedics, like Martin, ask people what medications they're taking when they go on calls, he said. He's learned that the elderly are either over-or undermedicated, he said, and not taking medicine properly. "They're relying on doctors to fix them," he says. "But someone - a family member or friend - needs to help them understand what's wrong with them and why they're taking the medication they are taking." At Rosecrance Treatment Centers in Rockford, Al Baris, an emergency room physician and an addictionologist at both Rosecrance and Rochelle Community Hospital, said recent data suggests that recreational use of prescription painkillers is surging. "There's some recent data released in a federal SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) report on pharmaceutical prescription drug abuse - that in 2004, 2.4 million people 12 years and older were estimated to be first-time users of prescription opioids for nonmedical use," Baris said. That's more than twice as many people as used cocaine for the first time (1 million) and more than first-time marijuana users (2.1 million) during the same period, he said. He doesn't blame the medical community. "You have lots and lots of people with bad pain that has been untreated for lots of years," he said, adding that it's difficult to screen for abuse in situations of chronic pain. Teens also are abusing prescription painkillers and whatever they can get their hands on - something New Vision's Zimmerman said is an extremely dangerous activity. At "pharm parties," teens bring pills they've grabbed from others and put them in a big bowl so everyone can take whatever looks appealing, despite the consequences. Locally, Freeport District 145 Superintendent Peter Flynn said he has not had any information that pharm parties have caught on here. An unannounced drug sweep by Freeport police Nov. 7 showed the Freeport schools are predominantly clean of drugs, Flynn said. But Baris said parents should keep an eye on the pills in their bottles. "Count them, know what they look like," he says. "Kids will take them and experiment with them. If the kids like the psychological effect of the drug they can fall in love with it relatively quickly and they'll want to pursue getting more." State Line Area Narcotics Teams Sgt. Michael Lehmann said he also has heard of kids converting other people's prescriptions for OxyContin. "People who have legitimate prescriptions sometimes sell their pills or they steal them from mom and dad," Lehmann said. About the drugs What are these drugs physicians and counselors say are the most popular addictive pain-relieving drugs? Vicodin and its related medications, loricet, loritab percodan, and oxycontin are opioid-based pain medications. Vicodin is a derivative of opium, which also used to manufacture heroin. Vicodin successfully diminishes pain, but it is highly addictive and withdrawal symptoms of Vicodin addiction are very similar to the pain it was relieving. OxyContin, approved by the FDA in 1995, an opium derivative, which is the same active ingredient in Percodan and Percocet. OxyContin is intended for use by terminal cancer patients and chronic pain sufferers. It has been linked to at least 120 overdose deaths nationwide. OxyContin (oxycodone hydrochloride controlled-release) tablets are an opioid analgesic supplied in 10 mg, 20 mg, 40 mg, and 80 mg tablet strengths for oral administration. Source: Narcanon - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman