Will Zohydro Be the Perfect Painkiller or a Fast Route to Addiction for Many

On the drawing board of a California pharmaceutical company is a new formulation of a familiar painkiller: hydrocodone. But the question of whether or not this drug will do more damage than it does good needs to be asked.

Already, hydrocodone is one of the most highly abused prescription drugs in the country.  Associated Press (AP) reported that this class of painkiller (opioids) has resulted in skyrocketing numbers of people visiting the emergency room or dying from overdoses in the last decade. According to AP:

•    While 4,000 people died from overdoses of prescription painkillers in 1999, nearly 15,000 died from this cause in 2008.
•    Florida has particularly high levels of painkiller prescribing and overdose, seeing 910 deaths from hydrocodone in 2003 and an increase to 1,803 by 2007.
•    In just nine years, the number being rushed to emergency rooms for problems related just to hydrocodone abuse alone more than quadrupled to 86,258 (2009).

As it’s sold now, hydrocodone is normally teamed up with acetaminophen and/or other pain relieving ingredients. While hydrocodone can create a suppression of respiration that can be dangerous – even fatal – the acetaminophen can create liver problems, even death when too much is taken at once. The purported logic behind the promised new formula from Zogenix, the pharmaceutical firm in question, is to eliminate the threat of liver damage by acetaminophen. The new pill, named Zohydro, would be 100% hydrocodone.

Who Can Tell if Zohydro Would Do More Bad than Good?

No one can accurately predict whether or not Zohydro would simply become opiate addicts’ new drug of choice. Already the painkiller manufacturers and distributors (doctors and pharmacies) are unable to prevent abuse and addiction to these drugs. The president of the National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse told Associated Press that “we just don’t need this on the market.”

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly two million people are addicted to or dependent on prescription pain relievers that they have been abusing. This is a huge market. Is Zohydro’s purpose just to cater to this market?

Recovery from Opioid Addiction Can be Accomplished But Preventing it is Better

The Narconon Arrowhead drug and alcohol rehabilitation program has excellent success helping people who were addicted to opioids recover their sobriety but it’s obviously far better if addiction could just be skipped altogether.

In a long-term residential drug rehab program offered at its facility in Southeast Oklahoma, Narconon Arrowhead has been helping people recover from addiction to all kinds of street drugs, prescription drugs and alcohol addiction for more than a decade. With a holistic program that addresses the damage done by addiction and the reasons a person began to use drugs, the program at Narconon Arrowhead helps seven out of ten graduates stay sober after they go home.

The program takes most people three to five months, although if it takes a person longer to repair the damage, the cost of the program is just the same.

Lasting recovery is composed of many ways of addressing the damage done by addiction. A person must learn once again to relate to the people around him or her and the present environment. There must be a thorough detoxification of old, stored drug residues that dull thinking and mood and that have been found to contribute to the triggering of cravings. At Narconon Arrowhead, this detoxification is accomplished by combining time in a low-heat sauna with generous nutritional supplementation and moderate exercise. Those finishing this step talk about their improved energy and mood and reduced or eliminated cravings.

Then each person must be guided through the life skills they will need to stay sober. This includes the ability to reclaim one’s personal integrity and self-respect, the repair of relationships damage by addiction, the ability to make drug-free decisions, even at moments of stress and much more. By the time this holistic program is complete; graduates have recovered from the deadness and defeat of addiction and can plan a productive future once again.

Find out how Narconon Arrowhead drug rehab can help someone you care about who is struggling with addiction. Call 1-800-468-6933 today.

References:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/powerful-painkiller-abuse-experts-worried-180505140.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000521/
http://www.samhsa.gov/data/NSDUH/2k10Results/Web/PDFW/2k10Results.pdf