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drug abuse

Gender Differences in Addiction and Treatment

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Men are more likely than women to use almost all types of illegal drugs and misuse of prescription drugs. And resulting trips to the emergency room and overdose deaths are more common for men than women. For most age groups, men have higher rates of use or dependence on illicit drugs and alcohol than do women. However, women are just as likely as men to become addicted and be more susceptible to cravings and relapse, which are key phases of the addiction cycle.
Although men are more likely than women to report both a mental health and substance use disorder, women are more likely to suffer from certain mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder—or PTSD, and eating disorders. Some women report using substances to relieve stress or negative emotions. In addition, women are more vulnerable to developing substance use or other mental health disorders following divorce, loss of child custody, or the death of a partner or child.
It’s important to note that substance use disorders may progress differently for women than for men. Women often have a shorter history of abusing certain substances such as cocaine, opioids, marijuana, or alcohol. However, they typically enter substance use disorder treatment with more severe medical, behavioral, psychological, and social problems. This is because women show a quicker progression from first using the substance to developing dependence.
Withdrawal may also be more intense for women. In some cases, women respond differently than men to certain treatments. For instance, nicotine replacement (patch or gum) does not work as well for women as for men.
It can be hard for any person with a substance use disorder to quit, but women may face unique  social issues when it comes to substance abuse and treatment. Many women who are pregnant or have young children do not seek treatment or dropout of treatment early because they are unable to take care of their children. These women may also fear that authorities will remove their children from their care. The combined burdens of work, home care, child care, and other family responsibilities, plus attending treatment frequently, can be overwhelming for many women. Successful treatment may need to provide an increased level of support to address these needs.
Scientists who study substance use have discovered special issues related to hormones, menstrual cycle, fertility, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and menopause that can impact women’s struggles with drug use. In addition, women themselves describe unique reasons for using drugs, including controlling weight, fighting exhaustion, coping with pain, and self-treating mental health problems.

  • Women use substances differently than men, such as using smaller amounts of certain drugs for less time before they become addicted.
  • Women can respond to substances differently. For example, they may have more drug cravings and may be more likely to relapse after treatment. This could be affected by a woman’s menstrual cycle.
  • Sex hormones can make women more sensitive than men to the effects of some drugs.
  • Women who use drugs may also experience more physical effects on their heart and blood vessels.
  • Brain changes in women who use drugs can be different from those in men.
  • Women may be more likely to go to the emergency room or die from overdose or other effects of certain substances.
  • Women who are victims of domestic violence are at increased risk of substance use.
  • Divorce, loss of child custody, or the death of a partner or child can trigger women’s substance use or other mental health disorders.
  • Women who use certain substances may be more likely to have panic attacks, anxiety, or depression.

Substance use during pregnancy can be risky to the woman’s health and that of her children in both the short and long term. Use of some substances can increase the risk of miscarriage and can cause migraines, seizures, or high blood pressure in the mother, which may affect the baby. In addition, the risk of stillbirth is two to three times greater in women who smoke tobacco or marijuana, take prescription pain relievers, or use illegal drugs during pregnancy.
If you or someone you love has an addiction problem, please seek medical and behavioral therapy for treatment.
 

Fighting Teen Addiction

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Addiction can happen at any age, but it usually starts when a person is young.  If your teen continues to use drugs despite harmful consequences, he or she may be addicted.
If an adolescent starts behaving differently for no apparent reason—such as acting withdrawn, frequently tired or depressed, or hostile—it could be a sign he or she is developing a drug-related problem. Parents and others may overlook such signs, believing them to be a normal part of puberty. Other signs that your teen may have a drug problem include:

  • a change in peer group
  • carelessness with grooming
  • decline in academic performance
  • missing classes or skipping school
  • loss of interest in favorite activities
  • trouble in school or with the law
  • changes in eating or sleeping habits
  • deteriorating relationships with family members and friends

Through scientific advances, we know more than ever before about how drugs work in the brain. We also know that addiction can be successfully treated to help young people stop abusing drugs and lead productive lives. Intervening early when you first spot signs of drug use in your teen is critical; don’t wait for your teen to become addicted before you seek help. However, if a teen is addicted, treatment is the next step.
Repeated drug use changes the brain. Brain imaging studies of people with drug addictions show changes in areas of the brain that are critical to judgment, decision-making, learning and memory, and behavior control. Quitting is difficult, even for those who feel ready.
Asking for help from professionals is the first important step
You can start by bringing your child to a doctor who can screen for signs of drug use and other related health conditions. You might want to ask in advance if he or she is comfortable screening for drug use with standard assessment tools and making a referral to an appropriate treatment provider. If not, ask for a referral to another provider skilled in these issues.
You can also contact an addiction specialist directly.  There are 3,500 board-certified physicians who specialize in addiction in the United States.  The American Society of Addiction Medicine website has a Find a Physician feature on its home page, and the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry has a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist Finder on its website. You and the physician can decide if your teen or young adult should be referred to treatment.
It takes a lot of courage to seek help for a child with a possible drug problem because there is a lot of hard work ahead for both of you, and it interrupts academic, personal, and possibly athletic milestones expected during the teen years. However, treatment works, and teens can recover from addiction, although it may take time and patience. Treatment enables young people to counteract addiction’s powerful disruptive effects on their brain and behavior so they can regain control of their lives. You want to be sure your teen is healthy before venturing into the world with more independence, and where drugs are more easily available.
What to expect from a doctor visit
The doctor will ask your child a series of questions about use of alcohol and drugs, and associated risk behaviors (such as driving under the influence or riding with other drivers who have been using drugs or alcohol). The doctor might also give a urine and/or blood test to identify drugs that are being abused. This assessment will help determine the extent of a teen’s drug use (if any) and whether a referral to a treatment program is necessary.
There are medications available to treat addictions to alcohol, nicotine, and opioids (heroin and pain relievers). These are generally prescribed for adults but, in some circumstances, doctors may prescribe them for younger patients. When medication is available, it can be combined with behavioral therapy to ensure success for most patients. In addition, non-addictive medication is sometimes prescribed to help with withdrawal. Other medications are available to treat possible mental health conditions (such as depression) that might be contributing to your child’s addiction.

Your treatment provider will advise you about what medications are available for your particular situation. Some treatment centers follow the philosophy that they should not treat a drug addiction with other drugs, but research shows that medication can help in many cases.
You child’s treatment provider will probably recommend counseling. Behavioral treatment (also known as “talk therapy”) can help patients engage in the treatment process, change their attitudes and behaviors related to substance abuse, and increase healthy life skills. These treatments can also enhance the effectiveness of medications and help people stay in treatment longer.
Treatment for substance abuse and addiction can be delivered in many different settings using a variety of behavioral approaches. With adults, both individual therapy and group counseling settings with peers are used. However, studies suggest group therapy can be risky with a younger age group, as some participants in a group may have negative influence over the others, or even steer conversation toward stories about having fun with drugs. Some research suggests that the most effective treatments for teens are those that involve one or more family members present.
Whatever you do, do not ignore the warning signs of addiction. Getting your child help early-on can increase their chances of leading a productive life as an adult.
 
Source: National Institute of Health

This week is National Drug & Alcohol Abuse Week (SM)

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This week is National Drug & Alcohol Abuse Week (SM). Though, they cover a wide array of topics, we chose to share their information about the dangers of prescription drugs in an effort to help educate parents about prescription drug abuse among teenagers. Hopefully, we can prevent even one death from an overdose with this information.
Prescription drug abuse is when someone takes a medication that was prescribed for someone else or takes their own prescription in a way not intended by a doctor or for a different reason—like to get high.
It has become a big health issue because of the dangers, particularly the danger of abusing prescription pain medications. For teens, it is a growing problem:

  • After marijuana and alcohol, prescription drugs are the most commonly abused substances by Americans age 14 and older.
  • Teens abuse prescription drugs for a number of reasons, such as to get high, to stop pain, or because they think it will help them with school work.
  • Most teens get prescription drugs they abuse from friends and relatives, often times without the person knowing.
  • Boys and girls tend to abuse some types of prescription drugs for different reasons. For example, boys are more likely to abuse prescription stimulants to get high, while girls tend to abuse them to stay alert or to lose weight.

When prescription drugs are taken as directed, they are usually safe. It requires a trained health care provider to determine if the benefits of taking the medication outweigh any risks for side effects. But when abused and taken in different amounts or for different purposes than as prescribed, they affect the brain and body in ways very similar to illicit drugs.
When prescription drugs are abused, they can be addictive and put the person at risk for other harmful health effects, such as overdose (especially when taken along with other drugs or alcohol). And, abusing prescription drugs is illegal—and that includes sharing prescriptions with family members or friends.
There are three kinds of prescription drugs that are commonly abused:

  • Opioids—painkillers like Vicodin, OxyContin, or codeine
  • Depressants—like those used to relieve anxiety or help a person sleep, such as Valium or Xanax
  • Stimulants—like those used for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), such as Adderall and Ritalin

Prescription drugs are often strong medications, which is why they require a prescription in the first place. When they are abused, they can be just as dangerous as drugs that are made illegally. Even when they are not abused, every medication has some risk for harmful effects, sometimes serious ones. Doctors consider the potential benefits and risks to each patient before prescribing medications and take into account a lot of different factors, described below. People who abuse drugs might not understand how these factors interact and put them at risk.
Before writing a prescription, doctors take several factors into account:

  • Doctors take into account a person’s weight, how long they’ve been prescribed the medication, and what other medications they are taking. Someone abusing prescription drugs may overload their system or put themselves at risk for dangerous drug interactions that can cause seizures, coma, or even death.
  • Doctors know how long it takes for a pill or capsule to dissolve in the stomach, release drugs to the blood, and reach the brain. When abused, prescription drugs may be taken in larger amounts or in ways that change the way the drug works in the body and brain, putting the person at greater risk for an overdose. For example, when people who abuse OxyContin crush and inhale the pills, a dose that normally works over the course of 12 hours hits the central nervous system all at once. This effect increases the risk for addiction and overdose.
  • Prescription drugs are designed to treat a specific illness or condition, but they often affect the body in other ways, some of which can be dangerous. These are called side effects. For example, OxyContin stops pain, but it also causes constipation and sleepiness. Stimulants, such as Adderall, increase a person’s ability to pay attention, but they also raise blood pressure and heart rate, making the heart work harder. These side effects can be worse when prescription drugs are not taken as prescribed or are abused in combination with other substances—including alcohol, other prescription drugs, and even over-the-counter drugs, such as cold medicines. For instance, some people mix alcohol and depressants, like Valium, both of which can slow breathing. This combination could stop breathing altogether.

How do you know if it’s really abuse?

  • If you take someone else’s prescription medication, even when you take it for its intended purposes (such as to relieve pain, to stay awake, or to fall asleep) it is considered abuse.
  • If you take your own prescription in a way that it is not meant to be taken, it is also abuse. This includes taking more of the medication than prescribed or changing its form—for example, breaking or crushing a pill or capsule and then snorting the powder.
  • If you take a prescription medication to get high, it is also considered prescription drug abuse.

Prescription drugs that effect the brain, including opioid painkillers, stimulants, and depressants, may cause physical dependence that can turn into addiction.
Dependence happens because the brain and body adapt to having drugs in the system for a while. A person may need larger doses of the drug to get the same initial effects. This is known as “tolerance.” When drug use is stopped, withdrawal symptoms can occur. Dependence is not the same as addiction, but it can contribute to a person developing an addiction. It is one of the many reasons why a person should only take (and stop taking) prescription drugs under a doctor’s care.
Carefully following the doctor’s instructions for taking a medication can make it less likely that someone will develop dependence or addiction, because the medication is prescribed in amounts and forms that are considered appropriate for that person. However, dependence and addiction are still potential risks when taking certain types of prescription drugs. These risks should be carefully weighed against the benefits of the medication and patients should communicate any issues or concerns to their doctor as soon as they arise.
Medications that affect the brain can change the way it works—especially when they are taken over an extended period of time or with escalating doses. They can change the reward system, making it harder for a person to feel good without the drug and possibly leading to intense cravings, which make it hard to stop using. This is no different from what can happen when someone takes illicit drugs—addiction is a real possibility. When a person is addicted to a drug, finding and using that drug can begin to feel like the most important thing—more important than family, friends, school, sports, or health.
More than half of the drug overdose deaths in the United States each year are caused by prescription drug abuse. In the last decade, the number of deaths from abuse of prescription drugs has increased dramatically. If you or a friend are in crisis and need to speak with someone now, please call:

  • National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (they don’t just talk about suicide—they cover a lot of issues and will help put you in touch with someone close by).

If you need information on treatment and where you can find it, you can call:

 
Source: NIDA for Teens

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