I-STOP Plan Responds to Epidemic in New York

It’s no secret that prescription pain medication abuse and illegal distribution is at the top the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and local government’s list of priorities. The huge spike in prescriptions administered in the past few years nationwide accompanied by the staggering increase in people seeking addiction treatment for prescription pain medication has resulted in increased efforts to better enforce the drugs. Opiate pain killers like OxyContin, Percocet, Codeine, Morphine, Hydrocodone and Vicodin are extremely useful for patients who truly need them—but they are tremendously dangerous and addictive for those who abuse them.

A great starting point to combat the prescription pain abuse that has taken a hold of the country is to better monitor the distribution of the pills—because physicians, manufacturers, and distributors deserve some of the blame for this problem as well. The illegal distribution has proven to be lucrative given the high demand of the pills, so there have been instances of physicians writing illegal prescriptions for their own benefit.  The current trend nationwide is for states to create an online database to report and track certain controlled substances in real time, and New York is taking a step towards this with the Internet System for Tracking Overprescribing (I-STOP) plan. This plan links doctors and pharmacists to a real time database in order to closely monitor the amount of pills and to who the pills are being given to. It’s a step in the right direction towards controlling this drug epidemic.

It’s unfortunately very common for people to become addicted to prescription painkillers today, but thankfully there’s excellent rehabilitation treatment available to battle these tough painkiller addictions. Individuals who abuse or are addicted to prescription medications can be treated. Initially, they may need to undergo medically supervised detoxification to help reduce withdrawal symptoms—however, that is just the first step. Options for effectively treating addiction to prescription pills are drawn from research on treating heroin addiction. Behavioral treatments combined with medications have proven effective. Finding the right treatment center can make all the difference for a patient because certain standard programs may not work. At Seabrook, patients can take comfort in knowing that we structure individually inspired detox and rehab programs in order to fit the needs of each unique patient. Seabrook has rehab facilities located in New Jersey (NJ) and Pennsylvania (PA) and also an outpatient office in New York (NY). If you or a loved one is abusing prescription medications then be sure to contact Seabrook immediately for the treatment to get on the road to recovery.