PainCare - Pain Management in New Hampshire

When I was a kid, I grew up in a household that was pretty strict.  My father was a career military man and spent more than 20 years in the Army.  Because he lived most of his adult life with the discipline and a sense of responsibility that the military instills in its soldiers, my father instilled that same sense of discipline and responsibility in our home.  I had three brothers, and for us there were strict rules that were non-negotiable.  One of those strict rules was our family dinner time.  Back then we ate dinner at 5:15 PM.  

The 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) for the State of N.H. has been posted on the State's Department of Education website. This survey gives us the most recent statistics on risky behavior in our high school aged youth. The importance of the YRBS is that it is the second consecutive survey and, when compared to the prior survey (which was taken in 2009), now allows the public the opportunity to evaluate whether or not certain behaviors are rising or falling.

I was recently reading articles in the newsroom at The Partnership at DrugFree.org when I saw an article on a subject of particular interest. That subject matter is relative to the prescription monitoring program (PMP). The acronym PMP should be familiar now to anyone who reads this blog given the fact that I have written about it a couple of times before. What caught my eye was the title of the story, “Enabling Interstate Sharing of Prescription Data to Help Prevent Abuse”. [1]

When I first came to work at PainCare, I had never heard of buprenorphine. I had never heard the terms Suboxone or Subutex. I had never run into it in my law enforcement career. I had no idea what it was or what it was used for. I first heard of it in working with Dr. John Schermerhorn who is the Director of the N. H. Suboxone Program. I learned that Suboxone is a prescription medication which contains buprenorphine. I learned that buprenorphine was used to treat those who suffer from addictions to opioids. I also learned that there was a lot of excitement about the promise shown in the use of buprenorphine in treating addiction. But one thing that I learned disturbed me – the federal government has placed limits on the number of patients that providers can treat at any one time. A provider must meet training and certification requirements and petition the government to see patients. The law limits each provider to 30 patients for the first year. After 12 months, the provider can submit an application to the government in order to see 100 patients. Of course, my first reaction was to say, "If buprenorphine is so good and shows such promise, why is the federal government limiting the number of people who can be treated with the drug?" Sounds like a reasonable question doesn't it?

We have, for too long in this country, tried to push the drug problem to the police to stem the flow of the supply while we have largely ignored the reason for the demand.  If we continue to look at the drug abuse problem this way, we stand little chance of ever solving the problem.

I often like to go online to Time.com to peruse their Health section.  I do this because Time prints many articles involving the prescription drug abuse epidemic.  One of their health writers in particular, Maia Szalavitz, has written several articles on the subject.  So, every once in a while, I  check to see if she has written anything new.  On November 2, 2011, she posted an article that was entitled, Are Doctors Really to Blame for the Overdose Epidemic?

If NH legislators continue to be irresponsible where House Bill 332 is concerned, we may never know how many we could have saved.  But one thing is sure, if this legislation does not get passed, we won’t save even one."

Back in June, my blog highlighted the status of the current New Hampshire legislation on the Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) which is pending in a committee in the House of Representatives.  According to the State’s legislative web site, the history of this legislation is as follows:

Guest post by Michael J. O'Connell, CEO, PainCare

I read with a mixture of disbelief and some horror at Sunday's Union Leader article regarding "painkiller abuse" and the updated status of the prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP). According to Rep Sytek, HB 332 authorizing the PDMP has been sent for interim study by subcommittee, NEXT SUMMER. How much longer will NH have to wait? Does it want to have the distinction as the very last state to finally approve the program?

The DEA will be hosting their second Drug Take Back day this year on Saturday, October 29, 2011 from 10 AM to 2 PM.   For a list of the closest collection sites, go to the DEA website and enter your zip code.

http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/index.html

PainCare supports the Prescription Drug Take-Back Day and encourages anyone who wishes to get rid of unwanted prescription drugs to find the nearest location where those prescription drugs can be disposed of safely—no questions asked. 

If you have questions, please feel free to contact me at 603-692-3166 ext. 174 or at my email address This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

In our last blog, we discussed a study done by the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital that showed that many parents underestimated the amount of alcohol and drugs used by their own kids.  That study did not tackle the question as to why parents thought that way.  Whatever the underlying issue, it seems obvious that parents are oblivious as to what their kids are up to.  Perhaps they don’t know what to look for or don’t recognize the signs.

 

A recent poll[1] conducted by the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital revealed some interesting information regarding parental misconceptions on teen drug use. The poll, which was the 5th annual poll, was conducted in May of 2011. The survey was titled “Parents Say, ‘Other Teens Drink and Use Marijuana—But My Kids Don’t’.” The reason that it was titled with that wording was because the poll showed that many parents believed that when it came to other teens, there was a problem with substance abuse, but when asked about their own kids use, the numbers were very low.