Drug Abuse

Physicians call for drug abuse to be treated as ‘chronic disease’

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With drug overdoses causing tens of thousands of deaths every year in the U.S., physicians are calling for the crisis to be treated like a medical emergency.

Today, the American College of Physicians (ACP) published a position paper arguing that action needs to be taken by the medical community and others to stem the crisis, especially in light of the massive growth of the opioid epidemic.

“Twenty-two million people need treatment and a large percentage of people aren’t getting treatment,” Dr. Nitin S. Damle, president of the American College of Physicians, told ABC News, citing national statistics compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). “We want to focus the spotlight on that.”

In the paper, the ACP is making a host of new recommendations on the basis that substance abuse should be considered a chronic disease that needs ongoing treatment, not a “moral disorder or character defect.”

Damle said compared to other chronic diseases such as high blood pressure or diabetes, where 75 percent of people get treatment, just 18 percent of people with substance abuse disorders get treatment, according to CDC statistics.

The ACP paper emphasizes shifting the focus to treatment, rather than punishment, for drug addiction, including opioids. They said they would like to see tighter controls for opioid prescriptions, more training in the medical community to deal with substance abuse and more options for patients to receive mental health treatment.

In addition, the ACP advocates for policies that give non-violent drug offenders the option to receive treatment and reduced prison sentences for possession.

 “We need to have more treatment programs and we need to have more funding in this area,” Damle explained. “It’s a heavy societal burden it really endangers families and not just individuals.”

Physicians can make a huge difference in combating the substance abuse epidemic by limiting the amount of opioids they prescribe, Damle added. Checking databases to ensure patients aren’t getting opioid drugs from other doctors and taking additional courses on substance abuse to better treat disorders can also help, he said.

Opioid abuse remains a deadly crisis in the U.S. An estimated 91 people fatally overdose on opioids every day, according to the CDC, and approximately 52,000 died from drug overdoses in 2015.

Dr. Caleb Alexander, Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness, said the paper is “welcome news” given how little help there is for people suffering from substance abuse disorders.

“There is a huge gap between the need for these services and their delivery,” Alexander said. “Millions of Americans need treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol use problem yet don’t receive.”

“This is all the more shocking because it’s a good investment,” he continued. “For every dollar invested in drug prevention and treatment, we save money as a society –- we can either pay for it now, or pay for it later.”

Alexander said the fact that the paper emphasizes treatment for substance addiction rather than incarceration is important.

“When it comes to opioids, we should be talking about addiction, not abuse,” he said. “Addiction is a disease, abuse is a behavior.”

Source:http://abcnews.go.com

Sugar Addiction Is Like Drug Abuse And We Should Treat It The Same

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sugar addiction

In America, nearly every packaged food contains some amount of sugar; as a result, our tolerance for sweets has gotten higher and contributed to obesity and diabetes.

A spiral into years or a life of drug abuse can be mentally and physically destructive, but what if sugar addiction reaped the same consequences? Amid the United States obesity epidemic — as well as increasing rates of diabetes and heart disease — researchers are beginning to see sugar addiction in a new light: as something nearly as damaging to health as drug dependence.

In a new study out of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia, researchers suggest that in the future, sugar addiction may be treated the same way as drug addiction. Their research showed that rats addicted to sugar could be treated with nicotine addiction drugs. Like alcohol and drug addiction, consuming high levels of sugar increases dopamine levels and activates the same reward pathways in the brain.

“Excess sugar consumption has been proven to contribute directly to weight gain,” Professor Selena Bartlett of QUT’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, an author of the study, said in the press release. “It has also been shown to repeatedly elevate dopamine levels which control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers in a way that is similar to many drugs of abuse including tobacco, cocaine and morphine.”

After people eat significant amounts of sugar every day for a long period of time, they experience a reduction in dopamine levels — which spurs them to eat even more sugar to get the same high. It’s a cycle of addiction that leaves a person constantly unsatisfied and reaching for more. Quitting sugar, meanwhile, can cause withdrawal: “Like other drugs of abuse, withdrawal from chronic sucrose exposure can result in an imbalance in dopamine levels and be as difficult as going ‘cold turkey’ from them,” Bartlett said in the press release.

In the study, the researchers examined the effects of varenicline, an FDA-approved drug used to aid in smoking cessation, on rats that were addicted to sugar. Varenicline is typically used alongside counseling in helping people kick smoking to the curb; it’s taken in pill form every day and is known as a neuronal nicotinic receptor modulator. The researchers found that the drug was effective in curbing chronic sugar addiction, and concluded that it might be a pathway for obesity treatment if further research supports it.

The study may be the first to find that FDA-approved nicotine drugs may be effective against sugar addiction, but it’s not the first to find that sugar, sodium, and fat can act like hard drugsto our brains and bodies, physically rewiring our brains. As a result, it’s important to investigate potential treatment options for sugar addiction, as its health consequences can be as negative as those of drug addiction. In fact, sugar can impact nearly every part of your body— including your heart, brain, kidneys, and sexual health.

“We have also found that as well as an increased risk of weight gain, animals that maintain high sugar consumption and binge eating into adulthood may also face neurological and psychiatric consequences affecting mood and motivation,” Bartlett said in the press release. The researchers note, however, that more research will be done before doctors can begin prescribing nicotine drugs to treat sugar addiction or obesity.