Prescription Drug Abuse

Chester, PA is the number two city when it comes to the most dangerous city to live in these United States. This according to neighborhoodscout.com. Last year the City of Chester declared a state of emergency right after a shooting and a murder spree.  There were four people all inclusive of a two year old who had been murdered in the last week and a half in the city of Chester which is about fifteen miles away from Philadelphia.  Mayor Butler says, “Enough is enough.  It is very disappointing.  But we are not going to give up.”  The emergency declaration puts five sections of the city under heavy police control and implements 9 to 6 am curfew and this will last for at least five days.

Fox news reported this”  “A city in crisis is turning to drastic measures.  Chester is now declaring a state of emergency.  The Mayor of Chester has been prompted to take drastic action.  There was a murder of a two year old is an example of the violence going on in the city of Chester. It is only one of the four homicides in the last week and a half.  The police state has been declared across five of the most crime ridden sections of this city.  The state police and federal officers will be brought in to help police the streets.  No one can be on them without a legitimate reason.  The police will stop and question anyone violating that curfew.”

The incident that spurred all this is when shots were fired into a playground with about 75 to 100 people in it.  There were four people found that had been hit by bullets and one of the victims died from his injuries and the other injuries are not life threaten.  Witnesses say they saw the shots fired from a car heading northbound which was possibly a white crown Victoria.

“It is getting out of hand.  There is senseless violence in the streets of Chester.  That is why there are more police out there including State troopers.  That is why no one is allowed on the streets.”  Another
television station reported. The drug problem is a large part of this violence, and nearby Philadelphia drug rehabs are kept very busy.

All of this violence makes it hard to live in the city of Chester.  Drugs go hand in hand with unrest in any city. When the television stations are making their reports it is easy to see the frustration from the city officials.  There is no mention of drugs being at the root of all this violence.  Investigations be done they will find that street drugs, prescription drugs all have something to do with this situation. If you know someone with a problem, get him or her to one of the prescription drug rehabs today.

In as recently released government study veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan were the subject.  It was found that these veterans who had been diagnosed with PTSD were actually being prescribed morphine and similar powerful painkillers two times more often to vets with only physical pain and the biggest thing about this is that these vets are already at risk for alcohol and drug abuse.

The study also showed that the vets who developed PTSD;  already had pre-existing substance abuse issues and were four times more likely to be prescribed addictive painkillers than those without mental health problems.  So what do you think the result of all this is?  Suicides and other self-inflicted injuries and drug and alcohol overdoses were more prevalent in vets with PTSD who received painkilling drugs. And of course many will eventually require help from prescription drug rehabs.

They were prescribed these drugs with the hope that the emotional distress that accompanies chronic pain will also be reduced but this hope is not fulfilled and these drugs can sometimes make emotional problems worse.

The study looked at 141,029 men and women who came from Iraq and Afghanistan.  These vets had been diagnosed with non-cancerous physical pain and half of them were diagnosed with mental health problems like PTSD.  The Department of Veterans Affairs paid for the study.

Dr. Karen Seal is the lead author of the study.  She is treating patients at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and she stated:  “I have sometimes prescribed opiates to war veterans, but only if other painkillers have not been effective.” This sounds like a rational policy, but not all doctors are as cautious, and many of these patients can end up in Sacramento drug rehabs.

The Veterans Administration said while their pain management program has been called a model of care, “we recognize that more work needs to be done.”  Another study done by the RAND Corporation from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America states, “Among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, rates of psychological and neurological injuries are high and rising.  Nearly 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans screen positive for PTSD or depression.  Although these statistics are troubling, we have yet to see the full extent of troops’psychological and neurological injuries.  Service members are still deploying on long and repeated combat tours, which increase the risk of blast injuries and combat stress.  Rates of marital stress, substance abuse, and suicide are all increasing.  Divorce rates among female Marines were nearly three times the national average, and the Army suicide rate hit a 27 year high in 2008.”

In the VA sponsored study, it was found that more than three-quarters of the opiate prescriptions given to vets – 77 percent came from primary care physicians.  That tells me that when these vets got home they went to see their doctor for help with their problems and they gave them opiates to help; but little did they know that these drugs will only make things worse.  Yes, we need to more to help these vets.  They went to fight for our country.  While that is an ideal purpose it is noted here that there should be a balance of taking care of themselves as well as our country.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) are investigating many health care providers who have given out prescriptions for large amounts of powerful psychiatric drugs.  Some of these drugs were given out to children.  The Dallas Star-Telegram is stating that the HHSC has already referred three of the providers to the state attorney general for possible prosecution.  This was given to the news by Thomas Suehs, Health Commissioner.  Some other providers have been referred to the state’s private Medicaid claims processor for “further recoupment” after an investigation was done in 2010 having to do with the use of addictive mental health drugs that were thought of as fraud and abuse. Could this be part of the reason that rehabs in Louisiana, Texas, and the rest of the country are so full of folks with prescription abuse problems?

Suehs stated:  “Some of the providers in question have been forbidden to participate in the Texas Medicaid program, including one convicted in a criminal case and another accused of inappropriate billing and coding of hours related to patient services.  The presence of this high rate may not necessarily be indicative of fraud or abuse on its own, though high prescription rates could indicate a problem.” It could also indicate that if you have a problem with prescription drug abuse, you may need to consider getting yourself help at one of the Texas drug rehabs.

Star-Telegram did an investigation of their own and used prescription numbers to identify the physicians who were involved and count their prescriptions total by drug type.  The report stated: We also looked at other mental-health drugs that have cost taxpayers about $1.3 billion over five years.  The analysis found that in two years, the 72 Medicaid providers identified by the state for writing the most prescriptions handed out 186,992 and that averaged out to 2,597 each.”

One physician in Houston wrote out 27,000 prescriptions for Xanax.

Antidepressants were prescribed on a large amount also.  These drugs are dangerous even when they are not being over prescribed.  They can lead to irritable, restless agitated and aggressive behavior and cause a person to do things that don’t make sense and are downright criminal.

The overprescribing of drugs is going on all over this country.  In Texas they are doing something about it.  It looks as though that would be an easy way to defraud the system.  If you have elderly parents and their doctor is putting them on antidepressants and anti anxiety medications monitor the situation with your parents.  You don’t want to see them end up in one of the prescription rehabs. It seems as though the elderly may be a target for those who want to make money.