Can the surgery be considered a success if the patient dies? An article in Forbes responds to the coverage of Matthew Perry's death. Specifically, the references to buprenorphine (Suboxone) in his system. Several articles about Matthew Perry’s death have focused on ketamine, and justifiably so, as it was the ultimate cause of the actor’s death (drowning also … Continue reading Successfully treated for OUD, but the patient died of addiction?
Tag: suboxone
Sentences to ponder
From Jennifer Matesa: Look at this picture. This is how some people taper off Suboxone. They cut the dissolvable films into little bitty pieces. The company that makes Suboxone does not advise doing this, because they say they can’t guarantee the drug is evenly distributed throughout the film, but guess what?—I think it’s because they … Continue reading Sentences to ponder
Drug courts and the “wonder drug”
Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that the evidence for Suboxone has been oversold and that it often does not address the real-world goals of most addicts or families. They want recovery--a restoration to wholeness and full participation in all spheres of life over the rest of their lifespan. The evidence base for maintenance … Continue reading Drug courts and the “wonder drug”
Top posts of 2014: #6
Suboxone retained 9 of 103 A new study on office-based treatment of adolescents with Suboxone was just published by the Journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. The good news, drug screens were done at clinic visits and 85% of drug screens were negative for heroin and marijuana. (It's not clear why they limited testing … Continue reading Top posts of 2014: #6
Feds raid Reckitt Benckiser offices; criminal probe underway
Hmmm. All is not well with the manufacturer of Suboxone. Reckitt Benckiser’s offices in Richmond, Va., were raided by a team of IRS and Office of Inspector General (OIG) agents on December 3rd. No one is saying what the feds are investigating, but here is some legal analysis. The search warrant, which company officials say … Continue reading Feds raid Reckitt Benckiser offices; criminal probe underway
we can heal
Jennifer Matesa has a new piece up at the recently reincarnated The Fix. It's a response to the recent NY Times series on Suboxone and goes directly after the underlying assumption and its implications for her. Reckitt can get away with convincing doctors that addicts need to be maintained on Suboxone because—as the Times story … Continue reading we can heal
What makes treatment effective?
This will be my post in response to the NY Times' series on Suboxone. This post originally ran on 7/19/13 and addressed a lot of our concerns. * * * I've been catching a lot of heat recently for posts about Suboxone and methadone. (For the sake of this post, lets refer to … Continue reading What makes treatment effective?
“a hopeless disease”
The NY Times has another article in its series on Suboxone. Buprenorphine was developed as a safer alternative to methadone for treating heroin and painkiller addiction, a take-home medication that could be prescribed by doctors in offices rather than dispensed daily in clinics. But in some areas a de facto clinic scene, unregulated, … Continue reading “a hopeless disease”
Addiction Treatment With a Dark Side
The NY Times has a new piece on Suboxone. First, on its blockbuster status: Suboxone is the blockbuster drug most people have never heard of. Surpassing well-known medications like Viagra and Adderall, it generated $1.55 billion in United States sales last year, its success fueled by an exploding opioid abuse epidemic and the embrace of federal officials … Continue reading Addiction Treatment With a Dark Side
“The Situation” with PHARMA
Here are two sentence fragments (not taken out of context) from After Party Chat that show just how broken the pharmaceutical industry is: ...in 2012 Big Pharma spent 19 times as much on marketing as they did on research. ...Jersey Shore’s Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino is now shilling for Suboxone. It's hard to know where to start with … Continue reading “The Situation” with PHARMA