Meds to manage addiction can cause unintentional overdose. How's that happening?

Designed to treat addiction, the medication buprenorphine has started to show up as a culprit in some overdose deaths. Why would a person trying to escape addiction misuse the very medication designed to help? Maybe they (or someone esle) doesn't even realize they're on meds with counterindications. Bottom line: It’s not as simple as you might think.

It's time to be more alert than ever while on the road. Flashing lights are dead ahead as drugs and alcohol increase driving dangers. Drugged driving or drunk driving…which is worse? More importantly, how can death and injury from impaired driving be prevented? This fact sheet from the Centers for Disease Control has those answers – and more.

Only about 15 of 180 American medical school programs teach that addiction includes alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Yep, you read that right. And it's so wrong.

Patients fearful of being judged, doctors who don’t know how to stop a medication they’ve started, the best way to launch that difficult conversation about medications showing up on a tox screen…the lack of addiction training in American medical schools is taking a steep toll. The addiction education in all medical schools varies, ranging from one pharmacology lecture to several weeks during a third-year clinical rotation, usually in psychiatry or family medicine. It’s “like trying to fight World War II with only the Coast Guard,” says one expert. Learn how medical schools are trying to change course and tackle America’s addiction to alcohol and other drugs.

By Don Troutman, Founder of Clean & Sober Transitional Living

Generally, when people first begin their recovery “journey,” they aren’t coming off a winning streak. They may have lost jobs or homes, or destroyed cars or marriages. So, when they first enter our doors, they’re just trying to keep their head above water. They’re generally much more concerned about their personal recovery than about judging anyone else in the room – or the CSTL recovery community.

In early recovery, people also tend to think that they are “special” and that no one shares their unique issues with addiction to drugs or alcohol. What they will come to find is that, while our residents are indeed special, no one’s problems are unique. We’ve all struggled with alcohol or drug abuse, and that’s why we’re living here – in a robust community where recovery comes in all shapes, sizes and colors. And that diversity makes us strong.