¶ … Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 certainly had noble intentions and safeguards. Indeed, there is a definitive reason why physicians are allowed a certain set of rights and responsibilities and why nurse practitioners are just a little further down the ladder in terms of rights and options. To be sure, anything related to opiates is something that should be regulated very highly as the ability and opportunity to abuse the rights to prescribe these drugs is prevalent and hard to miss. However, also hard to miss is the rampant amount of abuse and addiction that has been rendered and this problem is aggravated by the fact that drugs containing buprenorphine are restricted to physicians only despite the immeasurable benefit that could be rendered to addicted persons. While restricting such drugs is not a terrible idea, it is not the best idea with buprenorphine because of the amount of addicted and untreated people in question and this report will shall use scholarly and peer-reviewed research to make the point as to why this needs to change.
Literature Review
The author of this report found four articles that specifically address and assail the restriction of nurse practitioners. To put a fine point on the problem, the nurse practitioners that see the need to prescribe buprenorphine cannot do so and many of the physicians that can actually dispense the medication seem to choose not to do so. This is especially vexing as buprenorphine-laden drugs were specifically approved and designed for out-patient use which is something that is a bit rare with people saddled with an opioid addiction. The reason physicians are not prescribing is likely related to the fact that it is indeed done on an outpatient basis and perhaps they feel that such an approach is not wise or effective for opiate addiction. In addition, physicians that monitor nurse practitioners that have the right to prescribe medication are specifically prohibited from delegating the prescribing of buprenorphine-laden drugs. This combination is no doubt aggravating the fact that so many people, about 1.2 million in 2005, are addicted to opiates but only about a fifth of those people are getting treatment. This means that nearly a million people, and this was in 2005, are not getting drug treatment they could get much easier if physicians would actually use the drugs or at least be given the option to delegate the ability to nurse practitioners. Perhaps there is some valid concern in treating opiate addiction on an outpatient basis. Indeed, some people simply cannot or will not get clean unless they enter a full-fledged rehabilitation program. However, if more people could get treatment, even if in-patient is the better course, then the choice to allow for more prescription of buprenorphine would seem to be the better course regardless of how it comes about. Unfortunately, the DATA law is very explicit in that it says that any person that prescribes buprenorphine has to be a "physician that is licensed under state law" (Fornili & Burda, 2009).
One solution to perhaps making a change to the DATA restriction relative to buprenorphine without being careless is using the Geelhoed-Schouwstra Framework (GSF). It is a rational problem-solving schematic which allows for a policy evaluation process to be undertaken and completed before any rash or major changes are made. Part of such a framework would be information collection and exactly that has been attempted on many occasions. Indeed, many of the physicians who were contacted about their use (or non-use) of buprenorphine said that they either don't use it or "don't treat addicts" in general. However, a very telling and damning statistic is that nearly nine out of ten physicians assailed the reimbursement rates as the (or at least one of the) main reasons why they did not prescribe the drug more often. This is despite the fact that the same number of physicians were given the purview and option to use the buprenorphine drugs as they wished. At the same time, only about ten percent actually did so. The head-scratching part is that while the DATA specifically forbids delegation to nurse practitioners (the "what"), there is no "why" given as to why buprenorphine is restricted from use for nurse practitioners and/or the doctors that want to give their nurse practitioners supervisees the ability to do so. It begs the question why the legislation levies these requirements but does not explain or justify why nurse practitioners can prescribe other drugs under the supervision...
But despite this medicinal veneer, methadone is "increasingly being abused by recreational drug users and is causing an alarming increase in overdoses and deaths" (Belluck 2003). Heroin and prescription opium abusers are turning to methadone often with alcohol or other drugs. They buy the drug illegally on the street -- often it is sold by addicts who have been able to obtain a large supply, though fair or foul means.
Cons: Methadone use has a number of side-effects such as constipation, sweating, loss of libido, sleep disturbance, weight gain, dental problems, vomiting, and serious bowel problems. While most of the side-effects are reduced or managed by controlled prescription, they can occasionally be severe enough to affect a person's health sufficiently for him to discontinue treatment (Withers, 1999) One of the 'advantages' of methadone, i.e., it blocks the euphoric high of heroin can
Addiction Methadone Maintenace Methadone Methadone Maintenance Methadone maintenance is essentially the use of methadone over a period of time for the treatment of individuals who are addicted to opioid drugs such as heroin. In more formal terms the central aim of methadone maintenance is defined as follows: "Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) can help injection drug users (IDUs) reduce or stop injecting and return to productive lives" (METHADONE MAINTENANCE TREATMENT, 2002) There is still however a
" (1995) The authors state: "The amphetamines occasioned dose-related increases in d- amphetamine-appropriate responding, whereas hydromorphone did not. Amphetamines also occasioned dose-related increases in reports of the drug being most like "speed," whereas hydromorphone did not. However, both amphetamines and hydromorphone occasioned dose-related increases in reports of drug liking and in three scales of the ARCI. Thus, some self-report measures were well correlated with responding on the drug-appropriate lever and some
Drug users should continue to receive it, because it goes a long way towards curbing the greater problem created by the primary addiction. I believe that methadone is very useful in terms of helping drug users to rehabilitate. People who make mistakes in their lives should be helped to remedy these in the best way possible, and I believe that methadone is a good tool to accomplish this. The
S. Government Publication. Methadone is an opioid that is often used as an analgesic for purposes of treating such drug addictions as heroine. It has especially been found to be successful at treating heroin withdrawal symptoms and thus originally was popular on the street before also becoming a recognized treatment used in hospitals. A study lead by Vincent Dole of Rockefeller University discovered that drug addiction was a disorder and thus
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now