855-763-648817 Mar 2013
Buprenorphine Treatment for Opioid Addiction
Buprenorphine is a relatively weak opioid medication that doctors sometimes use to treat addictions to stronger legal and illegal opioids such as oxycodone (OxyContin), codeine, and heroin. Like other opioids, buprenorphine achieves its effects in the body by attaching to specialized sites on nerve cells (neurons) throughout the body called opioid receptors. However, it produces much smaller mind-altering effects than commonly abused opioids, and people recovering from addictions to those drugs can use buprenorphine to gradually transition through the withdrawal process, rather than going through severe withdrawal symptoms. In order to reduce any risks for inappropriate use, some forms of buprenorphine come combined with another drug called naloxone.
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16 Mar 2013
Austin Drug Rehab and Treatment
Drug use in Austin, Texas and around the United States is a rising problem. More and more people, especially young people, are experimenting with drugs, in particular prescription painkillers and marijuana. Often those who are using these drugs assume that they are not dangerous in the way that illegal narcotics like cocaine or heroin are. They are mistaken, however, and using these substances can lead to health problems, addiction, and even overdose and death in extreme situations. Although abuse and addiction are on the rise, there are ways to get help. If you are living in Austin with a drug problem, there are places you can go and professionals to whom you can turn to get help coming clean.
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15 Mar 2013
Naltrexone Treatment for Amphetamine Addiction
Naltrexone is a medication originally designed to help recovering opioid addicts maintain drug abstinence during treatment. Substance abuse specialists and researchers eventually discovered that use of the medication can also help reduce alcohol cravings in recovering alcoholics. According to the results of recent studies, naltrexone also holds promise as a potential treatment for people recovering from amphetamine addiction. This news has significant real-world importance, because doctors currently have no medication options to offer to their amphetamine-addicted patients. Discovery of such a medication could potentially help vast numbers of people throughout the world successfully break the cycle of active amphetamine abuse.
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14 Mar 2013
Up-to-Date Information on Synthetic Cathinones
Synthetic cathinones are a group of amphetamine-like chemicals based on cathinone, a mind-altering substance found in the plant species Catha edulis. In recent years, these chemicals have entered mainstream conversation as the active ingredients in the euphemistically named, illegal drugs called “bath salts.” In addition, certain legal prescription drugs -including the antidepressant, anti-smoking medication buproprion (Wellbutrin, Zyban) – also belong to the synthetic cathinone family. Because of the relative newness of “bath salts,” no one knows for sure what types of damage long-term abuse of most synthetic cathinones will produce in the body. However, doctors and researchers have documented many of the potential consequences of short-term abuse of these drugs.
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13 Mar 2013
Drug Abuse and Brain Damage (Encephalopathy)
Encephalopathy is a term that doctors and researchers use to describe various types of brain damage, malfunction, or disease that trigger some form of mental impairment. Some people develop relatively mild forms of encephalopathy, such as slight deficits in memory or thought processing, while others develop severe or catastrophic problems that can lead to such outcomes as dementia or death. A number of different legal and illegal drugs can trigger the onset of mild or severe brain impairments when abused. In some cases, the effects of drug abuse-related encephalopathy can be at least partially reversed; in other cases they produce permanent brain deficits.
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12 Mar 2013
Mephedrone Abuse
Mephedrone is the common name for 4-methylmethcathinone, a manmade, illegal stimulant sometimes found in the designer drug preparations known in popular culture as “bath salts.” Along with a variety of other active ingredients found in these preparations, such as MDPV and butylone, it belongs to a chemically related group of mind-altering drugs called synthetic cathinones. In addition to its use in “bath salts,” mephedrone is also sometimes used on its own as an intravenous (IV) drug. Mephedrone abuse can trigger a number of unpleasant or dangerous short-term side effects, and may also lead to long-term or permanent changes in the user’s mood and normal memory function.
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11 Mar 2013
Substance Withdrawal Delirium
Substance withdrawal delirium is a mental health condition that occurs when diminishing levels of alcohol, drugs, or medications in the body lead to the onset of an incoherent, unbalanced state of mind. Along with a related condition called substance intoxication delirium, it belongs to a group of disorders that also includes various forms of dementia and amnesia. While a variety of substances can potentially produce delirium during the withdrawal process, alcohol has an especially well-deserved reputation for its delirium-inducing potential. Alcohol withdrawal-related delirium, known as delirium tremens, is a potentially fatal condition.
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07 Mar 2013
Opioid Use and Driving Impairment
Opioids (also known as opiates or narcotics) are a class of drugs used legally for pain relief and cough reduction, and also used illegally for their ability to produce a form of intense pleasure known as euphoria. They achieve all of these effects by binding to nerve cells (neurons) in the central nervous system and altering the signals produced by those cells. People who have grown accustomed to the effects of properly used prescription opioids typically experience no real reduction in driving skills. However, people unaccustomed to properly used opioids, as well as people who abuse prescription or illegal opioids, can develop a number of serious driving impairments.
