Usually, there are specific age groups or socioeconomic factors that may lead to higher instances of this type of love addiction. Estimates are that 25% of college students will experience some form of this, especially during their earlier years in college. However, financial stress, lack of resources, and limited access to mental health care can also contribute to emotional dependency in romantic relationships.

People in the early stages of intense romantic love show many signs of behavioral or substance addiction, such as euphoria, cravings, tolerance, mental and physical dependence, withdrawal, and relapse. Remember, romantic love is a natural (and often good) addiction that developed 4 million years ago to help people stay alive by encouraging pair bonding and reproduction.

Now, fMRI brain scans support this idea: intense romantic love activates parts of the brain’s “reward system,” especially dopamine-rich areas that are active during drug and/or behavioral addiction. Because of this, romantic love may affect the same reaction to drug and/or behavioral addictions because it shares reward pathways with a number of different addictions.

What Are the Signs?

It is possible for someone to become obsessed with being with their partner and the love feelings that come with it, which can make it hard to go about daily life. But love “addiction” is not really an addiction, and the symptoms of anxiety, trouble sleeping, changes in appetite, and a bad mood or feeling of sadness are not at all like the symptoms of real withdrawal from a drug your body depends on.

But there are some signs of an anxious-insecure attachment including:
1. a strong desire for closeness

2. relying too much on relationships
3. a constant fear about relationships and worry or insecurity
4. fear of being left alone

The symptoms may arise from many causes, most probably from early experiences of security and lack of love, and may indicate an inability for current growth without some assistance.

Researchers have found a link between separation anxiety and insecure attachment, especially when it comes to anxious types. Separation anxiety is the distress that people feel when they are going to be or are about to be separated from an attachment figure. This is a natural reaction that helps babies feel safe and close during early development. But if this worry lasts and gets worse after early childhood, it could be a sign of problems in the parent-child relationship, like insecure attachment, which could make it harder for the child to adjust to adulthood

During my years in practice, I have seen individuals who have an inordinate need for these types of relationships where they are “obsessed” with love and being loved. I’ve seen adult women who act more like teenagers than women who have developed the self-confidence and security we would expect at their age.

This ongoing need is highly disruptive of their lives and can result in somewhat bizarre behavior, such as stalking the prior loved one, intruding in the lives of those associated with that individual, calling on police for alleged protection from the loved one, etc. It literally becomes a wholly absorbing activity that they cannot shake.

While it is true that there is no DSM-5 category for this type of “addiction,” it does require some type of remediation for the person. Lacking some guidance in this development would mean that their behavior can, much like a pebble in a pond, circle out to all of the relationships in their lives. It is not a happy prospect and anyone who has found themselves in this situation would want to seek some help. Researchers have provided an indication of areas that can be of assistance and can distract the brain from one reward system to a similar one that is not negative in nature. What do they recommend?

Redirecting and Change

Although it is a problem in human development, this type of disturbed reaction attachment in adults can be corrected, if it is recognized by the individual who wishes to change. We must remember that therapy is not always an answer, especially when someone doesn’t feel they need to change or when they are ordered to therapy by the court. I believe court-ordered therapy is insufficient; many patients don’t change.

But, in less extreme cases, what may a person try to do to help themselves? Consider that there are other forms that redirect the brain’s reward system, and that can, in some instances, provide help.

Therapy, of a cognitive behavioral type, can offer help by:

1. figuring out why you are person is so focused on love
2. discovering new ways to love and care for themselves
3. changing unhelpful and unwanted habits of behavior
4. boosting self-esteem, which can help them approach future relationships in a healthier way

Finding other things to focus on is essential because one sign of this fascination is having constant, even overwhelming, thoughts about love and relationships.

Of course, this can mean many different things. They can choose things that keep their mind active and help them feel good about their self-worth. It might also mean, engaging in some activity where they will be able to develop self-confidence, such as a creative course in some school or advancing toward a degree in some area. If you note that financial stress can precipitate this type of involvement, one way to address this would be to seek an area of study that would promote one’s economic status.

Some other things that can make them feel the same “happy hormones” as love are working out, listening to music, getting a massage, and watching a funny movie. And, of course, everyone should learn to practice relaxation exercises, as well as breathing to reduce stress.

When we consider love addiction, we must also consider the person’s willingness for change. This is not an easy task, and many people will resist and offer reasons for engaging in this behavior that are not negative. There is a lack of recognition in too many people that they need to change and that not doing so will only result in poor outcomes in the future.

The post Love Addiction Can Signal Emotional Dependence in Some appeared first on Medika Life.

The addictive properties of nicotine are well-documented. The inhaled nicotine while vaping has the potential to disrupt the normal functioning of multiple brain regions. Because of this, nicotine may become more appealing as the brain craves this substance in increasing quantities.

Nicotine impacts the following brain functions:

1. Reward processes are an integral part of the brain’s mechanisms for motivation. These systems direct actions to maximize good results and minimize bad ones. But is that always the way things go?
2. Executive function is essential for controlling one’s ideas, deeds, and emotions, and vaping may be involved here, too.

When nicotine enters the brain, it mimics the effects of other forms of reward, such as food, sex, and social connection. The brain’s reward and executive function systems can be “hijacked” by nicotine, making them more sensitive to cues involving nicotine.

The brain associates vape design logos and the shapes of a vape device with nicotine through repeated exposures. In this, we are no better off than Pavlov’s famous dogs and their salvation when they saw food and then, simply, the empty bowl that represented food.

Simply put, it is a learning process, and the brain responds accordingly by prompting a desire for the object (nicotine) and the means to it (vaping).

Then, too, addictive substances lead to increased tolerance and cravings. Many students quickly use up their electronic cigarettes despite the promised three-month duration for a vaping device. This alone points to the excessive use of the devices and addiction.

To conduct this study, researchers in Ecuador administered cognitive tests to over 400 college students aged 18 to 30. Of these, 111 smoked cigarettes and vaped, 64 smoked exclusively, and 31 smoked alone.

Cognitive tests indicated that smokers and vapers consistently performed worse than non-smokers and non-vapers.

Is it necessary to wait for this research to be published in a peer-reviewed journal before we realize the dangers posed by vaping? The harm is happening right now, and waiting is questionable.

What Does Smoking Do to the Brain?

Most smokers think this activity may affect only the lungs, but scientific studies have shown that it also affects the brain and the digestive system.

Recent research found that smoking reduces brain size. Consequently, smoking effectively speeds up the aging process of the brain’s normal loss of brain volume with age. Although scientists have recognized the correlation between smoking and reduced brain capacity for some time, they have remained puzzled about the exact cause. And there is a person’s genetic makeup to think about, too.

This loss of brain tissue, which can be natural or artificial, is raising the issue regarding smoking or vaping, which may be a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease.

I’ve previously written about the research on vaping and what it discloses regarding the various dangerous elements that can be in a vaping cartridge. The outlook wasn’t pleasant then, and this additional research input appears to prove even more concerning now.

We know it’s not just smoking cigarettes that can cause the brain to reduce in size because vaping may do it, too. Pulling in the smoke and pushing it out of your mouth is not without consequences. Anyone who does this needs to be informed of the dangers.

Smoking or vaping can provide short-term respite for certain people with mental health issues, who may use it as a “self-medication” method. Nicotine withdrawal, on the other hand, could make depressive and anxious feelings much worse.

Cancer is one illness that frightens many people, and for good reason. No one wants to do something to encourage cancerous growth, but here is one that does. Tobacco use is associated with an increased likelihood of colon cancer. The second most common cancer killer is colon cancer. How attractive is a colostomy bag for a college student? Would they trade it if they could and not have to have one because they didn’t smoke?

When we consider what might be highly important to college students, e.g., getting into graduate school or passing tests for job opportunities, vaping rises in significance to them. Diminished ability on any cognitive testing can be an important reason to quit vaping if it stymies your ability to get into a highly desirable program or a job with a fantastic future.

Legal Restrictions of E-cigarettes

“As of March 31, 2024, 50 states (Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Washington), the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau and the U.S. Virgin Islands have passed legislation that requires a retail license to sell e-cigarettes over-the-counter.” There are also restrictions as well as regulations on the age of any person to purchase these products in these states or territories.

American Samoa and the Marshall Islands do not have any legislation requiring a minimum age.

The situation concerning vaping and the distribution of associated products has now reached the level of federal involvement. To fight the illicit sale and distribution of electronic cigarettes, the Justice Department and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) established a federal multi-agency task force today.

In addition to the FDA and the Justice Department, the task force will assemble various law enforcement agencies, such as the ATF, USMS, USPIS, and FTC, to work together in a coordinated and streamlined manner to combat the illicit distribution and sale of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) like e-cigarettes and vapes, which are causing a surge in nicotine addiction among young Americans.

We can no longer dismiss these products as harmless, and we must see them as possessing a criminal incentive regarding their distribution and use, harming those who purchase them. Those profiting from vaping products will fight against any restrictions using legal means.

Critics may claim discrimination against individual rights, despite the proven dangers of products like alcohol cigarettes. Research tells us that the juvenile mind is not fully mature until about the age of 25 and these products are aimed at a market that is well below that cutoff point. Even at 25, some individuals will not have reached majority in their brain development. Who should protect them from this type of advertising, and do we have an obligation to do it?

Restrictions on over-the-counter products are not new, and when we consider cocaine, this is a good example of where protecting the consumer was legally necessary. In the 20s and 30s, cigarettes containing cocaine were sold in stores, and cocaine-infused beverages and elixirs were freely available for purchase.

The original name for a popular soft drink, Coke-Cola, was derived from the fact that it contained this energizing ingredient. One of Sigmund Freud’s associates, a young physician, became addicted to cocaine, and even Freud himself, at one time, extolled the value of cocaine. He used it on a regular basis and wrote extensively about cocaine in one of his books.

Freud was, in fact, highly addicted to nicotine and may be considered to have had an addictive personality. A chronic smoker, he would light up twenty cigars a day. Was he orally fixated?

He endured a long and arduous 16-year battle after being diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the palate in 1923. At that time, he flat-out refused to give up smoking despite the fact that the fourteen surgeries he had were considered disfiguring and Freud was a vain man.

Ironically, the reason Freud first used cocaine for patients was to free them from morphine addiction. Things did not go well in that regard, and you see where he ended up being addicted to cocaine and small, black cigars.

For the soft drink, the ingredient was removed from the beverage because research indicated cocaine should not be freely available to consumers without medical supervision.

We have the research results, and they are troubling, but we must increase educational efforts regarding vaping to protect the health of the young and, perhaps, the not-so-young.

The post Vaping Kills Brain Cells? Do We Demand Action? appeared first on Medika Life.

Prize is a word that should be set off in neon lights that flash in a child’s brain because that’s the allure these machines have, and that’s where a simple coin in a slot can grow a desire, ultimately ending in addiction.

A study showed that people in their early 20s gamble the most. Many kids start even younger than that. A 2018 poll of over 38,000 Canadian teens and young adults, paid for by the government of British Columbia, found that almost two-thirds (aged 12–18) had gambled or played games similar to gaming in the past year.

I had my first encounter with gambling on a large scale when I was attending a meeting in Las Vegas. Whenever we had to go to a meeting room, restaurant, or anywhere else in the hotel, we had to pass through the casino and right by the slot machines, where people sat for the entire day and put coins into the machines.

Going to breakfast, we found a gambling machine on our table, and if you went to a restroom, there was a gambling machine there, too. You couldn’t avoid them even if you wanted to, and I wanted to avoid them. The hotels are designed so that everyone must pass through the casino in order to get to any other part of the hotel. I don’t gamble and was rather surprised when I heard a friend say she loved to gamble.

As a psychologist, I know that several types of reinforcement can induce people to do something for a prize. We know these types as fixed interval, variable interval, variable ratio, and continuous reinforcement. The strongest pull is the variable ratio because the person never knows how often they have to do something before receiving a reward or prize.

Variable ratio is the most resistant to extinction and, therefore, the one most likely to cause a serious addiction, such as gambling. The couple I saw sitting at the slot machines kept pulling the lever (they each had three machines) and putting their money in to get that big jackpot because they never knew when it might come.

It was a pathetic sight. Yes, they occasionally received a small reward during their days at the slots to keep them going, believing that the big one was just another pull of the slot’s handle away. I had heard they had made money by selling a uranium mine, and now most of it was going into the slot machines.

Gambling and the Vulnerable

Based on data from the American Gaming Association from early 2023, sports betting is now allowed in 37 states plus Washington, DC. Six more states are thinking about passing similar laws. People can bet at any time, from anywhere, and more and more, at any age. This includes teens and even little kids who are not old enough to legally gamble.

As gaming has become easier for more people, psychologists and other experts are worried that more people will try it and that more of them will have problems with it. It is still too early to tell what the long-term effects will be, but there is more and more evidence that young people, especially boys and men, are more likely to become addicted to gambling. This is also the age group that most often engages in the newest types of gambling, like sports betting and gambling on video games.

There are agencies in the National Institutes of Health that deal with alcohol and drug abuse problems, but there are no official programs for gambling problems, and there are no government rules against ads for sports betting.

It is thought that 0.5% of adults in the United States have a gambling problem. Similar or slightly higher numbers have been found in other countries.

Most people who have problems with gambling also have at least one other mental diagnosis. Individuals who have issues with gaming are more likely to have problems with controlling their impulses, dealing with emotions, or feeling anxious.

The prevalence, prediction of certain groups and dangers increasingly seen in terms of gambling, would seem to mitigate some type of federal regulation, but that isn’t in effect. We have to wonder since gambling addiction is only going to increase as the advertising efforts blossom on all media platforms, what is the reason that an agency deemed to protect health has not acted?

The answer may lie in lobbying efforts, and the amount of money that is spent in states that benefit from encouraging gambling activities. Lotteries run by states, initially begun to support public education and regional funding of infrastructure, may have been diverted into other areas of use with public education not receiving what had been expected.

The time is now to rethink gambling and the addiction it can bring, just as we re-thought cigarettes and smoking, and it’s dangerous. Gambling addiction is here, it is increasing, and action must be considered.

The post If Gambling Is a Damaging Addiction, States Should Cease Lotteries appeared first on Medika Life.

It’s much easier to light up a cigarette, which is not a controlled substance than to pop a pill for which you need a prescription. In fact, our body has specific nicotinic receptors in the spinal cord and brain.

Once, when I stopped smoking, I was visiting a friend and her sister, and she kept indicating that I should light up with them. I didn’t want to, but she said, “But what will you do with your hands?” Such a serious matter—what to do with one’s hands.

I guess I would’ve done with my hands what anyone else did: put them in a pocket or on the table or chair where I was sitting. What would anyone need to do with their hands if they didn’t have a cigarette? Well, now there’s a new push to become one of the crowd, and it’s vaping.

The question, of course, is now not one of what I would do with my hands but whether vaping is safer than smoking cigarettes. Remember the major lawsuits that were tried over years and years where people died of lung cancer (John Wayne smoked several packs a day, as did Edward R. Murrow, and both died of lung cancer). How many people have died because they smoked? I have a few in my family, and even though one stopped smoking for at least 30 years, cigarette smoking proved to be her death knell.

How Is Vaping Safer Than Cigarettes?

No one else has ever thought about giving up smoking like you have, correct? Well, many people say they want to quit, and it’s good for your health to stop smoking because it can cause damage to almost every part of your body, including your heart.

Smoking or being around smokers is a factor in almost one-third of heart disease deaths. And, there’s danger even in second-hand smoke, or, some would say, third-hand smoke. What is third-hand smoke?

There are pollutants in the air that get spread when people smoke tobacco. This is called third-hand smoke. Chemicals that are found in third-hand smoke include nicotine and chemicals that cause cancer, like formaldehyde, naphthalene, and others.

Over time, third-hand smoke gets on most surfaces. It can get stuck on soft surfaces, like clothes, furniture, drapes, beds, and carpets. It also settles on hard objects like floors, walls, and cars as dust-like particles. There may still be third-hand smoke around for months after the person who is smoking has stopped.

You might want to try e-cigarettes, vape pens, and other reusable and throwaway vaping devices to make the switch from regular cigarettes to not smoking easier. If you smoke e-cigarettes (also called vaping), is that better for you than chewing tobacco?

Might e-cigarettes assist you in quitting smoking for good? And are e-cigarettes better than prescription products to help you stop smoking? Researchers are looking at these questions; some are weighing in on vaping, but I have doubts.

Vaping is not without consequences, and the CDC released a report a few years ago that indicated people who were vaping had deaths associated with it. They hypothesized some fatalities resulted from using illegal vaping products, which might have contained harmful ingredients. There have been 2,807 cases of e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury (EVALI) and 68 deaths linked to this disease, according to the CDC.

What’s in vaping? An analysis by a major university startled even the researchers, who found products they had difficulty identifying. Researchers found and measured six possibly dangerous additives and contaminants in e-cigarette liquids and aerosols.

Metals, carbonyls, free radicals, and phthalates are just some of the known toxicants that have been found and measured in e-cigarette liquids and fumes so far. If we’re concerned about having smoke with a carcinogenic product in it, how do we feel about having smoke that has metal in it? No one needs or wants metal fragments in their lungs.

Research is clear at this point that vaping carries with it specific dangers that may be as bad or even worse than cigarettes. However, if someone were smoking and wanted to stop, would it be better to vap or take the prescription product? That research has now been published, and it leans in the direction of vaping rather than the prescription product. But there’s another issue related to vaping.

The smoke in an e-cigarette product does contain nicotine and researchers have concluded that those who vap do so constantly during the day. As a result, they are exposed to higher levels of nicotine and all the other damaging products. Higher exposure, therefore, would lead to an addiction that may be as serious or even more serious than cigarette smoking. Heavy smokers may smoke more than a pack a day, but how many vap products does a vaper use during the day?

The big difference is that while there is a prescription product to help people stop smoking, there is no product that would help people stop vaping. Therefore, we have a new addiction with no apparent remedy at this point. Not only is the addiction potentially life-threatening, but many people believe it is a benign activity. The lack of information regarding vaping needs to be addressed, just as cigarette smoking was addressed when its cancer potential was revealed.

The post The Dangers of Fighting Cigarette Addiction With Vaping Are Not Vague appeared first on Medika Life.

Think tobacco, obviously, and how it can help calm smokers who, by virtue of the product formulation, become addicted to smoking. Besides the added ingredients, such as flavors, bronchodilators, or chemicals to keep the tobacco lit, there is nicotine, a part of our nervous system. Didn’t know that?

When we’re anxious, one thing we seek is relief, and nicotine can provide it by way of our body’s nicotinic receptors, which form a fundamental part of our body’s neurotransmission. If we ingest a nicotine-containing product (yes, smoking pushes nicotine into the sensitive lung lining and our bloodstream), it stimulates the release of dopamine, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine. All of these neurotransmitters provide calm and pleasure. Therefore, nicotine uplifts our mood, increases our alertness, and can even affect our cognitive abilities positively. But there is no free lunch here.

We know that some forms of nicotine-seeking, such as dipping, where a smokeless product is placed between the cheek and jaw are not safe. In a CDC survey of these products, it was revealed that there were 5.2 million adults aged 18 and up who said they currently used smokeless tobacco products.

About 4 out of every 100 men (4.2%) currently use smokeless tobacco, while less than 1 out of every 100 women (0.2%) currently use smokeless tobacco. Non-Hispanic white adults were the most likely to use smokeless tobacco, with nearly 3 out of every 100 (2.9%) currently using it.

We now know that the gums are one of the most vulnerable places in our bodies where toxins or bacteria can get into our blood. Putting anything in our mouth and leaving it there is like walking in traffic while wearing a blindfold.

If someone has used chewing tobacco, snuff, dip, snus, or dissolvable tobacco at least once in their life, and at the time of the survey, at least one of these products “every day” or “some days,” then they were considered to have “current smokeless tobacco product use.” The survey was given to people aged 18 and up.

The dangers of dipping are apparent when we review research on the physical price users may pay. I worked with a woman whose husband was a cancer surgeon who often performed operations on cancers of the jaw related to dipping. They called it “kamikaze surgery” because of the troubling aftermath. Smokeless tobacco products may also contain arsenic, which can poison you slowly.

Although the health implications of smokeless tobacco products have been well documented, newer nicotine-containing pouch products are an area where research needs to catch up. It has already been established that nicotine products are addictive, but what about the potential for cancer or other health consequences? Their popularity is impressive according to sales. From August to December 2019, sales rose to 126.06 million units. From January to March 2022, sales rose to 808.14 million units.

Sold as tobacco-free products, the assumption would appear to be that pouches are safer than items containing tobacco. But do we know its safety profile? We’ve already dealt with e-cigarettes and vaping and the hidden health dangers in that “tobacco-free” smoke. Nothing like taking heavy metals directly into your lungs for future multiple health disorders.

Do we need nicotine to help us deal with anxiety and stress? No, of course, we don’t, but again, here’s a “quick fix” that is as appealing to many as cigarettes once were. Does anyone know that the original Marlboro man died of lung cancer?

The post Smoke, Dip, or Pouch It and Suffer the Horrific Consequences? appeared first on Medika Life.

Think tobacco, obviously, and how it can help calm smokers who, by virtue of the product formulation, become addicted to smoking. Besides the added ingredients, such as flavors, bronchodilators, or chemicals to keep the tobacco lit, there is nicotine, a part of our nervous system. Didn’t know that?

When we’re anxious, one thing we seek is relief, and nicotine can provide it by way of our body’s nicotinic receptors, which form a fundamental part of our body’s neurotransmission. If we ingest a nicotine-containing product (yes, smoking pushes nicotine into the sensitive lung lining and our bloodstream), it stimulates the release of dopamine, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine. All of these neurotransmitters provide calm and pleasure. Therefore, nicotine uplifts our mood, increases our alertness, and can even affect our cognitive abilities positively. But there is no free lunch here.

We know that some forms of nicotine-seeking, such as dipping, where a smokeless product is placed between the cheek and jaw are not safe. In a CDC survey of these products, it was revealed that there were 5.2 million adults aged 18 and up who said they currently used smokeless tobacco products.

About 4 out of every 100 men (4.2%) currently use smokeless tobacco, while less than 1 out of every 100 women (0.2%) currently use smokeless tobacco. Non-Hispanic white adults were the most likely to use smokeless tobacco, with nearly 3 out of every 100 (2.9%) currently using it.

We now know that the gums are one of the most vulnerable places in our bodies where toxins or bacteria can get into our blood. Putting anything in our mouth and leaving it there is like walking in traffic while wearing a blindfold.

If someone has used chewing tobacco, snuff, dip, snus, or dissolvable tobacco at least once in their life, and at the time of the survey, at least one of these products “every day” or “some days,” then they were considered to have “current smokeless tobacco product use.” The survey was given to people aged 18 and up.

The dangers of dipping are apparent when we review research on the physical price users may pay. I worked with a woman whose husband was a cancer surgeon who often performed operations on cancers of the jaw related to dipping. They called it “kamikaze surgery” because of the troubling aftermath. Smokeless tobacco products may also contain arsenic, which can poison you slowly.

Although the health implications of smokeless tobacco products have been well documented, newer nicotine-containing pouch products are an area where research needs to catch up. It has already been established that nicotine products are addictive, but what about the potential for cancer or other health consequences? Their popularity is impressive according to sales. From August to December 2019, sales rose to 126.06 million units. From January to March 2022, sales rose to 808.14 million units.

Sold as tobacco-free products, the assumption would appear to be that pouches are safer than items containing tobacco. But do we know its safety profile? We’ve already dealt with e-cigarettes and vaping and the hidden health dangers in that “tobacco-free” smoke. Nothing like taking heavy metals directly into your lungs for future multiple health disorders.

Do we need nicotine to help us deal with anxiety and stress? No, of course, we don’t, but again, here’s a “quick fix” that is as appealing to many as cigarettes once were. Does anyone know that the original Marlboro man died of lung cancer?

The post Smoke, Dip, or Pouch It and Suffer the Horrific Consequences? appeared first on Medika Life.

DANDRIDGE, Tenn. — Rachel Solomon and judges hadn’t been on the best of terms. Then Judge O. Duane Slone “dumbfounded” her.

Solomon was given her first Percocet at age 12 by a family member with a medicine cabinet full. It made her feel numb, she said. “Nothing hurt.” By 17, she was taking 80-milligram OxyContins. A decade later, she was introduced to heroin.

During those years, Solomon was in and out of trouble with the law.

Then, five years ago, at 32, she arrived in Slone’s courtroom, pregnant, fearing the worst. But the state circuit court judge saw promise. He ruled that Solomon would serve jail time for an outstanding warrant for aggravated burglary and then would be placed in a program for pregnant or parenting women recovering from addiction. She would retain custody of her son, Brantley, now 4.

Slone also offered an option that many judges, particularly in rural jurisdictions, at that time were averse to extending: medication for opioid use disorder, or MOUD.

A study conducted a decade ago found that barely half of drug treatment courts offered medication treatment. Those that didn’t cited uncertainty about its efficacy and noted political, judicial, and administrative opposition. But research in the years since has persuaded many of the most insistent abstinence-only advocates.

According to Monica Christofferson, director of treatment court programs at the Center for Justice Innovation, amid an accelerating opioid crisis there has been a “huge shift” among judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement agencies away from the stigma associated with medication treatment. Simply put, “MOUD works,” Christofferson asserted.

By 2022, more than 90% of drug courts located in communities with high opioid mortality rates that responded to a survey said they allow buprenorphine and/or methadone, the medications most commonly used to treat addiction. The study also found that 65% of drug court program staffers have received training in medication for treatment, and a similar share have arranged for clients to continue receiving medications while serving jail time for program violations. Still, almost 1 in 4 programs told researchers they overrule medication decisions.

Federal legislation has lowered the barriers to it. And Bureau of Justice Assistance funding for treatment-court programs now mandates that medication for substance use disorder be provided.

Solomon experienced that shift in real time in Slone’s courtroom as the judge allowed her access to medication to treat her addiction to opioids.

As a young prosecutor in the 1990s in mostly rural eastern Tennessee, Slone was embedded with a drug task force and was well versed in efforts to counteract the supply side of the opioid crisis. Then, as a circuit court judge, he’d put his share of people behind bars on drug-related convictions.

As the crisis deepened, he started to wonder if addressing the demand side would be more effective.

Like so many other prosecutors and judges, Slone believed abstinence was the only path to recovery. But in 2013, after consulting with substance use disorder experts, he relented, introducing medication as an alternative to incarceration for pregnant women. By 2016, he had fully embraced it throughout his recovery courts — even as most judges, he said, “still believed that it was substituting one drug for another.”

Building from evidence-based research, Slone has launched programs that show how a judge, and a region, can trade an abstinence-only, lock-’em-up approach for one that offers a full range of paths to recovery.

Before witnessing medication treatment’s efficacy, Slone said, he would tell a defendant charged with a drug offense, “‘This is your second chance. If you violate the conditions of your probation, I’m going to put you in jail.’”

Often, six months later they’d be back in his courtroom, charged with a low-level crime and having tested positive for drugs. “They’re 19, maybe 20 years old, and I’m executing a five-year sentence. It makes me sick to my stomach now.”

Slone was sure there must be a better way.

A drug recovery court, which he co-founded in his 4th Judicial District in 2009, was a first step. It allows defendants with nonviolent drug-related charges to avoid jail time by entering treatment and counseling. They’re closely monitored by a team that includes a judge, case manager, public defender, prosecutor, and probation officer. If the participant violates the terms of the agreement, the first step is a reassessment of treatment needs. Multiple violations may result in incarceration.

Because this form of drug court is resource-intensive, relatively few people can be enrolled. So in 2013, Slone introduced the Tennessee Recovery Oriented Compliance Strategy, or TN-ROCS, an alternative to jail for those who aren’t considered at high risk of recidivism but are deemed in urgent need of treatment. Many are pregnant women or mothers of young children.

Given the reduced need for supervision, the program can accommodate more participants. So far, more than 1,000 people have been on the district’s TN-ROCS docket.

Both the recovery court and TN-ROCS offer three medication options: buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone.

Since TN-ROCS’ launch, Slone said, his community has seen a decrease in property crimes and its jail population. Over its first five years, all 34 pregnant women in the program gave birth to healthy babies and 30 kept custody of their children. TN-ROCS is now being replicated across the state.

One barrier to broader acceptance of medication treatment in both rural and urban communities, Christofferson said, is a lack of education.

Corey Williams agrees. He advocates for educating criminal justice system officials. Williams is an officer with the Lubbock, Texas, Police Department and is a consultant with the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, which promotes drug policy and criminal justice reform. He believes that if more criminal justice officials had personal experience with medication to treat substance use disorder, they’d view it differently.

Williams’ wife, Brianne Williams, became addicted to opioids in medical school. She participated in a series of abstinence-only programs and was free of the drugs for seven years, then relapsed. She was arrested for writing herself a prescription for opioids and placed on probation.

She had entered a Suboxone treatment program, but her probation officer incorrectly informed her she couldn’t remain on Suboxone on probation. Williams relapsed, failed a drug test, and served 30 months in federal prison. After her release, she went back on Suboxone — a brand-name combination of buprenorphine and naloxone — and has maintained her sobriety. “It improved my life drastically,” she said. She now hopes to regain her medical license and specialize in addiction treatment.

The relative unavailability in rural areas of medication treatment is certainly a problem. A shortage, Christofferson noted, is not only an issue in itself, but also a barrier to overcoming stigma. More openings available, more success stories. More success stories, less stigma. Fewer provider options also means one bad actor — a provider who overprescribes or is otherwise negligent — perpetuates the stigma. Strict oversight is essential.

Physician Stephen Loyd influenced Slone’s decision to embrace medication treatment and is now a member of Slone’s recovery court team. Loyd was practicing internal medicine in eastern Tennessee when he developed a 100-pill-a-day addiction to prescription opioids. He was the inspiration for the character Michael Keaton portrayed in the Hulu series “Dopesick.” Loyd overcame his addiction and served as the state’s “opioid czar” under Gov. Bill Haslam from 2016 to 2018.

While in state government, Loyd helped plant the seed for TN-ROCS. He told Slone the first judge to take such an initiative would “be on the cover of Time magazine, because your success rates are gonna go up dramatically; you’re gonna save a bunch of lives.”

“He didn’t get on the cover of Time,” Loyd allowed, “but he did win the William H. Rehnquist Award.” The William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence is among the country’s highest judicial honors.

Rachel Solomon contends one of those lives saved was hers.

Today she and her son are together; she’s employed. She remains on Suboxone. She feels good. And she feels fortunate she arrived in Slone’s courtroom when she did.

“He’s the reason I am where I am today,” she said. “He really is.”

The post Once-Resistant Rural Court Officials Begin to Embrace Medications to Treat Addiction appeared first on Medika Life.

But the impact of smoking is all around us, even if we don’t see it. Statistics rarely tell a provocative story to compel people to action. The numbers behind the global smoking epidemic are so stark, however, they are almost incomprehensible. Behind every data point, a real person, family or community is impacted.

Let’s start with the challenge: More than 1.3 billion people – 17 percent of the global population – smoke cigarettes or consumes other tobacco products. Since the first World No Tobacco Day in 1987, nearly 300 million people have died from smoking-related illnesses, including tens of millions who died or suffered respiratory or cognitive impairment from second-hand smoke. If the average day is any gauge, thousands of children took up smoking yesterday, including the fastest rising of all groups: teenage girls. Beyond the impact of lives lost or harmed, smoking costs the global economy roughly $2 trillion in economic damage every year.

With that money, with those lives lost, what could be done to improve the world? A lot, as it turns out. That sum would fund the attainment of many of humanity’s most ambitious sustainability and poverty alleviation goals. We could facilitate an equitable transfer to cleaner energy technologies for industrialized and emerging markets. And to be blunt, we would have an honest shot at dramatically reducing cancer rates and chronic disease when a massive chunk of the world’s people isn’t inhaling products that contain more than 7,000 different chemicals with each puff.

Perhaps eliminating smoking is a pipe dream. Governments have imposed stiff taxes against tobacco products; research is being used to counter cigarette advertising; social stigma has built in many countries and health systems have made smoking habits increasingly punitive. But that hasn’t slowed the epidemic. We need better tools.

Around 60 percent of smokers globally – 780 million people – say they want to quit, but only 30 percent have access to resources to help them achieve that goal. That represents a massive market opportunity for the right solutions. Education and support networks are essential. However, smokers need access to more powerful cessation products to deliver a knockout punch. Fortunately, there is some good news on that front.

While smoking cessation products have been available for nearly two decades, they can have serious side effects and rebound rates. Last week, results for a confirmatory Phase 3 clinical trial – ORCA-3 – showed statistically significant results over six and 12 weeks. The study features a new cessation treatment called cytisinicline, a plant-derived alkaloid.

Most of the trial’s participants have been smoking for more than 30 years and have tried to quit on average four times. In the study, cytisinicline demonstrated a six-fold increase in the odds of maintaining continuous smoking cessation at six months compared to the placebo.

The new cessation treatment also produces far fewer side effects than routinely reported by people using other smoking cessation products. This is particularly important since compliance with treatment is a significant barrier that keeps millions of people from following through with their goal of quitting.

Cytisinicline opens a new front in the war to end smoking. The task is to ensure it and other tools reach the people who need it most. Advocacy groups and government agencies can help with this important next step by breaking down the barriers to access that frequently inhibit people from acting on the dream of kicking their smoking habit. It’s time to lend them a hand.

The post It’s Time for New Tools to Overcome Smoking appeared first on Medika Life.

As a fetus, Charlie endured hearing his mother gasp for life during three heroin overdoses, heard the constant fighting and screaming between his birth mother and my son, endured severe malnutrition second to his parents’ homelessness, felt the poisonous effects of multiple substance abuse, and was the victim of the subsequent, injurious, powerful negative stress hormones pulsing through his mother’s veins.

The Origin Of A New Trauma-related Diagnosis

Addiction and overdose result in deep shame, guilt, and fear for persons suffering from addiction.

Most addicts report a heavy burden of anger and disgust for themselves for their addicted state. Subsequently, they acknowledge an absence of self-worth, which perpetuates hopelessness, low initiative for self-care, and an outward disregard for their lives and health as a way to offset dealing with the deep trauma roots of addiction.

A drug-addicted lifestyle is harder on the soul and body of an addict than on the people who love them, although family and friends suffer inexplicably living with and observing a loved one’s addiction.

However, there is a significant other victim of addiction who is most often never even acknowledged until the damage done to them is permanent. This person receives every spiritual, psychological, and physical impairment that the person in addiction experiences in active addiction and overdoses, but is incapable of processing or recovering from the events.

These lives helplessly experience repetitive, excessive drug use, and very often, overdose, in their body and mind. They can not escape the experiences or the source of those experiences and are unable to tell anyone or ask for protection from the effects of another’s drug abuse.

This is because they are not yet born.

How Excessive Prenatal Exposure To Drugs and Overdose Physiologically Affect A Newborn:

An addict’s excessive drug use is an overt sign of self-rejection. The user may not perceive initially that this is an originating factor of their addiction because there are many other valid facets to addiction.

However, a tragic consequence of addiction-related self-rejection is the destruction of innocence, both of the using individual and of any child growing in the womb of a pregnant addict.

A fetus has every capability to perceive love, affection, and its hopeful birth as it does to receive the innate rejection, disregard, and neglectful abuse occurring in substance abuse overdoses and drug abuse during its womb experience.

What transpires physically to the child through the onslaught of poisonous substances in-utero creates the intrinsic knowledge or perception that it is unwanted, alienable, and dismissible as being worthy of concern and love.

This is how addictive drug use causes any addict to feel. This deep trauma belief is transferred to the unborn through brain synapses, hormones, and the connective spirituality between mother and child.

My own grandson has been born from a severely multi-substance exposed pregnancy. Once home from the NICU, this tiny human being wore the look of the sadness and devastation of his intra-uterine experience in his countenance. I had never seen anything like it. It scared me to the core.

My experience with the result of a loved one’s addiction leads me to educate readers on the tragedies of prenatal opioid and substance abuse.

In my work as a NICU nurse, what always struck me about our “drug babies” was their direct inability to readily accept the human touch. I recognized that although sensory and neurological issues were a major component of that born trait, the inability to want or accept human touch was also resultant of the prenatal rejection occurring through pregnancy drug use and overdose.

They would grimace from touch first, as it appeared to hurt. Watching a new child recoil from another human being’s affection is heartbreaking.

An initial diagnosis of NAS or NOWS is not the separative long-term condition that these children go home with. Most NAS symptoms, some of which initially coincide with PORS symptoms, dissipate after several few weeks.

Most times, these babies were discharged home screaming, red-faced, uncomfortable, and heavily medicated. Their parent(s) would never have the patience and wherewithal to care for them, while still in active addiction or early recovery.

These children begin their fragile lives with both a biological and physical understanding/belief that life is pain, an intrinsic search to end that pain (which becomes a future central focus of existence), an inability to independently stop the physical and emotional pain of rejection (which creates a subhuman existence) and a disconnect from intimacy and self that permanently alters their perspective on self-worth, purpose, and trust for humanity.

Why Medical Intervention is Imperative in PORS and Active Parental Addiction

There are now new trauma classes for foster families accepting children from homes of drug use and other abuses, but few are well versed, if at all, on the subject of prenatal exposure to excessive substance use and overdose-related PTSD or the resultant rejection component in the newborn.

This is because the conditions in this delicate population are not yet medically recognized, documented, and treatable pediatric diagnoses.

It is especially not yet widely recognized that these brand new lives have severe PTSD.

Few professionals have or seek research on this.

Even with today’s recent increased trauma research, both the medical community and society seem to pull a sheet over both the inevitable and unexplainable realities occurring to a human being from prenatal drug exposure.

When medical professionals happen to note both the discord in the addict’s parental dynamics and in how prenatal and postnatal drug addiction (at home) affects those babies conceived in addiction, it is common to see the multitudinous signs and symptoms in a child who is suffering from PORS, dismissed as non-related diagnoses.

CPS can and will not intervene in most cases where a mother does not show up positive for substances at birth or just before. Addicts know to circumvent the system. Who confirms that she is sober a few days prior to the test and several days or weeks after discharge?

For the most part, no one.

An addict traditionally does not get sober during pregnancy just because an innocent life is at stake during or after childbirth.

Overall, there is little intervention from the medical community to acknowledge the delicate situation these children are born into or to actually protect their vulnerable and damaged lives from further damage.

Many times, it seems that this lack of response may stem from willful and/or fearful ignorance to address addiction and an age-old stigma that since an “addict begats an addict,” why intervene?

Few medical providers understand the devastating and insidious nature of the addicted mind. Many do not comprehend the further and continuing damage that occurs to a child who goes home to addiction in a post-exposure crisis medically, emotionally, and physically.

As a result, the formation of special parenting techniques is not addressed through counseling/therapy and things such as specialist referrals are not made or followed through with, compromising the child’s health and safety further.

Persons with an addiction can get better and someday give good care to and parent their child well but, in my experience and opinion as a nurse and observant custodial grandmother, the formative years of the child should not be under the care of addicts (even “functioning” ones) or newly recovered ones.

When an addict is in recovery, they learn that they must focus on themselves and their sobriety first and always to keep themselves in check to stay sober. Decisions must be made that leave out other members of that addict’s family and other life priorities in lieu of the priority of sobriety.

Only time, maturity, and experience weaving the recovery program’s requirements into all aspects of the addict’s life will eventually allow for that addict to be able to properly care for others, and achieve the self-awareness and discipline to do so while maintaining sobriety.

My professional and personal experience so far is the observation of the passive omission of the medical community to take initiative to reach out and engage these parents in any appropriate discussion or intervention of the care of their PORS-affected newborn, or the desperate need for addiction services.

Addressing Latent Effects of PORS and An Addicted Parental Response

A healthy baby whose pregnancy is free of substance abuse requires full-time, attentive, round-the-clock care.

A newborn who is riddled with the physical, mental, and emotional after-effects of prenatal substance abuse requires scrutiny and intervention in every aspect of care and an intimate understanding that their responses to everything around them are woven with distrust, fear, and disconnect.

In most cases, the obvious emotional and physical problems cannot be handled safely or appropriately either by addicts who remain in their addiction or by recovering addicts who are less than 1–2 years stable into their sobriety.

Beginning in the early months after birth, it takes a gentle hand, a calm demeanor, an overly attentive approach, and an excess of undistracted care to settle and restructure these children’s spirit after their womb trauma.

Keep in mind, rejection is a foundational component of their physical, mental, and emotional makeup.

The latent effects of this condition pose further danger to a child as they grow and age as most parents in recovery or in active addiction, will not recognize or understand prevailing and insidious symptoms such as the presence of sensory deprivation/overload, general sensorial problems, neurological delays, night terrors, processing disorders, speech/choking swallowing disorders and other serious maladaptations resulting from prenatal drug use and overdose.

Some of these diagnoses could take months or a few years to become visibly evident, although many are present right after birth.

This places the child in yet another traumatic situation because the uneducated, (uneducated to the problems associated with the diagnosis) addicted or sober parent is again, not traditionally sought out by the baby’s or mother’s medical professionals as an interventional risk or for the teaching of the probable issues to come.

Addicted or recovering parents are prone to getting angry easily (which is a result of their complicated mental and emotional condition in addiction) at the distracting crying, incessant need to eat and be soothed, or the refusal to eat and be held, as well as frequent illnesses.

What commonly happens in the manifestation of symptoms, is the parent(s) will react to the “irrational,” confusing behavior and excessive needs of the child and not to the cause of either. Subsequently, several types of abuse are common to occur, as the baby or older child’s behavior is intrinsically misunderstood.

Parents in active addiction or early recovery will usually misunderstand telltale signs that the baby is in need of a different kind of intense and patient parenting. The parents also do not have the ability in their current state to process or act on the needs of their child.

In one particular NICU environment I was employed in, the staff would read the city’s newspaper weekly on the unit to note which of our discharged babies had died by abuse or neglect. It was that common.

Others ended up in our emergency room completely malnourished and in active severe dehydration. Some made it, some did not.

The medical community as a whole must urgently re-examine the entire and intricate phenom of addiction. We must seriously re-examine sending a drug and overdose-exposed infant home to the people who had damaged them in utero, despite their “cleaned up” appearance and promises, and even despite any recent positive recovery status.

The menace that is relapse is an overshadowing, lurking danger, historically, and must be monitored very closely for a newly sober parent.

Self-coined Prenatal Overdose Rejection Syndrome Diagnosis.

Separate from my extensive nursing experience, I have gathered an immense amount of professional and personal expertise in managing, caring for, and in raising a child born into a heroin and meth addiction.

I noticed the symptoms of PORS in my professional career, but it was not until Charlie, my own grandson, was born from severe addiction that I could pen an actual name for the postnatal (and beyond) symptoms that I was seeing.

I have had legal custody of him since his fifth month of life. Charlie grew in-utero in my home from 28 weeks, was born at 38 weeks, and subsequently endured a month-long NICU stay and then was discharged to my home under the care of his birth mother and my youngest son, his father.

Both Charlie’s parents continue to struggle today with their recovery from heroin and meth, but for all their positive efforts (five years later) neither are in any kind of emotional or physical condition to parent Charlie and will not be for a long time, if ever.

During the pregnancy, in a rescue attempt to get help for her and for Charlie, I insisted that my grandson’s birth mother inform all her doctors and prenatal specialists of her heroin and meth addiction.

However, her specialists were not concerned.

They did not intervene and did not question her or even address her obvious positive drug screens occurring before her 28th week.

Not only was she not flagged as a risk to the baby at and after the birth, but the delivering ob/gyn actually told her that heroin and meth were not known to hurt a baby, so he “should be fine.”

This ridiculous and irresponsible line of thinking and under-education on this doctor’s part is reprehensible and did prove to be tragically wrong. Charlie was born with Gastroschisis, requiring immediate surgery after birth, and was subsequently diagnosed with 12 independent diagnoses.

Now, Prenatal Overdose Rejection Syndrome is an additional, undocumented and unrecognized problem I manage in his care and a focal point of intervention in his life.

Symptoms:

Charlie displays a constant need for reassurance of each family member’s role and connection with each other and to secure the idea that he and everyone “go together.” He continually looks for his proper place in the family, as it is clear he feels “out of place,” in general.

He is now almost five years old. Until very recently, he was inconsolable if I was not within sight and behaved as though he believed I was gone for good. This fear of abandonment began at birth. The few months his parents cared for him only cemented his fears as they did not know how and were not focused on meeting his needs…and they had both secretly returned to using just after he came home.

Charlie additionally had sudden, unexplained fevers, frequent illnesses (every 3 weeks almost on the dot) including pneumonia, RSV, strep, and other general maladies. He woke six to seven times a night, screaming inconsolably much of the time.

When a little older, he would hit himself when even gently corrected or if any situation seemed to place him in the spotlight for any reason. These issues are still present but improved now.

Charlie screams and talks angrily in his sleep often, now and seems to have dreams in which he is being threatened or attacked, as evidenced by this sleep speech and cries.

I sincerely believe this has to do with his prenatal and post-birth experiences with substance abuse, overdose, and the irresponsible, incomplete care he received from his parents in the first few months of his life.

For all the physical, neurological, and emotional difficulties (there are many more diagnoses), the most noted after effect of his prenatal exposure and trauma is his noticeable sense of rejection.

I am very careful in my one on one handling of his body when he walks and moves, as any accidental brush, scrape, or slight knock (think of getting a child into a car seat, dressing, or just moving about in general in the home) to his person sends him into a screaming fit, hitting himself.

The expectation of rejection and mistreatment is in his eyes, despite all my expressed care and love for him. I have also seen the same look in the eyes of other special needs children, both in my pediatric career and presently in other children attending therapy appointments at our therapy clinic.

Many things in a human being’s life can cause the rooted belief of unworthiness. It is incomprehensible that a developing fetus can be so poorly treated in the womb that this kind of root would begin before a first breath in the world, but it is an unfortunate reality.

Signs of PORS: (some can be characterized under other diagnoses as well)

If the caregiver/parent/grandparent of a child who suffered prenatal drug abuse and overdoses recognizes some or any of the following signs, immediate PCP’s therapy and developmental delay referrals needs to be made:

• excessive separation anxiety
• frequent night terrors
• social distancing from peers (can be observed as early as 12–18 months)
• delayed or difficult speech and conversation
• frequent, unexplained illnesses
• any purposeful self-injury
• the appearance of being persistently sad, aloof, disengaged or if they appear overexcited, excessively talkative ie: like the Energizer bunny and they are in a noticeable state of stress)
• anything else that appears to be “odd” or out of sorts with their communication methods, thought processes, and reactions to everyday activities and stressors.
• subtle and overt signs of problems processing daily communication and information, discipline, and social expectations. *
• Congenital mobility problems: weaknesses in various parts of the body showing as imbalance, toe-walking, odd gait, frequent falls, weak extremities, etc.

As a fetus, Charlie endured hearing his mother gasp for life during three heroin overdoses, heard the constant fighting and screaming between his birth mother and my son, endured severe malnutrition, felt the effects of multiple substance abuse, and was the victim of the negative stress hormones pulsing through his mother’s veins caused by the distinct chaos of another’s addiction.

Again, I continue to observe that the PORS phenomenon with all its nuances is not considered even when clinicians do work with addicts and their children. The effect of an addict’s life and abuse on the fetus is not addressed head-on.

Medical providers are bound to the search and research of best care and we are trained to unturn every stone for solutions and resolutions. If this is not accomplished, there are dire consequences for a patient who has experienced prenatal exposure to drugs, and especially, severe cases.

This type of unborn life, this type of prenatal rejection, affects the child’s whole physical, mental, emotional and spiritual makeup.

It is a permanent, invisible disfigurement.

Suggesting Further Solutions:

As with any health problem in our world, one effective and necessary solution is education, which is the purpose for my piece on this under-recognized and hugely epidemic medical and social problem.

Active and sober addicts, the parents and caregivers of the affected babies and children, and other involved (and medical) parties affected by Prenatal Overdose Rejection Syndrome need to be educated on the signs and symptoms of this not-yet-diagnosed condition.

Immediate, compassionate and consistent intervention should unequivocally begin at the positive test for pregnancy in an addict. As much as we, the medical community, can do to help that mother obtain permanent sobriety, we should do.

All parties affected by and involved in the care of Prenatal Overdose Rejection Syndrome also need a voice as a way to heal, educate, and be educated to implement treatments and cares and advocate for new research into this devastating issue. This begins by assessing, triaging, monitoring, and providing the utmost, loving and creative care are for these populations, as we are capable of.

This happens through the willful and purposeful engagement of physicians and other medical providers to swiftly address the symptoms of addiction in the parent and those of the child born out of that addiction. Researching and documenting these mental health and physical conditions and presentations is most imperative.

To summarize

Unborn babies in the womb of an active addict are the most at-risk type of patients in society and the medical community due to the inability of this type of patient to advocate for themselves and the inability of the addicted parent (s) to advocate appropriately for either of them.

The lives and health of these babies are severely compromised before birth. They are discarded and rejected prior to life outside the womb through the use and overdosing of substances, whether intentionally or neglectfully done.

Until research on the full psychosocial, psychological, and coinciding physical and emotional prenatal effects of drug use and overdose is addressed thoroughly, and protective measures for the unborn experiencing this abuse are put into effect, many an unborn child in the womb of an active addict will be plagued with a consciousness of intrinsic and lasting rejection before they are even seen or held.

This is unacceptable for our children and grandchildren and for any new human being.

The post Prenatal Overdose Rejection Syndrome appeared first on Medika Life.

These numbers continue to escalate, and the consequences are devastating for individuals, families, and communities. An urgent solution is needed to address this problem, and one potential solution is to make Narcan Nasal Spray (naloxone) available for free. The agent was just approved as an over-the-counter tool, but pricing and access may still be a significant barrier.

Narcan Nasal Spray is a life-saving medication that counteracts the life-threatening effects of opioid overdose. It works by rapidly reversing opioid overdose, blocking the effects of opiates on the brain, and restoring normal breathing in victims. In many cases, it has been a crucial tool in the hands of first responders, medical professionals, and even laypeople who have been trained to administer it.

The urgency of the opioid epidemic cannot be overstated. According to the World Health Organization, more than half a million people died from drug use in 2021, with opioids being responsible for a significant proportion of those deaths. In the United States alone, opioid overdoses claimed the lives of over 100,000 people that same year. The opioid crisis has been declared a public health emergency, with devastating consequences rippling across communities, healthcare systems, and economies.

The pharmaceutical industry must more beyond a business and manufacture to become a beacon of action for the countless lives lost and impacted by the social blight of addiction. 

A pharma-based fund could be established to support the provision of free Narcan Nasal Spray. By pooling resources from pharmaceutical companies, the fund could finance the production and distribution of the medication, making it more accessible to those in need while supporting the manufacture. Emergent BioSolutions. This collaborative effort would demonstrate the industry’s commitment to addressing the opioid crisis and its devastating societal effects.

The post A Life-Saving Proposal: Offer Narcan Nasal Spray For Free appeared first on Medika Life.