Word: oxycontin
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Dates: during 2001-2001
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...treatment options. But, as doctors will tell you, they are a double-edged sword because they drive up demand for drugs. And that's particularly dicey in the case of drugs like those used for ADHD, which the DEA puts in the same category with morphine, cocaine, Demerol and Oxycontin...
...physician, I did not think your article about OxyContin, our company's drug that is prescribed as a pain killer, adequately distinguished between the dangers of abusing pain medications and the benefits of them when taken under appropriate supervision [DRUGS, Jan. 8]. Because of OxyContin's time-release formulation, patients with pain who take the drug do not experience the heroin-like euphoria you mentioned. Wrong perceptions about addiction--and mislabeling legitimate patients as abusers--can result in the unnecessary withholding of opioid medications from patients in need. You stated that Purdue Pharma is facing pressure from prosecutors to minimize...
Your article did a disservice to the many pain patients taking OxyContin. The problems of drug addiction and the diversion of opioids do exist. However, they should not prevent physicians from prescribing medications such as OxyContin to the 99% of legitimate pain patients who need it. The solution to the problem of illicit use is improved dialogue among doctors, politicians, and state and federal regulators to educate all in the proper use of pain medications. HOWARD A. HEIT, M.D. McLean...
...everyone agrees that OxyContin is problematic. Dr. David Haddox, senior medical director for Purdue Pharma, the drug's manufacturer, insists doctors are not overprescribing. But the company has a lot to lose if the controversy lingers and doctors take their patients off it. Last April the Wall Street Journal reported that OxyContin sales increased 95% in one year, generating $600 million in sales for Purdue Pharma. Indeed, the drug, introduced in 1995, has been hailed as a miracle; it eases chronic pain because its dissolvable coating allows a measured dose of the opiate oxycodone to be released into the bloodstream...
Facing pressure from prosecutors, investigators and drug counselors, OxyContin's manufacturer has begun working with doctors to minimize forged prescriptions. In Maine the problems have caused a quandary for doctors. In 1999 the legislature passed new medical rules requiring doctors to treat pain more aggressively. Now Maine is the second largest consumer of OxyContin among all the states, and had 35 deaths from overdoses last year. "We haven't had a drug problem like this in the high schools in Maine until now," says U.S. Attorney Jay McCloskey, who is waging a war against the doctors who so readily write...