Combining Medication-Assisted Treatment and 12- Step recovery: One Patient’s Success Story

A few weeks ago, I posted a few articles about 12-step recovery. Several readers became very upset, even saying that if I was pro-12-step, I couldn’t really be an advocate for medicated-assisted treatment of opioid addiction. That’s their opinion, and I honor their views, though I heartily disagree with them.

Now I’d like to present an interview I did with a very successful Suboxone patient who did find help from 12-step meetings.

JB: Please tell me about your experience with pain pill addiction and your experiences with buprenorphine (Suboxone).

XYZ: For me, my opiate addiction got so bad, I was taking two hundred and forty to three hundred and twenty milligrams of OxyContin per day, just to stay normal. It had gotten really, really bad. And it started out with a reason. I had kidney stones, and I was in all this pain, but then it got to the point where it solved some other problems in my life and it got out of hand. I tried a lot of different things. I went to detox, and they helped me, but it was…it was almost like I never came out of withdrawal.

JB: How long were you off pain pills?

XYZ: Even after being clean for thirty or sixty days, I would still feel bad. Bowels, stomach…really all the time.

JB: Did it feel like acute withdrawal or just low grade withdrawal?

XYZ: No…I’d try to fix it myself, sometimes, and I would just put myself back where I was. It got to the point where I was making myself sicker and sicker and sicker. And then I got off of it, and stayed off of it for a hundred and twenty days, I guess…but still just sick. Just miserable, and not feeling right. I was miserable. I wouldn’t eat, I was losing weight…

It [buprenorphine] gave me something that replaced whatever was going on in my head physically, with the receptors. It took that [prolonged withdrawal] away, to the point that I felt well. All that energy I would spend getting pills…and I was going to the doctors almost daily. Because taking that much medicine, nobody would write me for that much, so I had to doctor shop.

My only life was going to the doctors, figuring out what pharmacy I could use. I had a whole system of how many days it could be between prescriptions, what pharmacy to go to. It was sick. I was just trying to not get sick.

JB: And you were working during that time?

XYZ: Yeah! I was working, if you want to call it that. I wasn’t a very good employee, but I held a job. I was a regional vice president for “X” company. I traveled a lot, so I had new states where I could see new doctors. That was bad. When I came off the road, I owed $50,000 in credit card bills.

JB: And your wife didn’t know about it?

XYZ: No. It all came tumbling down. And I had gotten into trouble, because they were company credit cards, and they wanted the money back! So, all of the sudden my wife found out that not only do I have a pain pill problem, but we’re $50,000 short, and I wasn’t very ethical in the way I got the money, because it really wasn’t my credit, it was my company’s credit card.

JB: So addiction made you do things you wouldn’t do otherwise?

XYZ: Absolutely. I lied to people, I took money from people, I ran up credit cards tens of thousands of dollars, and really put my family in serious jeopardy at that time. But buprenorphine took away that whole obsessive-compulsive need for pills, made me feel better, and took away all the withdrawal symptoms at the same time. I didn’t worry about it.
To be honest, I was such a hypochondriac before. I haven’t been sick in years now. I haven’t had a backache or headache that ibuprofen didn’t cure [since starting recovery]. I was fortunate it was all in my head. I would milk any little thing. I had two knee operations that probably could have been healed through physical therapy, but I was all for surgery, because I knew I’d get pain pills.

JB: That’s the power of addiction!

XYZ: Yes. Finally I did some research about buprenorphine, online. Actually, I had some good family members, who did some research and brought it to me, because they were concerned for me, and they brought it to me and said, “Hey, there’s a medicine that can help. Call this number,” and I found places out there that would do it [meaning Suboxone], but my concern was the speed that a lot of them were doing it. A lot of them said, OK come in, and we can evaluate you, and after a week you’ll be down to this, and after a month you’ll be down to this.

This was in 2005. And when I asked them what their success rate is, it wasn’t very high. It was something like twenty percent of the people who were doing it [succeeded]. So when I’d finally gotten a hold of “X,” [receptionist for Dr. H], she saved my life over the phone. Because she said, you can come tomorrow, and she said that whatever it takes, they’ll work with you. And I felt good about going to a place where it wasn’t already determined how long it would take. Because I already knew how I was feeling after I would come off of opiates. I didn’t want to do that again.

I saw Dr. H. and felt better within twenty-four hours, although it took a little while to get the dosage right. I think we started off at a lower dose, then we went up on the dose and it kept me so level. I had no symptoms. It cured my worst withdrawal symptoms, my stomach and my bowels.

There’s always a kind of stigma in the rooms [12-step recovery meetings] because I’d been in NA for a little bit of time then [he’s speaking of stigma against medication-assisted treatment]. You realize who [among addicts in NA] is die-hard, one way to do recovery, and who is willing to be educated about some things and understand that there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
And I was fortunate that I had a sponsor at that time, and still do, who was willing to learn about what exactly it was, and not make me feel guilty about it. It wasn’t necessarily the way he would do it, but he was a cocaine addict, so he didn’t understand that whole part of it.

He said, “Your family’s involved, you’ve got a doctor that’s involved, your doctor knows your history. If all these people, who are intelligent, think this is an OK thing, then who am I to say it’s not going to work?” He was open-minded. And there are not a lot of people I would trust right off the bat [in recovery], that I would tell them. [that he’s taking Suboxone]. I’ve shared it with some people who’ve had a similar problem, and told them, here’s something that might help you. I always preface it with, [don’t do] one thing or another, you’ve got to do them together. You have to have a recovery program and take this medicine, because together it will work. Look at me. I’m a pretty good success story.

One of my best friends in Florida called me, and I got him to go see a doctor down there, and he’s doing well now. He’s been on it almost eleven months now and no relapses.

To me, it takes away the whole mental part of it, because you don’t feel bad. For me, it was the feeling bad that drove me back to taking something [opioids] again. Obviously, when you’re physically feeling bad, you’re mentally feeling bad, too. It makes you depressed, and all of that, so you avoid doing fun things, because you don’t feel good.

Once I trained myself with NA, how to get that portion of my life together, to use those tools, not having any kind of physical problems made it that much easier to not obsess.

JB: So, how has your life improved, as a result of being on buprenorphine?

XYZ: Well, the most important thing for me is that I’ve regained the trust of my family. I was the best liar and manipulator there was. I’d like to think of myself as a pretty ethical and honest person, in every aspect of my life, other than when it came to taking pills.

JB: So, you regained the trust of your family, felt physically better…

XYZ: I gained my life back! Fortunately, I had enough of a brain left to know it had to stop. Once I started on buprenorphine, it gave me back sixteen hours a day that I was wasting. That’s when I decided I really don’t want to jeopardize my recovery, by going out and looking for a job again [he means a job in corporate America, like he had in the past], because I’ve got this thing, this stigma…they’re going to check a reference and I’m screwed. I’m not going to get a job doing what I was doing for the same amount of money.

My brother had enough faith in me that it was worth the risk of starting this business [that he has now] together. My wife and I started on EBay, making and selling [his product], and slowly grew it to the point that, three years later, I’m going to do over two million dollars in sales this year, I’ve got [large company] as a client, I’ve got [large company] as a client, I’m doing stuff locally, in the community now, and can actually give things back to the community.

JB: And you employ people in recovery?

XYZ: Oh, yeah. I employ other recovering addicts I know I can trust. I’ve helped some people out who have been very, very successful and have stayed clean, and I’ve helped some people out who came and went, but at the same time, I gave them a chance. You can only do so much for somebody. They have to kind of want to do it themselves too, right?

JB: Have you ever had any bad experiences in the rooms of Narcotics Anonymous, as far as being on Suboxone, or do you just not talk to anybody about it?

XYZ: To be honest, I don’t broadcast it, obviously, and the only other people I would talk to about it would be somebody else who was an opioid addict, who was struggling, who was in utter misery. The whole withdrawal process…not only does it take a little while, but all that depression, the body [feels bad]. So I’ve shared with those I’ve known fairly well. I share my experience with them. I won’t necessarily tell people I don’t know well that I’m taking buprenorphine, but I will let them know about the medication. Even though the information is on the internet, a lot of it is contradictory.

It’s been great [speaking of Suboxone] for someone like me, who’s been able to put a life back together in recovery. I’d tell anybody, who’s even considering taking Suboxone, if they’re a true opioid pill addict, (I don’t know about heroin, I haven’t been there), once you get to the right level [meaning dose], it took away all of that withdrawal. And if you combine it with going to meetings, you’ll fix your head at the same time. Really. I didn’t have a job, unemployable, my family was…for a white collar guy, I was about as low as I could go, without being on the street.
Fortunately I came from a family that probably wouldn’t let that happen, at that point, but who knows, down the road… I had gotten to my low. And that’s about it, that’s about as much as I could have taken.

It [Suboxone] truly and honestly gave me my entire life back, because it took that away.

JB: What do you say to treatment centers that say, if you’re still taking methadone or Suboxone, you’re not in “real” recovery? What would you say to those people?

XYZ: To me, I look at taking Suboxone like I look at taking high blood pressure medicine, OK? It’s not mind altering, it’s not giving me a buzz, it’s not making…it’s simply fixing something I broke in my body, by abusing the hell out of it, by taking all those pain pills.

I know it’s hard for an average person, who thinks about addicts, “You did it to yourself, too bad, you shouldn’t have done that in the first place,” to be open minded. But you would think the treatment centers, by now, have seen enough damage that people have done to themselves to say, “Here’s something that we have proof that works…..”

I function normally. I get up early in the morning. I have a relationship with my wife now, after all of this, and she trusts me again. Financially, I’ve fixed all my problems, and have gotten better. I have a relationship with my kids. My wife and I were talking about it the other day. If I had to do it all over again, would I do it the way I did it? And the answer is, absolutely yes. As much as it sucked and as bad as it was, I would have still been a nine to five drone out there in corporate America, and never had the chance to do what I do. I go to work…this is dressy for me [indicating that he’s dressed in shorts and a tee shirt]

JB: So life is better now than it was before the addiction?

XYZ: It really is. Tenfold! I’m home for my kids. I wouldn’t have had the courage to have left a hundred thousand dollar a year job to start up my own business. I had to do something. Fortunately, I was feeling good enough because of it [Suboxone], to work really hard at it, like I would have if I started it as a kid. At forty years old, to go out and do something like that…

JB: Like a second career.

XYZ: It’s almost like two lives for me. And if you’re happy, nothing else matters. I would have been a miserable, full time manager, out there working for other people and reaping the benefits for them and getting my little paycheck every week and traveling, and not seeing my wife and kids, and not living as well as I do now.

I joke, and say that I work part time now, because when I don’t want to work, I don’t have to work. And when I want to work, I do work. And there are weeks that I do a lot. But then, on Saturday, we’re going to the beach. I rented a beach house Monday through Saturday, with just me and my wife and our two kids. I can spend all my time with them. I could never have taken a vacation with them like that before.

JB: Do you have anything you’d like to tell the people who make drug addiction treatment policy decisions in this nation? Anything you want them to know?

XYZ: I think it’s a really good thing they increased the amount of patients you [meaning doctors prescribing Suboxone] can take on. I’d tell the people who make the laws to find out from the doctors…how did you come up with the one hundred patient limit? What should that number be? And get it to that number, so it could help more people. And if there’s a way to get it cheaper, because the average person can’t afford it.

The main thing I’d tell them is I know it works. I’m pretty proud of what I’ve achieved. And I wouldn’t have been able to do that, had I not had the help of Suboxone. It took me a little while to get over thinking it was a crutch. But at this point, knowing that I’ve got everybody in my corner, they’re understanding what’s going on…it’s a non-issue. It’s like I said, it’s like getting up and taking a high blood pressure medicine.

I originally interviewed this patient in 2009, for a book that I wrote. Since that time, he and his family have moved to the west coast, but I’ve stayed in contact with him. He’s been in relapse-free recovery for over eight years, he’s still on Suboxone, and still happy. He has excellent relationships with his wife and children, and his business has thrived and continues to grow.

He’s an excellent example of how a recovering addict’s life can change with the right treatment. For this person, Suboxone plus 12-step recovery worked great.

On the Horizon: Heroin Vaccine

In a May issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in California reported their success using a heroin vaccine in rats. The lead author of the study, Joel Schlosburg, works with Dr. George Koob, renowned and accomplished scientist who heads the team at Scripps.

This vaccine is still only in the animal phase of study. Scientists have developed a vaccine that stimulates the rat body immune system to recognize heroin and its metabolic byproducts. The immune system sees these substances as pathogens which must be got rid of, and manufactures antibodies against the compounds. After the antibodies bind to the heroin and its active metabolites, it gets further metabolized into harmless compounds that are eliminated from the body without ever crossing the blood brain barrier. In other words, the vaccine binding prevents this powerfully reinforcing opioid from ever getting into the pleasure centers of the brain to cause euphoria, or a “high.”

The first studies in rats are promising. This vaccine is postulated as a way to prevent heroin overdoses, since vaccinated addicts will no longer get euphoria from the drug. However, similar studies have been done with cocaine, and some human subjects could over-ride that vaccine by taking more cocaine, and were still able to get high. Dr. Koob says that with this new heroin vaccine, it would take a very large amount of heroin to over-ride the vaccine, or to cause an overdose. The rats in this heroin vaccine study didn’t try to load themselves with more heroin, a positive sign.

The vaccine wouldn’t affect opioid medications like methadone or buprenorphine, and so the heroin vaccine could theoretically be used along with these standard opioid addiction treatments.

Researchers took pains to make clear this vaccine is not a magic bullet. Once a vaccinated addict is subjected to cues associated with past heroin use, like being back in an old neighborhood, craving will still occur and the vaccinated addict may still use heroin in response to that craving, despite a lack of euphoria once it is used.

Also, it won’t be effective on most opioids contained in prescription pain pills. This means other opioids can still be useful if a vaccine-treated patient needs pain control… but it also means a vaccine-treated patient could still get high from non-heroin opioids. My fear is that a heroin addict would just switch to misusing prescription opioids.

Even with the vaccine, addicts still must have the psychosocial aspects of treatment in order to overcome addiction. It should be used as a part of a comprehensive treatment program.

Human trials may begin as early as the end of this year.

Schlosburg et.al., “Dynamic vaccine blocks relapse to compulsive intake of heroin,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013 110 (22) 8751-8752.

Case Report of Death from Ibogaine Ingestion

IBOGAINE

In the latest issue of the American Journal on Addictions (Volume 22 (3) May/June 2013, p. 302) was a one-page case report of a death due to ibogaine, ingested for the purpose of curing heroin addiction.

Ibogaine is a hallucinogenic psychoactive substance found in some species of plants that grow in Africa. It’s been used in religious ceremonies, chewed to give a mild stimulant effect. With increased doses, this substance has hallucinogenic effects. Ibogaine is a sloppy drug, affecting at least three types of brain receptors. Ibogaine’s metabolite, noribogaine, has serotonin reuptake inhibition properties, like found in many antidepressants. It also has a weak opioid effect on the mu opioid receptors and a stronger effect at the kappa opioid receptors, causing less dopamine to be released. It also has effects on at least two other receptor types.

Limited studies show that since the drug does block the release of dopamine, it may have some benefit in the treatment of addiction to these drugs. Both animal studies and case reports suggest ibogaine may reduce withdrawal symptoms of opioid addiction and craving for cocaine. But so far there have been no good scientific trials of the drug. This drug has been outlawed in the U.S. and in most European countries due to concerns about the drug’s side effects and case reports of death. Ibogaine’s supporters claim this drug can cure addiction to alcohol, cocaine, opioids, and nicotine.

In this case report, the decedent was a 25-year old male with heroin addiction and a history of supraventricular tachycardia, meaning he had an underlying heart problem that caused episodes of rapid heart rate. This man took ibogaine 2.5 grams over 3 hours, and then had hallucinations, difficulty with balance, fever, and muscle spasms. He improved over the first day, but by the next day he developed problems breathing and had a respiratory arrest. Despite cardiopulmonary resuscitation, he remained in a deep coma and died after two days of multi-organ failure.

This death was of course a tragedy, but I’m not sure this case and other similar cases mean ibogaine won’t ever have a place in the treatment of opioid addiction. It surely gives us information that patients with underlying heart disorders are at increased risk of death from ibogaine.

I still think there’s a need for further (careful) research on ibogaine. This can’t be done at present in the U.S. or Europe, but perhaps other counties can do necessary trials.

Yes, this is a medication that can kill, but then, addiction kills, too. And many medications routinely used in the medical treatment of various illnesses can be deadly at the wrong doses or in the wrong patients. For all medical treatments, the risks have to be weighed against the benefits. Right now, we don’t have a full idea of the benefits or the risks of ibogaine.

Like many treatments for addiction, there are also people who make unsubstantiated claims in favor of ibogaine, and sell it via the internet or in countries where it isn’t outlawed, as a miracle cure for opioid addiction. The evidence for this claim is lacking, to put it mildly. This case report reminds us that ibogaine can be deadly. Until/unless we have more knowledge about the risks/benefits of ibogaine, evidence-based treatment of opioid addiction with methadone and buprenorphine are much better options and should be recommended.

For further information of the state of ibogaine research, here’s a great reference:

http://www.ibogaine-research.org/Ibogaine-Research-Project/Areas/Media/JAMA.htm

News From the World of Addiction Medicine Research

The latest issue of the Journal of Addiction Medicine, Vol. 7 (2) March/April 2013 had several interesting articles relating to opioid addiction and its treatment. Here’s my quick summary and thoughts on one of them, “Promethazine Misuse among Methadone Maintenance Patients and Community-Based Injection Drug Users,” by Brad Shapiro et al, pp. 96-1001.

This study attempted to get an idea of the prevalence of promethazine (better known under its brand name Phenergan) use in opioid addicts both in and out of treatment.

I was interested in this article because I’ve had methadone patients misuse promethazine. Most of these patients say that Phenergan gives them sedation with methadone, but most say it’s not a true euphoria, so I’m puzzled as to why they mix the two. Since promethazine can be sedating in many people, obviously I worry about overdose deaths when it’s mixed with methadone.

The authors of this study tested for promethazine in the patients enrolled in a county hospital methadone clinic in San Francisco. Twenty-six percent were positive for promethazine and only 15% had a prescription for this medication. Also, promethazine use was associated with benzodiazepine use.

The authors then recruited two hundred intravenous drug users, and discovered that only 139 were opioid addicts. Of those 139 addicts, seventeen percent reported promethazine use in the past month. However, of the addicts who had been on methadone in the past, twenty-four percent reported promethazine use in the past month.

What does this study tell us? The authors’ conclusion was that promethazine needs to be investigated further as a drug of abuse in opioid addicts.

Well, yeah.

My clinical experience gave me some thoughts about the study. For one thing, pregnant addicts were excluded. But in my experience, pregnant patients are the ones most likely to be prescribed Phenergan because of morning sickness during pregnancy. And this study doesn’t tell us much about the overdose risk when methadone and Phenergan are combined. Early in their article, they do provide some data: In Kentucky, over 14% of decedents from methadone toxicity overdose deaths also had promethazine present in their system. In Seattle, 2.5% of fatal overdoses had promethazine present.

Promethazine, along with many other medications, prolongs the QT interval just like methadone does. I haven’t seen any studies of methadone patients comparing QT intervals before and after promethazine, which may be helpful to further assess risk.

Probuphine Update

Sorry it’s been some time since my last post; I broke my leg, had to have surgery, and only recently got out of the hospital. How’d I break my leg, you ask? Ah, I had a little trouble sticking the landing of that double axel…ok that’s not true…I broke it walking the dog.

And here is an update regarding the latest on Probuphine…

Probuphine, a new implantable form of buprenorphine, was not approved by the FDA, despite a recent recommendation by the FDA’s advisory committee to approve this new form of buprenorphine. This drug is better known under the brand name of the sublingual form, Suboxone.

According to last week’s Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Weekly, Titan Pharmaceuticals, maker of Probuphine, was told by the FDA they needed more information to show that Probuphine provided adequate opioid blockade , and they needed to show the effects of a higher dose of Probuphine. According to studies, the present formulation of Probuphine gave a lower buprenorphine blood level than compared to the sublingual form dosed at 16mg per day. The FDA asked for testing of the training that’s planned to be given to physicians who implant and remove the Probuphine cylinders.

I was quoted in the article; as I stated in an earlier blog entry, I think the present formulation of Probuphine under-dosed patients in Titan’s study. I think it should be re-formulated so that more medication is released per cylinder. Patients switching from sublingual could have their Probuphine dose varied according to how many cylinders are implanted. I also criticized the complicated procedure for both implantation and explantation. Doctors with Suboxone waivers can store the cylinders in their offices, but we’d have to assure security of the substance and keep records for the DEA. We would also have to be present with the surgeon during implantation and explantation, which is not financially practical for me, at least. Some Suboxone doctors may decide they want to learn to do the implants themselves.

I see a possible area for use of Probuphine in incarcerated opioid addicts. Prison systems say they don’t want to try to dose inmates with a controlled substance, because of diversion fears. With Probuphine, there’s less risk of diversion, and inmates’ opioid addictions could be treated with Probuphine implantation every six months. This may not give ideal blood levels, but it’s far better than letting a person with opioid addiction endure opioid withdrawal while incarcerated, which does nothing to help the underlying disorder. These people would still need psychosocial addiction treatment, though.

Important Meeting In Tennessee!

Educated and informed people have an opportunity to make an impact on the life expectancies of opioid addicts in Eastern Tennessee!

The Tennessee Health Services and Development Agency is holding a fact-finding public hearing, regarding the certificate of need application for a methadone treatment facility, proposed to be located in Johnson City, Tennessee.

This meeting will be held on May 28th, 5pm, in the Jones Meeting Center, Johnson City Public Library, on 100 West Millard Street in Johnson City, Tennessee.

There’s a desperate need for medication-assisted treatment of opioid addiction in that part of Tennessee. Opioid addicts can get treatment in office-based Suboxone practices now, but as discussed in previous entries on this blog, this can be an expensive treatment. Many addicts don’t have insurance to pay for this treatment, which is then out of financial reach. For other addicts, buprenorphine, being a partial opioid, isn’t strong enough. Methadone can work beautifully for patients who don’t do well on buprenorphine (known to most as Suboxone or Subutex). However, there are no methadone treatment programs in Eastern Tennessee, so a clinic in that area is desperately needed. The nearest in-state clinic is in Knoxville.

People who know methadone works and saves lives need to go to this meeting to be heard. I suspect there will be people there who know next to nothing about methadone who are nonetheless opposed to a clinic. We’ve all met them: people adamantly opposed to methadone even though their brains are uncomplicated with any actual knowledge of methadone. And there will the NIMBYs, the not-in-my-backyard people.

Citizens who know there are scientific studies showing that methadone is an evidence-based treatment shown to save lives need to go and be heard. Tell other people at the meeting about the forty years’ of studies consistently showing that methadone maintenance reduces overdose death rates, improves overall physical and mental health, increases rates of employment, reduces the risk of suicide, dramatically reduces criminal activities of opioid addicts (by a whopping 91%), and reduces the rates of new cases of HIV.

It’s hard to imagine the certificate of need could be denied, but remember attempts to locate a methadone treatment center in Eastern Tennessee have tried – and failed – ten times before. Let’s hope science and reason can win over ignorance and prejudice.

If, like me, you can’t make the meeting, please send a letter to:

Tennessee Health Services and Development Agency
Melanie M. Hill, Executive Director
Frost Building, 3rd floor
161 Rosa Parks Boulevard
Nashville, TN 37243

Moving On…

As a few of you have noticed, I am not posting all of your comments at this point. I gave the anti-12-step folks more than enough space to voice their opinions, but when a few of you felt you needed to be insulting and derogatory, I deleted comments. If you want to bash 12-step meetings, opioid treatment programs, or medication-assisted treatment in general, there are plenty of other sites/blogs you can go to for that.

I want my site to be about solutions, working together, positive ideas, and not an endless bitch session.