Zohydro and Addiction

A new, highly potent painkiller is out on the market – and many health experts want it gone.

The controversial drug is Zohydro, an extended-release painkiller containing the already widely used opioid, hydrocodone.  Designed to release painkilling medication into the body slowly over a 12-hour period, Zohydro is available in doses as high as 50 milligrams – five times the amount found in similar immediate-release hydrocodone pills.

According to Zohydro’s manufacturer Zogenix Inc., the drug’s hallmark is its simplicity.  Zohydro is the first painkiller to contain only hydrocodone, while other comparable drugs, such as Vicodin and Lortab, contain hydrocodone plus acetaminophen.   The company claims that acetaminophen overdose is the leading cause of acute liver failure in the United States, and 63 percent of these cases are caused by hydrocodone-acetaminophen combination drugs.  Zohydro is meant to provide pain relief without this threat of liver toxicity.

But addiction experts claim this argument isn’t enough to outweigh the potential dangers posed by the painkiller.  Because of its extremely high dosage and lack of abuse deterrents, many believe Zohydro could easily ignite another addiction epidemic – as well as a new wave of overdose deaths.

“I treat addiction, and see countless young people come in – a lot of guys in their late 20s, early 30s – who had a sports injury and were given an opiate.  I’m seeing them years later, and it’s devastated their lives,” Dr. Dana Jane Saltzman, a licensed acupuncturist and addiction specialist in New York City, told FoxNews.com. “...It’s really a lifelong struggle, and a lot of these kids wouldn’t be addicted if [opioids] weren’t so readily available.”

Opioids and the brain

Derived from the opium poppy plant, opioids work by binding to receptor sights in the brain called opioid receptors.  Normally, when the body experiences pain, naturally occurring peptides, such as endorphins and other chemicals, will bind to these receptor sites in order to reduce discomfort.  

Opioids, on the other hand, greatly enhance this process.  Not only do they help to diminish pain, but they also stimulate the brain’s reward pathways, increasing the activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

This causes an overall sense of euphoria – which ultimately gets users hooked.

“When the brain receives a reward message that feels good, we tend to want to do it again,” Ray Isackila, a licensed professional counselor and team lead of addiction recovery services at UH Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, told FoxNews.com. “…And when the brain receives a message over and over from these opiate medications, the brain changes to adapt to that reward and that drug.  So the first change in the brain is tolerance.”

For individuals who start using opioids day after day, it may take only a few weeks before their brains build up a tolerance to the medication.  This means users will need higher and higher doses to get the desired euphoric effect – and as they take more pills, their bodies begin to develop a physical dependence on the drug.  Then, if they are ever deprived of medication, the withdrawal period can be very intense.

To continue reading visit: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/04/28/zohydro-why-this-new-painkiller-could-spark-new-addiction-epidemic/