Newport Academy Teen Treatment Blog

Do you know what pills your teen is taking?

June 27th, 2010 Posted in Blog, Kids and Drugs, Teen Drug Use, Teen Rehab | No Comments »

Prescription drug use is on the rise… BIG TIME!

Prescription pills are the number 1 killer of teens!

Prescription drugs are the Number 1 killer of teens… Number 1. This past year, for the first time in history, more teens died from prescription drug overdoses than from automobile fatalities. There is no sign that this trend is going to slow unless something is done.

The most commonly abuse prescription drug that lands teens in treatment, the ER, or the morgue is oxycontin, or oxycodone. Oxycontin is an opiod pain reliever that was originally created to treat cancer patients on hospice so that they could die without pain… Now pain clinics that dole this stuff out like candy are just as common in Florida as the marijuana clinics are in California. If you have cash and a sprained ankle, you can score some pain meds.

One example of the drastic increase in the abuse of pan medication is in Fairfield County, Ohio. In May of this year, opiod addiction accounted for 67 percent of patients in treatment, up from 4 percent in 2000! Hello, that is almost 17 times more patients due to one classification of drug! Red flag? I think so!

Another example is provided to us by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), who provide unparalleled data and research. The yearly number of Emergency Room visits linked to the abuse of prescription pain relievers rose from 144,644 in 2004 to 305,885 in 2008. That is a 111 percent increase. Yes, another red flag. Guess which drug was most common? Yep, oxycodone. Oxycodone related visits were up 152 percent over 4 years and accounted for 35 percent of the visits. Red flag. The number two increase was hydrocodone, up 123 percent. According to the CDC, ER visits for prescription drugs are just as common as visits for illicit drugs. Personally, I think they are more common, but then again, there are some very large pharmaceutical companies that are working very hard to not let all these numbers become common knowledge.

I would love for everybody to know how bad these drugs are… that they are the Number 1 killer of our teens! Please help me in spreading the word, talk about it with your peers.

Where do the kids get their drugs? Most teens say their parents medicine cabinets… Do you know what’s in your medicine cabinet? Go check right now and properly dispose of ANY medication that you are not currently taking. If you do take any narcotics, lock them up so that your children cannot access them.

If you know a teen that is abusing prescription medication and may need teen rehab, please give us a call. We are always here to help.

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Tags: oxycodone, oxycontin, pills, Prescription pills, teen drug abuse, Teen Drug Rehab, Teen Rehab

Old School vs. New School Treatment - Part 1

April 27th, 2010 Posted in Blog, Teen Drug Rehab | No Comments »

Let's get with the times...

“Institutions become fossilized because they become more concerned with preservation than with the mission upon which they were founded.” - Former US President

The most common question I get is “what makes Newport Academy different from other treatment centers?” Allow me to answer that in a series of blogs…

Most of the treatment programs out there are stuck in the Stone Age and their treatment modalities are outdated. When I was a teenager, I was sent to a teen treatment center founded in 1949. At first thought, you may think, as did my family, “oh, these people have been around a while, they must be good at what they do.” And they may well have been back in the 50’s compared to the alternatives. Well, in the late 90’s, they were a little behind the times. You see, the traditional 12-step* treatment model suggests that you write all of your problems down on a piece of paper, then share them with another human being (sponsor), ask “god” to remove your problems, and then go about your business… Are you kidding me? No, seriously. So, if you were raped, fondled, molested, assaulted, you have issues over your parents divorce, or your dad beat you as a child, you write this down, tell someone and then it is ok. Sorry, that didn’t work for me. When I went to this very well respected (why? I have no idea) teen treatment center, we sat in co-ed groups all day long and read the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous (informative, but not too interesting for a teenager). Seriously, all the groups we had were centered on the Big Book. I met with my counselor (no, not licensed psychotherapist) once each week for about 50 minutes. Other than that, if we made our beds and cleaned our bathrooms, we got to go to the YMCA once a week (yay!). Let me also mention that the facility was represented as “residential” but I will tell you that the accommodations were not much more than that of a hospital (food included, you know, the super high sodium stuff that is so good for you). The facility was co-ed, so yes, there were boys and girls living close enough to each other. Most of the down time was spent wondering how I could get Sally into the closet for one-on-one therapy (can you blame a teenage boy that has been taken out of his comfort zone for wanting a little loving from someone that “understood” where he was coming from?). While I was at this treatment center, my parents were invited to come once for 3.5 days and spent their time with 20 other families watching videos and listening to lectures. I met with my family for a total of an hour (yes, 1 hour of family therapy). How much did this program cost? Around $28,000 for 30 days. Yes, their program was and still is just a 30 day program. As we see in countless studies, 30 days doesn’t really do much in terms of long term effects, as was my case.

So, being a fairly high functioning, athletic, high IQ kid, my first glimpse of sobriety was not a shining one.

More to come…..

*I should clarify by saying that I am a big fan and member of a 12-step program that I attend on a somewhat regular basis. Thanks.

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Tags: adolescent rehab, teen alcohol rehab, Teen Drug Rehab, teen drug treatment, Teen Rehab

Teen Adderall Abuse

January 20th, 2010 Posted in Kids and Drugs, Teen Drug Rehab, Teen Drug Use | No Comments »

Teen Adderall Abuse

by Scott Sowle

Executive Director - Newport Academy

The different forms of Adderall - a drug widely abused by teens.

Teen Adderall abuse has increased dramatically in the past few years with pediatricians writing more than half of the prescriptions for this highly addictive amphetamine. In fact, there has been a spike in prescriptions of over 500% in the past 10 years. Most notably, children and teens are prescribed Adderall for attention-deficit disorder (ADD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD.) When used as prescribed by a physician, Adderall can reduce anxiety in teens and calm their hyperactivity allowing them to more readily focus on tasks at hand. The problem with this however, is that there is a significant amount of misdiagnosis on the part of pediatricians and manipulation of symptoms on the part of teens who are drug seeking. Also, many teens who have been prescribed Adderall for obvious ADD or ADHD are often providing their friends with pills or selling them to classmates and other drug seeking teens. Additionally, Adderall is also one of the most highly sought after prescription medicines and is often stolen from those licensed to dispense it. More recently, and more alarmingly, teens are using the internet to obtain Adderall and other stimulants. According to recent data, over 4% of high school seniors reported non-medical use of stimulants and there are over 2,000 emergency room visits involving teens and stimulants every year. This number is obviously low as the number of teens who do under report or do not report their use is significant.

Unfortunately teens who begin use of stimulants such as Adderall for properly diagnosed ADD and ADHD, can easily abuse this amphetamine and become addicted. Signs of the onset of addiction to Adderall include irritability, weight loss, outbursts of aggression, paranoia, inability to sleep, picking at the skin, noticeable changes in appearance, and in some cases the onset of more serious psychiatric symptoms. This can be disconcerting to both and parents and teens, as the stimulant when first prescribed and introduced may have had desirous effects such as increased focus on school work and overall concentration. In short, Adderall needs to be prescribed by a physician who understand the potential for abuse, signs and symptoms of abuse, and effective treatment options if necessary. Parents need to be diligent about the use of stimulants such as Adderall, monitor that their children are using the stimulants as prescribed, monitor that pill counts are conducted routinely to make sure that their teen is not selling his/her prescribed medication, monitor their teens computers and internet access (as well as read their texts if necessary), and take a more proactive stance in monitoring their teens behavior.

If you are a parent who suspects that your teen may be abusing stimulants or if you’re a teen who is concerned about your own drug use, please feel free to call Newport Academy to discuss ways we can help you. Call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - 1.877.628.3367

Click here to read more about Newport Academy Teen Drug Rehab

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Tags: teen adderall abuse, teen drug abuse, Teen Drug Rehab