Rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among US soldiers and veterans has been on the rise in recent years, with at least 200,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from the disorder. It has become so widespread in recent years that the military stepped up efforts to educate doctors and servicemen about the disorder, in an effort to make sure that those with PTSD receive treatment. But not everyone is happy with the process. The Army Surgeon General recently issued a more strict set of guidelines for doctors to follow when diagnosing PTSD. The guidelines, which have not been made public, were recently reported on in the Seattle Times, which cited the Army Surgeon General’s report as discrediting a handful of screening tests for PTSD that are widely used by military clinicians.

Particular fault is found with one of the more popular personality tests that clinicians use, known as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Test. The test, which is often used to label some as “malingerers” (e.g. those faking PTSD), often produces flawed results, according to experts quoted in the Times article. PTSD sufferers exhibit a wide range of symptoms including insomnia, flashbacks and depression, but the test in question can dismiss or downplay those issues, resulting in legitimate sufferers being labeled as fakers.

This is particularly alarming because the tests in question were the standard of care at Madigan Army Medical Center, one of the military’s largest medical installations. This Tacoma, Washington-based facility is also home to a forensic psychiatry team tasked with deciding whether soldiers diagnosed with PTSD are sick enough to qualify for medical retirement. In March, the Army launched an investigation of the Madigan team after Madigan’s screening procedures allegedly reversed 300 of the PTSD diagnoses among soldiers being evaluated.

Addiction and Mental Health Treatment at La Paloma

Whether the Surgeon General’s attempts at strengthening its PTSD diagnostic tactics will result in more diagnoses and better early treatment remains to be seen, but the problem won’t be going away any time soon. If you or someone you love needs help with addiction and a mental health issue like PTSD, call La Paloma at the toll-free number on our homepage. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about Dual Diagnosis treatment, financing or insurance.

When you think of babies born addicted to drugs, you usually imagine so-called “crack babies,” with indigent moms nursing a nasty habit that involves back alleys and dirty syringes. But today’s addicted newborns are the product of moms you might never suspect of drug abuse. These babies are suffering prescription drug withdrawal, and they’re in good company.

One Knoxville, Tenn., hospital has been dealing with a dramatic increase in the number of newborns with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), which is the withdrawal process a newborn baby goes through after in-utero exposure to certain medications. Alarmingly, the number of babies born with NAS at Knoxville’s East Tennessee Children’s Hospital doubled from 2010 to 2011.

Narcotics used during pregnancy pass through the placenta to the baby. Once the baby is born, he or she no longer has access to the drugs and will likely go through withdrawal. And experts know that opioids like the prescription painkiller oxycodone are the worst offenders for the babies suffering from NAS, at least at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital.

While the problem is an epidemic in Tennessee, other states and regions are not immune. And for those exposed, withdrawal is an almost forgone conclusion. In fact, between 55 and 94 percent of babies exposed to opioids prior to birth exhibit signs of withdrawal, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Withdrawal means these babies are easily agitated and cry constantly, and many cannot be near sound and light. Other symptoms can include a distinct, high-pitched cry, tightening of the muscles and seizures.

In Tennessee’s Knox County, they’ve seen the number of children in foster care increase by almost 50 percent over the last few years, due in large part to opiate abuse among pregnant women. Then add to that number the many relatives pitching in to raising drug-exposed infants, and you begin to get an idea of the problem’s true scope.

The epidemic is still in the early stages, so there is no national protocol on how to treat NAS. East Tennessee Children’s Hospital has come up with its own methods. They created a wing of private rooms that is quieter, darker and easier to control, and they train volunteers as “cuddlers” who are on hand simply to hold and comfort the babies.

They also use medication, originally opting for methadone, then switching to morphine, which is given in small doses every three hours with feedings. Doses are gradually decreased to wean babies off the drugs. Since adopting the morphine protocol, the average hospital stay for these infants has decreased by several days, now averaging 24 days. These babies still face an increased risk for problems with learning and development throughout childhood, and behavior problems once they reach school age.

Prescription Drug Rehab at La Paloma

If you or someone you love needs help with prescription drug abuse, call La Paloma at the toll-free number on our homepage. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

We’ve all heard the expression “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.” From the foundations of rock, there have been references to drug use and speculation that lyrics were referring to using drugs. Veiled (or not so veiled) references to drug use appear in songs by everyone from Jefferson Airplane and The Doors to The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Dave Matthews Band.

The most recent example in drug referencing comes from Madonna, who reportedly alluded to Ecstasy from stage at a recent festival, asking the crowd, “How many people in this crowd have seen Molly?” (a slang term for Ecstasy).

The question is, does talk about drugs in song or on stage lead to more widespread drug use by listeners? While there’s no concrete proof that drug references in music make listeners more likely to experiment, experts agree it has led to a broader acceptance of the subject. We’re no longer shocked when we hear references to illegal drugs in songs that are played on the radio. And if artists and hit bands can influence things like clothing choices and hairstyles, it’s not a great stretch to imagine that their casual use of drugs will influence impressionable listeners.

Drug Abuse Help at La Paloma

If you or someone you love needs help with drug abuse, call La Paloma at the toll-free number on our homepage. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

Even those who are charged with upholding the law are not immune to disease of addiction. A recent story of a Tennessee judge who battled prescription drug addiction shows just how devastating substance abuse can be to a career and a person’s character. It also highlights the legal troubles that are often a side effect of severe substance abuse.

Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner, 64, was reportedly so addicted to prescription drugs during his final two years on the bench, that he was having sex and buying pills during courtroom breaks, at times purchasing from convicts he had previously sentenced, an investigation found.

The Associated Press reports that many people had no idea the judge had a problem until he stepped down from the bench and pleaded guilty in March 2011 to a single count of official misconduct. Once his problem came to light, though, his behavior called into question many of the cases he presided over, including one of Knoxville’s most notorious murders.

It took months for the true extent of Baumgartner’s problem to be revealed. In the wake of the scandal, another judge has already tossed out the convictions from the high-profile murder case and ordered new trials. Other defendants are hoping for a similar outcome, and bids for new trials from the many people convicted in Baumgartner’s court could overwhelm the criminal justice system in Knox County, Tennessee’s third-largest county with more than 400,000 residents. It’s not clear exactly how many convictions are at risk.

Baumgartner had been a criminal court judge in Knoxville since 1992, but a bout of pancreatitis caused by his chronic alcoholism led to the painkiller problem. Soon, the judge was seeking oxycodone, hydrocodone and generic Xanax and Valium from multiple doctors. When the prescriptions weren’t enough, he turned to convicts he had punished – and their friends.

Baumgartner left the bench to seek drug treatment before pleading guilty to misconduct. A special judge handed Baumgartner a sentence that allowed him to wipe the felony conviction off his record if he stayed out of trouble. The sentence also allowed Baumgartner to avoid jail time and keep his pension. The judge who sentenced Baumgartner has since said he would have come down harder on him had he known the full details of the criminal investigation. The U.S. attorney’s office is also investigating.

It’s an extreme case, but many who battle addiction find themselves on the wrong side of the law. While not everyone with a substance abuse problem has legal issues, alcoholism often leads to drunk driving and drug abuse requires participants to seek illegal substances, a process that may include additional crimes. As the addiction escalates, individuals who were once upstanding citizens may find themselves doing things they never would have imagined doing while sober. Then, once a decision is made to seek treatment, there are often legal obstacles that need to be overcome as well.

Fortunately, these issues aren’t insurmountable. Many drug treatment programs will even work with the court system to show that an individual is making positive changes, which goes a long way toward resolving legal issues. The key is to stop before there is bigger trouble and get help now.

Substance Abuse Help at La Paloma

If you or someone you love needs help with drug or alcohol addiction, call La Paloma at the toll-free number on our homepage. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

Why do you think people keep their addictions secret until they run into trouble with the law? Tell us in the comment section below.

Yet another study is making the connection between mental health issues and addiction, a correlation that treatment experts have long understood.

The recently released government report shows that a whopping one in five American adults, or nearly 50 million people, suffered from a mental illness in the past year with women and young adults more susceptible. And those battling mental health issues were three times as likely to develop substance dependence or substance abuse than adults who had not experienced mental illness.

The survey, administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), polled 67,500 people aged 12 and older in person around the United States. For the purposes of the study, the administration defined mental illness among adults as having had a diagnosable mental, behavioral or emotional disorder, excluding developmental and substance use disorders.

The study also found women were more likely than men (23 percent to 16.8 percent) to have experienced a mental illness, while the rate of mental illness among people aged 18 to 25 was twice that of those aged 50 and older. In addition, the report includes this sobering stat: About 8.7 million American adults had serious thoughts of suicide with 2.5 million of those making suicide plans and 1.1 million attempting to take their own lives.

Mental health issues play a role in many addictions. Individuals suffering from issues like trauma, PTSD, depression or bipolar disorder may turn to drugs or alcohol to self-medicate, possibly without even being aware that they have a mental illness. Because such a high percentage (thought to be more than 90 percent) of those who pursue addiction treatment are found to also have one or more co-occurring mental health issues, it’s important to treat both in order to get lasting recovery. That’s why it’s important to find a program that employs a Dual Diagnosis or co-occurring treatment model.

Help for Addiction and Mental Health Issues at La Paloma

If you or someone you love needs help with a co-occurring disorder, call La Paloma at the toll-free number on our homepage. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

We all know meth is dangerous. Adults who are chronic users can even bear telltale signs like discolored skin and rotten or missing teeth. Then there are the locations where meth is manufactured. You hear stories on the news of busts happening in seemingly quiet rural or suburban neighborhoods, or worse, of explosions when the meth-making operation goes bad.

Often overlooked in all the talk about methamphetamine are the babies who are born addicted to this dangerous drug. Now, the first study to look at methamphetamine’s potential lasting effects on children whose mothers used it in pregnancy has been released, and it finds these kids are at a higher risk for behavior problems than other children.

The behavior issues — which can range from anxiety and depression to moodiness — may not be huge, but they have researchers worried. Since methamphetamine is a stimulant, similar to crack cocaine, meth babies are born showing similar signs of addiction as “crack babies,” which includes low birth weight, drowsiness and stress.

This study shows that this may be where the similarities end. Long-term studies on children of cocaine-using mothers have produced conflicting results when it comes to determining whether these kids have lasting behavior problems.

What is the possible difference attributed to? Some researchers suggest that since methamphetamine has stronger effects on the brain, it may be more likely to cause lasting effects in children. The study, published recently in Pediatrics, was funded by the National Institutes of Health with help from a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Current data suggests that more than 10 million Americans have used meth, with fewer than 1 percent of pregnant women using. More studies will need to be done to clarify and expand on the results, but considering meth’s epidemic status in the US, the drug will likely be a topic of interest to researchers for years to come.

Drug Addiction Help at La Paloma

If you or someone you love needs help with drug addiction, call La Paloma at the toll-free number on our homepage. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

The NFL just announced that three members of the Denver Broncos have been suspended for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. Players D.J. Williams and Ryan McBean have been suspended six games and tight end Virgil Green has been suspended four games for alleged violations of the league’s substance abuse policy.

It’s reported that Williams and McBean plan to file federal lawsuits claiming that their samples were tampered with. Williams and McBean tested positive for performance enhancing substances on the league’s banned list, according to the Denver Post.

Following the announcement by the NFL, the Broncos issued the following statement: “We are aware of this matter, but due to the confidentiality of the program, we are unable to provide additional comment on the situation.”

Williams released a statement of his own, claiming, “the NFL has announced a suspension based on a specimen that [it] acknowledges did not contain steroids or any illegal substance. Instead, the NFL contends that I provided a non-human specimen. I have never failed a test of any kind – for steroids or illegal substances – during my eight-year pro career. …”

Green, meanwhile, told ESPN, “I was suspended for four games for taking ADHD medication prior to obtaining an exemption from the League. I have now obtained the proper exemption to take the medication that has been prescribed to me to treat my condition. I apologize to my teammates, coaches and fans for my mistake and will make sure to never let anything like this happen again.”

Most news coverage then goes on to give professional stats for the players or look at potential problems with the league’s “specimen collection” methods. We rarely hear concern for the long-term health of the players involved or a push for rehab for players who are proven to have been taking illegal or banned substances.

We know the pressure on these players is immense and millions of dollars are at stake. Still, when someone is willing to continue to ingest a substance even though doing so will jeopardize their career and their health, that’s a warning sign of addiction. When it happens to A-level athletes, though, we write it off as part of the game in this new age. They may not be scoring heroin in a back alley, but substance abuse is substance abuse, even if the addict has his or her own trading card and uses in fancy locker rooms with the help of professional trainers.

Substance Abuse Help at La Paloma

If you or someone you love needs help with drug abuse, call La Paloma at the toll-free number on our homepage. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

It’s been 30 years since we lost comedian John Belushi to a drug overdose involving cocaine and heroin. On the anniversary of his death, the comic’s good friend and co-star Dan Akroyd spoke out in an exclusive interview with Showbiz Tonight about what might have been.

Belushi died on March 5, 1982, at just 33 years old. Akroyd believes that if his friend had lived, he would be a Broadway director today.

“That would have been his destiny, because he was so intelligent and so well referenced there,” Akroyd said, adding, “He was more of an academic than the ‘Bluto’ image would have you believe.”

Akroyd also commented on Belushi’s addiction, insisting that during “the last summer of his life, not a powder nor a pill did he touch. Nothing. Just smoked a little bud. That was it. And wine and beer and food, you know.”

After that revelation, Akroyd made the odd prediction that “If he’d been a pothead, he’d be alive today ‘cause that doesn’t kill ya.”

It may be true that marijuana isn’t as deadly as cocaine or heroin, but for someone struggling with addiction, any substances can cause trouble or lead to relapse. We have no way to know if that’s what happened in John Belushi’s case, but it certainly didn’t help.

Addiction Help at La Paloma

If you or someone you love is battling drug or alcohol addiction, call La Paloma at the toll-free number on our homepage. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

While we wait for the official cause of death for Whitney Houston, her passing has sparked in odd debate over the issue of legalizing drugs. Brought up the very evening Houston died, aging recording artist Tony Bennett made a questionable connection to the deaths of several beloved stars and the legalization of drugs that left many scratching their heads.

Bennett told the audience at Clive Davis’ Beverly Hills pre-Grammy party, “First it was Michael Jackson, then it was Amy Winehouse, and now, the magnificent Whitney Houston. I’d like to have every gentleman and lady in this room commit themselves to get our government to legalize drugs — so they’ll have to get it through a doctor, not some gangsters who just sell it under the table.”

Um, what? Jackson died from medication administered by a doctor and Winehouse died from alcohol, which has been available legally in the U.S. since Prohibition ended in 1933. His references made the plea seem unrelated, and in light of Houston’s death being so fresh, it seemed at the very least, a bit insensitive.

While illegal drugs deaths are tragic and still all too frequent, it’s the number of drug deaths by legal means (i.e. prescription painkillers like Vicodin or Oxycontin) that is really on the rise in this country. With that in mind, Bennett might have been better off to warn his audience to commit themselves to staying clean rather than fighting to legalize drugs we know can kill – whether obtained from a street pusher or a legal source.

Drug Addiction Help at La Paloma

If you or someone you love needs help with drug addiction, call La Paloma at the toll-free number on our homepage. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

Does a job in the entertainment industry make someone more likely to abuse drugs? While that may not be scientifically proven, we continue to see the stresses of life in Hollywood take their toll. Most recently, an American producer of reality shows like <I>The Amazing Race and Whale Wars died of an apparent overdose while working in Uganda.

Jeff Rice’s body was found in late February 2012 on the balcony of his hotel room, according to a statement from the Uganda Police Force. A “whitish powder in a plastic bag” was also found in his room. It contained opiates associated with cocaine, police said, adding that a similar substance was found in Rice’s urine and blood during the autopsy.

Sally Blackman, Rice’s wife and business partner, announced his death Sunday.

“Jeff was on a film production in Uganda and was doing what he loves. … He was a true asset to the film industry worldwide and Africa was his ‘home,’” Rice’s wife, Sally Blackman said in a written statement announcing his death. Rice also has two daughters, ages 2 and 7.

Rice, an Oklahoma native, and Blackman were co-owners of SB Productions in Durban, South Africa, according to CNN.com.

Rice wrapped up work on the most recent season of The Amazing Race several months ago and was not currently doing work for the CBS show.

Of course, there’s no proof that the high-stress lifestyle of the entertainment industry played a role in Rice’s death. We see people from all walks of life and all over the country succumb to addiction daily.

Addiction Help at La Paloma

If you or someone you love needs help with drug addiction, call La Paloma at the toll-free number on our homepage. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.