Over 2 million U.S. residents in recent years have been faced with addiction to prescription drugs due to trauma, surgery or even a simple trip to the dentist. The current situation has already been called the “opioid crisis.” In this regard, in developed countries they limit the spread of pain medications and look for ways to provide prescription drug abuse treatment to the patients in need.

What prescription medicine is considered addictive and require prescription drug abuse treatment?

Today, opioid-based prescription drugs can cause severe drug dependence and definitely require prescription drug abuse treatment.

Two drugs are best known - Percocet (Percodan) and Oxycodone, which are produced by Endo Pharmaceutical and Purdue Pharma. There is also an illegal street counterpart - fentanyl. If patients are no longer able of affording prescription drugs, they take fentanyl. (up to 500 thousand people in the USA take fentanyl).

Opioids are used as painkillers because of their ability to block the passage of nerve impulses to brain cells that receive signals from various parts of the body.

A typical drug course with percocet or oxycodone is from 1 to 6 weeks. The course is prescribed after surgery or for chronic pain. In 90% of cases, people taking these drugs regularly have a pharmacological dependence on opioids.

That is why, prescription drug abuse treatment in the USA and many other developed countries is very common.

Let us have a closer look on how the prescription drug abuse treatment is realised?

During prescription drug abuse treatment, two approaches are distinguished: supportive therapy (substitutional) and short-term intervention.

In both approaches, the key goal of prescription drug abuse treatment is to regain control of the patient's life. Supportive therapy aims to reduce dependence on prescription drugs. For this purpose, doctors use opioid receptor agonists - methadone (considered a complete agonist) and buprenorphine (partial agonist).

A study by the United States National Institute of Health (NIH) shows that methadone and buprenorphine do not differ in principle in side effects, but buprenorphine provides patients with greater adherence to treatment - fewer quits it before prescription drug abuse treatment is completed.

Typically, prescription substitutes are given in tablets and films that attach to the gums. The course of treatment is designed for 30 days and, on average, according to studies of effectiveness, leads to persistent abstinence from opioids up to 24 weeks.

There are also modifications of this method. For example, in 2016, Titan Pharmaceuticals and Braeburn Pharmaceuticals received permission from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to install the first implant for prescription drug abuse treatment. The implant is a 2.5 cm rod, installed under the skin in the shoulder.

It contains the medicine ProNeura (buprenorphine and ethylene vinyl acetate). Within six months, the medicine evenly enters the body and facilitates the rejection of drug opioids.

An alternative to substitution therapy for the treatment of opioid dependence is a short-term intervention. It is based on well-studied and widely used methods: detoxification (that is, elimination of drug metabolites from the body) and psychotherapy.

During detoxification, the release of toxins which primarily determines physical dependence, is stimulated. Among the common methods of detoxification: laser hemotherapy, therapeutic hypothermia and hyperthermia, hyperventilation of the lungs, hyperbaric oxygenation and so forth.

However, detoxification does not solve the problems of psychological dependence. Therefore, it is often supplemented by psychotherapy, which can vary from conversational therapy in the circles of Anonymous Addicts to its behavioral and cognitive variety.

In studies of the effectiveness of short-term intervention, it is noted that patients face a large number of side effects with this type prescription drug abuse treatment, and the rejection of opioids rarely lasts more than 10 weeks.

Are there any other ways for prescription drug abuse treatment?

Complex treatment for dependence on prescription drugs is offered by the Nazaraliev Medical Center (Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic).

The clinic does not recognize substitution therapy and considers it a palliative, which does not solve the problem of opioid dependence in essence.

Secondly, the author’s method for prescription drug abuse treatment involves three stages of rehabilitation, including;

• Detoxification
• Central cholinolytic blockade- a unique way to stop pathological cravings
• MindCrafting psychotherapy program
• Stress-energy psychotherapy
• Pilgrimage

The average rehabilitation course at Nazaraliev Medical Centre is 30 days and usually patients stay in the clinic together with co-dependent person ( close relative). Patients reside in specially designed therapeutic rooms. The rehabilitation premises of Nazaraliev Medical Center are situated in resort areas; the main building is located at the foothills of the mountains and the rehab base is located at the majestic mountain lake Issyk-Kul.

Professor Nazaraliev author's method is recognized by the US National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. The effectiveness of the method reaches 87.5% (the number of patients with 1 year of remission after completion of the rehabilitation course). The method is protected by 10 patents and since 2015 it has been applied for prescription drug abuse treatment.