'MIRACLE DRUG' HAS HIGH SUCCESS RATE FOR TREATING OPIATE ADDICTION

Recovery Center Trying to Expand Suboxone's Use

LANCASTER - Rampant opiate use in Fairfield County has local recovery
officials wondering what they can do to help more addicted
individuals.

Pressed with time and a growing number of patients, many doctors are
forced to turn away people hooked on opiates such as heroin,
OxyContin, Vicodin, morphine and other pain relievers.

Some even die on waiting lists for a widely used medication called
Suboxone: A touted "miracle drug" that suppresses symptoms of
withdrawal, reduces cravings, reduces drug use and helps patients
stay in treatment.

"With all the deaths and what's happening because of opiates, I just
feel like we need more programs in Ohio for that," said Dr. Robert C.
Polite, medical director at the Recovery Center in Lancaster. "That's
on my wish list to get an opilaoid-treatment license for the Recovery
Center where we do specifically Suboxone."

Polite founded the Recovery Center's opiate-addiction recovery program
that uses the drug Suboxone. His goal is to one day have a clinic
devoted solely to helping those addicted to opiates.

The center chalks up much of its success to the drug, which is helping
many Fairfield County residents kick their opiate dependency. The
center boasts a success rate of more than 60 percent.

The medication blocks the ability for patients to get high off other
drugs, but it still gives the patient a lower feeling of being high,
said Recovery Center Clinical Director Sharon Shultz.

"Can it get people high? Yes. But you have to make it very clear, it's
like comparing a firecracker to a stick of dynamite," she said.

The center adheres to strict rules for its patients: No skipping drug
screenings. No missing treatments. No relapsing. And absolutely no
selling medication, said Recovery Center Director Trisha Saunders

"We're not trying to cut corners here," she said.

Saunders has seen the dramatic turnaround in patients, not only in
physical health but in their attitude about recovery, she said.

"It's awful to see when they first come in," she said. "They're
irritable, they're shaking, they're throwing up. A week later, they're
a totally different person."

Patients typically stay on the medication 10 to 18 months, and more
than half refrain from opiate use after treatment. That's a
drastically higher success rate than any other type of addiction
treatment, Shultz said.

"With every level of treatment we could throw at them, it's only about
a 1 to 5 percent (success rate)," she said.

Patients use the drug by placing a pill under the tongue. Then they
wait about five to 10 minutes for the pill to dissolve.

The center has a 30- to 40-person waiting list for the Suboxone
program, with more than 50 being treated right now. It's the fact
others are waiting their turn - often in critical stages of dependency
- - that makes the Recovery Center strict on its Suboxone patients,
Shultz said.

A lot of patients understand the severity of their situations and
stick to the rules, she said.

"They get it," she said. "The people that are serious about it are
like, 'No problem.'"

The number of patients treated in the program has more than doubled in
the past two years, since the Recovery Center started offering the
treatment program.

But, Polite said the program still is fairly new and
malleable.

"Because it's new and because we're on new ground, we're kind of
feeling our way into making this work," he said. "So we're changing,
and we're adapting to the environment."

Polite cited a great need for this type of treatment in Fairfield
County. He said one of the challenges with the program is getting more
patients in the door for help.

The problem lies in the number of patients doctors are prohibited to
see, Polite said. On top of that, only specially-licensed doctors may
prescribe Suboxone.

Until the Recovery Center can increase its patient base, it will
continue with its Suboxone program and pro-active education of the
public to combat drug use in the county, he said.

"We're saving lives," he said. "We're getting people back into the
workforce. We're taking folks out of circulation from the drug force.
We're keeping people from going to jail because they're having to rob
and steal and sell their bodies to stay ahead of the withdrawal symptoms."