Blog Post #3: Clinic Stops Prescribing Xanax

A
health clinic is Louisville, Kentucky has stopped prescribing the
anti-anxiety drug Xanax and is changing all preexisting Xanax
prescriptions to alternative drugs. The ban has come as a result of
increasing overdose incidences involving Xanax. The drug is the
eighth most prescribed drug in the US and has had an 89% increase in
ER visits related to abuse of the drug, which is often time fatal.
Though with proper, responsible use the drug has been found to be
extremely successful. It is popular because of its immediate effects.
The goal of the clinic is to eventually, by the end of the year, wean
patients off the drug by either switching to a different drug or by
helping users manage their anxiety. The change was not widely
accepted, even though other clinics around the country have already
made the change, due to the potential harm it could cause users. For
those who have become dependent, almost addicted, it could cause
withdrawal or increase anxiety symptoms. However, doctors still feel
that this change is for the good.

Prescription
drug use has been on the rise in the last 15 years. An estimated 20%
of the US population has at one point taken prescription drugs for
non-medical purposes. More than 200,000 ER visits a year are drug
abusers trying to get their fix. Prescriptions for narcotics,
tranquilizers, sedatives, and stimulants have increased from 170-450%
over the last 20 years. About 1 in 12 high school aged teens have
admitted to prescription drug abuse and that number is on the rise.
This ever growing social problem is not one that is only found the in
US, but is widespread across the globe ( Europe, South Asia, southern
Africa). While these drugs are becoming harder and harder to get,
they are getting easier to get at the same time. Internet sales have
become a discrete and effective way to get a drug of choice, though
this is getting harder as well. Many kids are raiding their parents,
extended family, and friends' medicine cabinets in order to get what
they want. It seems that no matter how hard doctors, government
agencies, etc try to regulate the control of prescriptions, it is
becoming harder to actually do so; all while the abuse is continually
rising.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/in-louisville-a-centers-doctors-cut-off-xanax-prescriptions.html?ref=health