Iowa Doctor Trades Drug for Drug in Place of Drug Rehab

A doctor in Iowa has discovered a way to reduce the cost of incarcerating and attempting to rehabilitate meth addicts in that state.� It is a trial of sorts, though not a new concept.� If you believe that drug addiction is an incurable disease, then inherently you look for something to alleviate the problem - sort of doing the best you can, since you can't really fix the problem.� Though there is ample evidence that drug addiction can be overcome and there are effective drug rehab programs with truly high success rates, somehow certain individuals continue to bark up the wrong tree.

Dr. Louis Gerbino, a neuropharmacologist of Atlantic, Iowa, recently tested the use of an antipsychotic drug normally used in treating schizophrenia in order to help three patients come off of meth.� He said that if this proves out to be a success, it would only cost the state $36 per month for each drug addict.� This is far less expensive than it costs to lock someone up.

Dr. Gerbino prescribed the antipsychotic Flupenthixol to three different meth addicts.� Two of them continued receiving their injections and stayed off of meth.� One did not continue with his medicinal drug and reverted, ending up in jail.� In researching the drug Flupenthixol, webmd.com lists the following as the possible side effects of the drug:� drowsiness, lethargy, loss of appetite, blurred vision, headache, and other.� More serious side effects include tremors, confusion, fainting, rash, chest pains, seizures, serious blood problems, abdominal pains, yellowing of the eyes and skin.� Finally, what might be considered the most serious possible side effect is tardive dyskinesia, permanent unusual and uncontrollable movements of the face, mouth, tongue, arms and legs.� In essence, you go from one poor lifestyle from the effects of meth, to another lifestyle with possibly permanently damaged muscles and other conditions. �

Trading one drug for another drug is always risky business.� Anytime you enter a chemical in the body, whether of the legal prescription type or the illegal "street drug" type, you run the risk of experiencing all of the attendant problems.� Rather than going the route of drug to drug, seek out the solutions which give you your life back.� Contact www.drugrehabreferral.com for information on effective drug rehab programs.� Addicts overcome addiction everyday through successful drug rehab.