Prescription Drug Addiction Blog

A recent New York Times article discussed the announcement that British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline has set aside more than 2 billion dollars to pay legal costs and settlement issues related to side effects caused by diabetes drug Avandia and anti-anxiety/antidepressant drugs Paxil.

Here is another example of how screwed up the pharmaceutical industry is. The shares actually rose after the announcement because it "wasn't as bad as expected." Of course, when it posted a profit of more than $8 billion last year, spending a couple billion to pay off lives that have been ruined by their negligence is a drop in the bucket when they'll just continue the patterns all over again and pocket even more billions in profits.

Prescription drug problems are one of the primary factors involved with rising healthcare costs, not only the cost of the prescriptions themselves, but also the direct-to-consumer marketing practices, hidden evidence from clinical trials but also the major side effects that cause serious physical harm and even death.

This is just one reason why movements such as The New Face of Recovery continue to recommend long term drug treatment programs that are drug-free in nature, rather than giving more drugs to addicts such as Paxil and other similar prescriptions.

Multiple reports surfaced last week that actress Heather Locklear completed an inpatient rehab program recently for prescription drug addiction. It's not the first time her name has been associated with substance abuse, but her latest situation hasn't been blown out of proportion like most celebrity rehab entries.

Although none of the stories claimed which prescription drugs the star entered the drug rehab program for, it was noted that it was only a month-long program. Hopefully the center didn't try and treat her addiction with some replacement drugs, as 90 day rehabs that are drug-free are typically much more successful than the shorter-term programs.