Viable alternatives to prescription pain medication:
Advent of Medical Foods
By Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD
With recent
reports of increased visits to the emergency rooms across this nation for
reasons pertaining to prescription drug abuse there is ever more reason to
focus on alternatives. In a 2011 report
from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration statistics
reveal that from 2004-2009 in America there was a rise in Emergency Department
(ED) visits due to drug reactions. Prescription
medications, OTC meds and even herbal remedies of all types saw a rise in
misuse, abuse, suicide attempts, adverse reactions and accidental ingestions
resulting in ED visits. Part of the rise
is due to poly-pharmacy, as the population at large is being prescribed more
than one medication by their physicians.
Multiple medication use results in increase risk for untoward effects
and complication. With our aging
population this becomes even more an issue, as they tend to “collect’’
medications as they age.
Dangerous numbers:
In 2009 the report by
SAMHSA goes on to state that over 120-million visits were made to nationwide
EDs and of these at least 4.5-million were drug/medication related. Drug-related ED visits increased by over 80-percent
since 2004. In 2009 estimates of about
2.1-million ED visits resulted from the misuse or abuse of medications. That is about 674 ED visits per 100,000
people per year. Those 20-years old and
younger was at a rate of 473 visits and those 21-years and older was double
that. Just over thirty-five percent
involved pharmaceuticals alone and another 25-percent involved pharmaceuticals
plus illicit drugs and/or alcohol. The
visits to EDs with side-effects and medical emergencies related to prescription
drugs in one fashion or another amounted to 60-percent for that group. While visits remained stable from 2004 to
2009 on medication alone, there was a 117% rise in the non-medical use of
pharmaceuticals, and a 97% rise in pharmaceuticals used with illicit drugs.
No matter
how you look at it, it is a big national problem. Some of it is avoidable; others pertain to
social issues and the rise of illicit drug use in this country. From the perspective of a physician this
trend can be reversed if doctors prescribe less medication, are judicious in
their use of multiple medications, and use the lowest doses possible that
results in goal of therapy. I see too
many patients in their 5th decade of life or greater that are on
more than one pharmaceutical (both in the Emergency Department and the wellness
clinics I staff). The older they
present, often the larger their purse of drugs and therapeutics.
Making changes to improve safety:
First step is counseling
patients on pharmaceuticals. Even a
single prescription medication is not without side effects; each and every
patient should be made aware. Add a
second or third drug and the risk for drug-drug interactions goes up precipitously. A published study in the December 2008 JAMA by
the University of Chicago revealed that in some 3000 individuals surveyed aged
57 to 85 the use of prescription and OTC drugs resulted in a one in 25 risk of
major drug-drug interactions. Halting
the behavior of continually adding medication on top of medication is a
paradigm that must be adopted by primary care physicians. After all they are the gatekeepers who
monitor and when appropriate should selectively withdraw unnecessary
medication.
Alternatives to powerful
drugs with harmful side effects and strong drug-drug reactions are the more
subtle and oftentimes safer herbals and dietary supplements. However, before we proceeded, many dietary
supplements and herbals can themselves be linked to drug-herb interactions
often as worrisome as we see with two pharmaceuticals interacting.
A more appropriate
alternative is the judicious use of ‘’medical foods’’ as alternatives to
pharmaceuticals. Medical foods are those
that have a nod from the FDA as approved for medicinal use and prescribed by a
physician. Medical foods are just that,
food or compounds often times
amino-acids and natural substances which have been studied to show benefits
similar to their more powerful pharmaceutical brothers. The term medical food,
is defined in section 5(b) of the Orphan Drug Act (1983) as "a food which
is formulated to be consumed or administered enterally under the supervision of
a physician and which is intended for the specific dietary management of a
disease or condition for which distinctive nutritional requirements, based on
recognized scientific principles, are established by medical
evaluation."
Medical foods are not limited by FDA required labeling often seen
on supplements and herbals. An examples would be the combination of amino-acids,
neurotransmitters and select substances in a patented medical food called
Theramine® used to augment a lower dose of an NSAID (Naprosyn®) and eventually
replacing it completely in some cases. This
process can be undertaken to reduce and eliminate the use of scheduled and
habit forming pain medication such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, and tramadol. Other medical foods can replace side effect wrought
pharmaceuticals such as the SSRI class of anti-depressants (Prozac®, Celexa®)
and the anti-anxiety benzodiazepines (Xanax®, Ativan®). Medical foods are
extremely popular on the West Coast, but are gaining momentum in the East. Additional benefits of Medical Foods, besides
their safety record, are that many health insurance policies will cover their
use. So now we witness insurance
coverage for not only pharmaceuticals (generally not covering supplements and
herbals) but coverage for medical foods such as Theramine®. As more clinical data is collected there will
be better acceptance for the use of medical foods by healthcare practitioners.
Making Medical Foods available:
Medical foods must be
prescribed by a physician. While not a
pharmaceutical in the strict sense, they are FDA approved and accepted for
specific use in fighting disease and illness.
Wellness One (First) is one of the first center in the region that
offers these medical foods through prescription from their staff physicians. Let us not forget Hippocrates (460-377 BC),
the father of Western medicine, is known for saying “Let
food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
-----
Dr. Saleeby is medical
director of Wellness One of Myrtle Beach and Wellness First of Charleston. Both centers are integrative wellness and
health spas with a focus on integrative protocols for management of illness and
disease prevention. Wellness One and
Wellness First are the leaders in bringing the use of Medical Foods to the
coastal Carolinas.
Reference:
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Drug Abuse Warning Network,
2009: National Estimates of Drug-Related Emergency
Department Visits. HHS Publication No. (SMA) 11-4659, DAWN Series
D-35. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration,
2011.
Qato, DM., et al, Use of Prescription and Over-the-counter Medications
and Dietary Supplements Among Older Adults in the United States. JAMA. 2008;300(24):2867-2878.
Medical
Foods FDA website, Retrieved from http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/Product-SpecificInformation/MedicalFoods/default.htm
(accessed 11/10/2012)
Shell,
W.E., et. al., A Double-Blind Controlled Trial of a Single Dose Naproxen and an
Amino Acid Medical Food Theramine for the Treatment of Low Back Pain., Am. Journal of Therapeutics, 17(2):133-139, March/April 2010
Theramine
from Physician Therapeutics, Retrieved from http://ptloffice.com/downloads/marketing/Theramine_latest.pdf
(accessed 11/10/2012)
Orphan
Drug Act FDA website, Retrieved from http://www.fda.gov/RegulatoryInformation/Legislation/FederalFoodDrugandCosmeticActFDCAct/SignificantAmendmentstotheFDCAct/OrphanDrugAct/default.htm
(accessed 11/10/2012)
©
2012
