ORLANDO, Fla. — A new treatment claims to help cure people of their addition to opioids, even heroin, 9 Investigates learned.
The FDA approved the drug late last month, and it's now available through some doctors. A group of them went through training in Orlando this past weekend.
Investigative Reporter Daralene Jones learned that even the FDA still has concerns about the side-effects of this drug.
Sarah Wilson told Eyewitness News the drug changed her life for the better.
Wilson told Eyewitness News a drunk driver hit her, leaving her in so much pain she said she had to rely on pain pills and became an addict.
“I was diverting thousands and thousands of dollars from our home for that, and then when we lost our home, we moved in with my parents and then I was stealing from my parents,” Wilson told Jones.
Wilson said she tried quitting for years, but the nightmare didn't end until she enrolled in a trial for the drug, Probuphine.
Dr. Kent Hoffman participated in the trial, and showed Eyewitness News how it works.
Four one-inch rods, the size of matchsticks, are implanted into the upper arm. Over a six month period, the drug flows into your bloodstream, into the brain, blocking your cravings to get high on opioids like OxyContin, hydrocodone, even heroin.
Dr. Hoffman said it’s not just the medication that will help cure a heroin addiction.
“There's not a medication that's going to cure someone of addiction, okay. A lifestyle of recovery is what will treat someone on an ongoing basis for their addiction,” Dr. Hoffman said.
Dr. Hoffman is a primary care physician, and told us 60 percent of his practice is now devoted to treating addiction.
“Soccer moms and soccer dads come in and tell me what 7-11 to buy heroin at. I'm just floored,” Dr. Hoffman said. He believes the implants work because addicts automatically get the treatment, unlike a traditional oral medication, which requires discipline.
“Patients can decide not to take the medication and then decide to get high over the weekend, divert it, sell it and then get heroin instead,” Dr. Hoffman says.
The FDA raised concerns about difficulty with inserting and removing the implants, which in the most serious cases can lead to bone or nerve damage.
Wilson said she isn't fearful of that because for her, the alternative at one point was death.
“It was like waking up from a nightmare. I went from existing daily, to living my life,” Wilson said.
Sixty doctors were trained in Orlando this past weekend on how to properly use and implant the drug.
Contact Daralene Jones for more on this story
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