USA TODAY Features Mel Pohl, MD, FASAM on Video About Older Americans and Opiates

Dr. Pohl, Medical Director of the Las Vegas Recovery Center, is featured in a major USA Today feature on older Americans and the growing problem of their dependency on opiate painkillers”. It’s estimated that over 336,000 seniors are currently misusing their medications. Furthermore, nearly one in four are being prescribed a number of ‘risky’ medications supplied by their doctors for everything from joint pain, anxiety and depression. The results are devastating. Among people 55 and older seeking substance abuse treatment from 2007-11, there was a 46% jump in the share of cases involving prescription narcotics, SAMHSA data show. Annual emergency room visits by people 65 and over for misuse of pharmaceuticals climbed more than 50% during that time, to more than 94,000 a year. And the rate of overdose deaths among people 55 and older, regardless of drug type, nearly tripled from 1999-2010, to 9.4 fatalities per 100,000 people, based on data from by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At Las Vegas Recovery Center, we offer innovative addiction treatment and chronic pain treatment programs. Our aim is to foster a positive environment that promotes awareness and understanding. Together, with our clients, we achieve real recovery results that will not only help them find freedom from active addiction and chronic pain, but also show them how to rebuild their lives.