San Antonio College Library

In recent years, the media has inundated us with coverage of the increasing abuse of prescription painkillers. This is a book on the impact of prescription painkiller abuse on individuals, communities, and society. It offers information on the history, social impact, pharmacology, and addiction treatment for commonly abused, highly addictive opiate prescription painkillers such as Oxycontin, Vicodin, Percocet, and Darvocet. The author, chief medical...

"Pain Killer takes readers on a journey of discovery that begins with the true story of Lindsay, a high-school cheerleader in Virginia who gets hooked on Oxys, and expands outward to explore the critical issues of legitimate pain management, prescription drug abuse, and how the misuse of science by the drug industry threatens the public good. With the fast-rising abuse of prescription drugs by young people ringing alarm bells within government, the...

"Justin and Amanda, a young couple addicted to opiates for several years, have entered a treatment facility at Acadia Hospital in Bangor, Maine. This program follows their progress and presents expert commentary from Acadia administrator Scott Farnum, who sheds light on the different types of opioids and how they affect the brain. He also focuses on replacement therapy, an effective way to recover from opioid addiction. While making clear that replacement...

Bringing together both the journalist's eye and the addict's mind, "Pill Head" explores Lyon's own addiction and the cultural phenomena that made pill-popping so popular, especially among the twenty-somethings of Generation Rx.

"The opioid epidemic is responsible for the first sustained decline in U.S. life expectancy since the 1960s. In 2016, more than 50,000 Americans died from an opioid overdose -- to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands who live with some measure of opioid addiction every day. The Opioid Epidemic: What Everyone Needs to Know® is an accessible, nonpartisan overview of the causes, politics, and treatments tied to the most devastating health crisis...

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821) is an autobiographical account written by Thomas De Quincey, about his laudanum (opium and alcohol) addiction and its effect on his life. The Confessions was "the first major work De Quincey published and the one which won him fame almost overnight ..." First published anonymously in September and October 1821 in the London Magazine, the Confessions was released in book form in 1822, and again in 1856,...

Out of 238 million American adults, 100 million live in chronic pain. When inadequately treated, it undermines the body and mind. Indeed, the risk of suicide for people in chronic pain is twice that of other people. Far more than just a symptom, chronic pain can be a disease in its own right-- the biggest health problem facing America today. Foreman offers a sweeping, deeply researched account of the chronic pain crisis, from neurobiology to public...

Beginning with a single dealer who lands in a small Virginia town and sets about turning high school football stars into heroin overdose statistics, journalist Beth Macy endeavors to answer a grieving mother's question--why her only son died--and comes away with a harrowing story of greed and need. From the introduction of OxyContin in 1996, Macy parses how America embraced a medical culture where overtreatment with painkillers became the norm. The...

"An urgent and heartbreaking investigation into the corporate greed and governmental corruption that pumped millions of pain pills into small Appalachian towns"--Dust jacket flap. A pharmacy in Kermit, West Virginia, distributed 12 million opioid pain pills in three years to a town with a population of 382 people. Debbie Preece lost her brother to opioid overdose, and was desperate for justice. Joined by a crusading lawyer and a local journalist,...