A mother drank vodka and smoked marijuana while taking a vanload of children home from a weekend camping trip that ended in disaster when she went the wrong way on a highway and crashed into an SUV, killing eight people, police said Tuesday.
Diane Schuler, who died along with her 2-year-old daughter and three nieces in her red minivan, had more than 10 drinks of alcohol in her system and a high level of the main ingredient in marijuana, authorities said. A broken 1.75-liter bottle of Absolut vodka was found in her wrecked minivan, police said.
The revelations from the 36-year-old Long Island woman's autopsy helped explain how the woman her family called "an accomplished working mother who always put her children before any other priorities" wound up driving the wrong way for nearly two miles on a suburban parkway before slamming into the SUV.
The July 26 crash on the Taconic State Parkway, about 35 miles northwest of New York City, also killed three men in the SUV. Schuler's 5-year-old son, in her minivan, survived.
Investigators said Schuler had been driving erratically on other upstate roads before getting on the highway for the 140-mile trip home.
Schuler's blood-alcohol level was well above the legal limit, and she still had undigested alcohol in her stomach, State Police Maj. William Carey said Tuesday.
Blood tests also showed she had smoked marijuana 15 minutes to an hour before the crash, said Betsy Spratt, chief toxicologist for the Westchester County medical examiner.
"With that level of alcohol ... she would have had difficulty with perception, with her judgment, with her memory," Spratt said. "You start to get what we call tunnel vision."
Police said no criminal charges were planned in the case.
Roseann Guzzo, whose father and brother were killed in the SUV, said Tuesday her family wanted to meet with prosecutors to discuss the case.
"We're outraged by it," she said. "It's a choice she made. And that choice she made to us is like she committed murder."
State police have been investigating why Schuler, who was a regular upstate campground visitor, would have been driving toward her home the wrong way on a highway she had driven many times before.
Toxicology reports found the businesswoman's blood-alcohol level was 0.19, more than twice the state's legal limit of 0.08, Carey said. She also had 6 grams of undigested alcohol in her stomach, Carey said.
Schuler's husband, Daniel, told investigators that everything seemed fine when he and his wife left the Sullivan County campground at about 9:30 a.m. on the morning of the crash. He went on a fishing trip while his wife headed home with the children, stopping at a McDonald's on the way, police said.
Her brother, the father of the three girls who died, said she called him about a half-hour before the wreck sounding disoriented and saying she didn't feel well. Schuler's 8-year-old niece also spoke briefly with her father from the highway. The woman's cell phone was later found abandoned at a rest stop.
Witnesses said they saw Schuler's minivan straddling two lanes and tailgating, with its headlights flashing and horn beeping.
Others saw the vehicle veering from one lane to another, and one witness said it appeared as if she was attempting to pass him on the shoulder of the highway. Another witness said the van drove across a grass divider at a service area.
Six drivers called 911 before the collision, which happened after Schuler drove 1.7 miles south in the parkway's northbound lane.
An attorney who served as a family spokesman at funerals last week did not immediately return a telephone message left by The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Floral Park village police blocked access to the home of Schuler's brother and said no one was there to comment. There was no answer when a reporter knocked on the door of the Schuler family home in West Babylon.
Neither Schuler's husband nor extended family has spoken with reporters about the crash. The families issued a statement last week calling Schuler "a devoted mother to her children, Bryan and Erin."
"She was a constant, doting presence in her nieces' lives, and our extended family admired her competence, ease with children and sense of humor," it said. "Never has there been a more responsible and trusted friend or caregiver."
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/08/02/national/a112012D22.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0NL5OAlRw
Showing posts with label Drug and Alcohol Intervention. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Drug and Alcohol Intervention. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Antidepressant use doubles in U.S., study finds
Antidepressant use doubles in U.S., study finds
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Use of antidepressant drugs in the United States doubled between 1996 and 2005, probably because of a mix of factors, researchers reported on Monday.
About 6 percent of people were prescribed an antidepressant in 1996 -- 13 million people. This rose to more than 10 percent or 27 million people by 2005, the researchers found.
"Significant increases in antidepressant use were evident across all sociodemographic groups examined, except African Americans," Dr. Mark Olfson of Columbia University in New York and Steven Marcus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia wrote in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
"Not only are more U.S. residents being treated with antidepressants, but also those who are being treated are receiving more antidepressant prescriptions," they added.
More than 164 million prescriptions were written in 2008 for antidepressants, totaling $9.6 billion in U.S. sales, according to IMS Health.
Drugs that affect the brain chemical serotonin like GlaxoSmithKline's Paxil, known generically as paroxetine, and Eli Lilly and Co's Prozac, known generically as fluoxetine, are the most commonly prescribed class of antidepressant. But the study found the effect in all classes of the drugs.
Olfson and Marcus looked at the Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys done by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, involving more than 50,000 people in 1996 and 2005.
"During this period, individuals treated with antidepressants became more likely to also receive treatment with antipsychotic medications and less likely to undergo psychotherapy," they wrote.
SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE
The survey did not look at why, but the researchers made some educated guesses. It may be more socially acceptable to be diagnosed with and treated for depression, they said. The availability of new drugs may also have been a factor.
"Although there was little change in total promotional spending for antidepressants between 1999 ($0.98 billion) and 2005 ($1.02 billion), there was a marked increase in the percentage of this spending that was devoted to direct-to consumer advertising, from 3.3 percent ($32 million) to 12 percent ($122.00 million)," they added.
Dr. Eric Caine of the University of Rochester in New York said he was concerned by the findings. "Antidepressants are only moderately effective on population level," he said in a telephone interview.
Caine, who was not involved in the research, noted that several studies show therapy is as effective as, if not more effective than, drug use alone.
"There are no data to say that the population is healthier. Indeed, the suicide rate in the middle years of life has been climbing," he said.
Olfson and Marcus said out-of-pocket costs for psychotherapy and lower insurance coverage for such visits may have driven patients away from seeing therapists in favor of an easy-to-prescribe pill.
The rise in antidepressant prescriptions also is seen despite a series of public health warnings on use of antidepressant drugs beginning in 2003 after clinical trials showed they increased the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children and teens.
In February 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration added its strongest warning, a so-called black box, on the use of all antidepressants in children and teens.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Use of antidepressant drugs in the United States doubled between 1996 and 2005, probably because of a mix of factors, researchers reported on Monday.
About 6 percent of people were prescribed an antidepressant in 1996 -- 13 million people. This rose to more than 10 percent or 27 million people by 2005, the researchers found.
"Significant increases in antidepressant use were evident across all sociodemographic groups examined, except African Americans," Dr. Mark Olfson of Columbia University in New York and Steven Marcus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia wrote in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
"Not only are more U.S. residents being treated with antidepressants, but also those who are being treated are receiving more antidepressant prescriptions," they added.
More than 164 million prescriptions were written in 2008 for antidepressants, totaling $9.6 billion in U.S. sales, according to IMS Health.
Drugs that affect the brain chemical serotonin like GlaxoSmithKline's Paxil, known generically as paroxetine, and Eli Lilly and Co's Prozac, known generically as fluoxetine, are the most commonly prescribed class of antidepressant. But the study found the effect in all classes of the drugs.
Olfson and Marcus looked at the Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys done by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, involving more than 50,000 people in 1996 and 2005.
"During this period, individuals treated with antidepressants became more likely to also receive treatment with antipsychotic medications and less likely to undergo psychotherapy," they wrote.
SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE
The survey did not look at why, but the researchers made some educated guesses. It may be more socially acceptable to be diagnosed with and treated for depression, they said. The availability of new drugs may also have been a factor.
"Although there was little change in total promotional spending for antidepressants between 1999 ($0.98 billion) and 2005 ($1.02 billion), there was a marked increase in the percentage of this spending that was devoted to direct-to consumer advertising, from 3.3 percent ($32 million) to 12 percent ($122.00 million)," they added.
Dr. Eric Caine of the University of Rochester in New York said he was concerned by the findings. "Antidepressants are only moderately effective on population level," he said in a telephone interview.
Caine, who was not involved in the research, noted that several studies show therapy is as effective as, if not more effective than, drug use alone.
"There are no data to say that the population is healthier. Indeed, the suicide rate in the middle years of life has been climbing," he said.
Olfson and Marcus said out-of-pocket costs for psychotherapy and lower insurance coverage for such visits may have driven patients away from seeing therapists in favor of an easy-to-prescribe pill.
The rise in antidepressant prescriptions also is seen despite a series of public health warnings on use of antidepressant drugs beginning in 2003 after clinical trials showed they increased the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children and teens.
In February 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration added its strongest warning, a so-called black box, on the use of all antidepressants in children and teens.
Monday, June 29, 2009
A family begins to heal
Please accept this as testimonial for the Staff of Intervention 911. After ten years of desperation, and anguish over our son and his addiction to drugs…we finally figured it out ! We could not fix him, love him, scare him, push him, reward him, cajole him, counsel him, threaten him, shove him or any other verb you can think of him into getting better. The addiction won..every single time.
As we watched our family suffer more and more, and watched Mitch suffer more and more, with increasingly dangerous consequences (including a motorcycle accident and a subsequent fourteen month, five surgery hospitalization) our desperation reached a point of hopelessness. What could we do? What in God’s name could we do? Would he die, become homeless, get worse, break the law, go to jail, hurt someone…what else could possibly happen to make him see he needed help?
But where to start? Who could we trust to bring our only son to treatment? We chose Intervention 911.
I made the call, which was the scariest call of my life. A million questions swirled in my mind. My heart broke to think this is what we had come to. Would it work? Would he go? What would happen? How would it happen? Where would he go? Where should he go? And for how long? In less than 5 hours, I got a call from John Nosack. I felt an immediate sense of calm as he explained the process to me. He literally held my hand in the days up to the intervention. Always there, always caring, always reassuring. I love the man and always will because of this. He helped us select a facility, and most importantly selected an Interventionist that would “fit” our son’s needs. Even after the intervention, he has been there when I need a touchstone of reassurance. I wonder, where in the world did you find such a human being that can give so much to people he does not even know? John Nosack will forever hold a corner of our hearts. Forever.
Then I got to speak with Jerry Bowling, the Interventionist. What can I say about Jerry that you probably don’t already know? Jerry is a blessing in our lives. After a million and one phone calls to him before the intervention day, arranging, crying, being scared, being mad, flipping out, questioning our decision, feelings of hysteria and hope (how those two go together I will never know but they do) were put into perspective with Jerry’s calming, and firm but gentle presence. His message was consistent: you are doing the right thing, stay strong, you can do this, you are doing the right thing, you are doing the right thing, you are doing the right thing. What I love the most about Jerry is his tenacity. He told us “this might take five minutes, or it might take five days. And I’ll be here as long as it takes”. This is more than we could have ever expected. But we received it with Jerry. Thankfully, it didn’t take five days (!!!) and Jerry flew with our son across the country to deliver him safely to what we pray will be his eventual path to recovery. But it doesn’t stop there. Jerry is still there for us. Still tenacious, still supportive, still knowing what we need to do and hear from him fight our son’s disease. Because of Jerry, WE are able to fight. Because of Jerry we know that unless we change, our son does not have a chance in you-know-where to change. Because of Jerry, we have hope. And hope is a commodity that any family suffering along with their addict must have to survive. We hope for our son, and ultimately have more hope for ourselves, as truly we need to recover to have the hope that our son will too. Because of Jerry we have learned to detach, with love, from our addiction to our son’s addiction, the source of the chaos in our lives. Because of Jerry we know we must CHANGE for our son to CHANGE, and that it doesn’t necessarily mean it happens at the same time for us and him. And that it’s OK. Have you gotten the impression that Jerry means a lot to us? He is our general and we are the soldiers in the war. That’s who Jerry is to us.
I can only pray that other suffering families will meet Jerry and John. They have punctuated our lives with HOPE, where there was none. I hope they can be strong enough to make the call, strong enough to lay aside their fear for just one moment and make the call to Intervention 911. We do not know what the future holds for our son and his journey. But now at least, we know we did everything humanly possible to right his path. Thank you seems not a strong enough statement to express our gratitude. Bless you..now that’s better !
As we watched our family suffer more and more, and watched Mitch suffer more and more, with increasingly dangerous consequences (including a motorcycle accident and a subsequent fourteen month, five surgery hospitalization) our desperation reached a point of hopelessness. What could we do? What in God’s name could we do? Would he die, become homeless, get worse, break the law, go to jail, hurt someone…what else could possibly happen to make him see he needed help?
But where to start? Who could we trust to bring our only son to treatment? We chose Intervention 911.
I made the call, which was the scariest call of my life. A million questions swirled in my mind. My heart broke to think this is what we had come to. Would it work? Would he go? What would happen? How would it happen? Where would he go? Where should he go? And for how long? In less than 5 hours, I got a call from John Nosack. I felt an immediate sense of calm as he explained the process to me. He literally held my hand in the days up to the intervention. Always there, always caring, always reassuring. I love the man and always will because of this. He helped us select a facility, and most importantly selected an Interventionist that would “fit” our son’s needs. Even after the intervention, he has been there when I need a touchstone of reassurance. I wonder, where in the world did you find such a human being that can give so much to people he does not even know? John Nosack will forever hold a corner of our hearts. Forever.
Then I got to speak with Jerry Bowling, the Interventionist. What can I say about Jerry that you probably don’t already know? Jerry is a blessing in our lives. After a million and one phone calls to him before the intervention day, arranging, crying, being scared, being mad, flipping out, questioning our decision, feelings of hysteria and hope (how those two go together I will never know but they do) were put into perspective with Jerry’s calming, and firm but gentle presence. His message was consistent: you are doing the right thing, stay strong, you can do this, you are doing the right thing, you are doing the right thing, you are doing the right thing. What I love the most about Jerry is his tenacity. He told us “this might take five minutes, or it might take five days. And I’ll be here as long as it takes”. This is more than we could have ever expected. But we received it with Jerry. Thankfully, it didn’t take five days (!!!) and Jerry flew with our son across the country to deliver him safely to what we pray will be his eventual path to recovery. But it doesn’t stop there. Jerry is still there for us. Still tenacious, still supportive, still knowing what we need to do and hear from him fight our son’s disease. Because of Jerry, WE are able to fight. Because of Jerry we know that unless we change, our son does not have a chance in you-know-where to change. Because of Jerry, we have hope. And hope is a commodity that any family suffering along with their addict must have to survive. We hope for our son, and ultimately have more hope for ourselves, as truly we need to recover to have the hope that our son will too. Because of Jerry we have learned to detach, with love, from our addiction to our son’s addiction, the source of the chaos in our lives. Because of Jerry we know we must CHANGE for our son to CHANGE, and that it doesn’t necessarily mean it happens at the same time for us and him. And that it’s OK. Have you gotten the impression that Jerry means a lot to us? He is our general and we are the soldiers in the war. That’s who Jerry is to us.
I can only pray that other suffering families will meet Jerry and John. They have punctuated our lives with HOPE, where there was none. I hope they can be strong enough to make the call, strong enough to lay aside their fear for just one moment and make the call to Intervention 911. We do not know what the future holds for our son and his journey. But now at least, we know we did everything humanly possible to right his path. Thank you seems not a strong enough statement to express our gratitude. Bless you..now that’s better !
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Latest Episode of Intervention
Check out the latest episode of intervention. Everyone is talking about it:
http://www.aetv.com/intervention/video/index.jsp?bcpid=1452232410&bclid=25618112001&bctid=25714327001
http://www.aetv.com/intervention/video/index.jsp?bcpid=1452232410&bclid=25618112001&bctid=25714327001
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Teen Drug Use
May 21, 2009
New Partnership Research: More Parents Aware of Teen Rx Drug Abuse. Are You?
A new national study of parents’ attitudes about teen drug abuse released by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and the MetLife Foundation shows strong increases in parents’ awareness of teen abuse of prescription medications.
The 14th annual Parents Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) revealed that the number of parents who mistakenly believe that abusing prescription medicines is “much safer” than using illicit street drugs dropped by nearly half in a single year’s time — from 19 percent in 2007 to just ten percent in 2008. Major progress was also reported regarding beliefs about the addictive potential of some prescription medicines when misused. In 2007, 24 percent of parents believed that intentional abuse of prescription medicines would not be addictive. In 2008, that number decreased significantly to 11 percent.
This heightened awareness has not yet resulted in an increase in the number of parents talking with their kids about the risks of prescription drug abuse, although the study did show that parent-teen discussions about the risks of abusing over-the-counter cough medicine have increased nearly 18 percent, with 65 percent of parents reporting these discussions, versus 55 percent in 2007.
New Partnership Research: More Parents Aware of Teen Rx Drug Abuse. Are You?
A new national study of parents’ attitudes about teen drug abuse released by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and the MetLife Foundation shows strong increases in parents’ awareness of teen abuse of prescription medications.
The 14th annual Parents Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) revealed that the number of parents who mistakenly believe that abusing prescription medicines is “much safer” than using illicit street drugs dropped by nearly half in a single year’s time — from 19 percent in 2007 to just ten percent in 2008. Major progress was also reported regarding beliefs about the addictive potential of some prescription medicines when misused. In 2007, 24 percent of parents believed that intentional abuse of prescription medicines would not be addictive. In 2008, that number decreased significantly to 11 percent.
This heightened awareness has not yet resulted in an increase in the number of parents talking with their kids about the risks of prescription drug abuse, although the study did show that parent-teen discussions about the risks of abusing over-the-counter cough medicine have increased nearly 18 percent, with 65 percent of parents reporting these discussions, versus 55 percent in 2007.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Paula Admits Drug Abuse and Treatment
If you are anything like me, you noticed Paula Abdul's seemingly weird and erratic behavior on American Idol in past seasons. I figured she was either just a little odd or more probable, she was taking some type of medication that resulted in her "interesting" behavior on the show.
In a recent Ladies Home Journal interview, Paula has admitted that for the first time in 12 years, she is no longer dependent on prescription pail killers. (Side note: go Paula!)
There are a couple things about this interview I'd like to bring to the surface. First, Paula states that she never taped a show under the influence of medication. However, what is common knowledge within the addiction and recovery community is that drugs and alcohol have lasting effects. Perhaps a person is not under the direct influence at any given time, but their behaviors and tendencies often have changed due to the consistent use of the drug. This may, not for sure, be the case for Ms. Abdul.
One of the reasons Paula gave LHJ for her ongoing use of prescription medication was to deal with chronic pain as a result of being diagnosed with a condition known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome. She mentioned that she didn't want to be "counted out" and continued to take the painkillers in order to keep up with hectic shooting schedules and commitments. This sounds about right. Once a person is dependent on a drug, it often seems impossible to be without it due to both the withdrawal symptoms they may suffer by quitting and also the time involved in starting a program of recovery.
Fortunately, Paula checked herself into rehab and is on the straight and narrow this season. Every drug, whether legally prescribed or not, will eventually take it's toll. Dependency on anything, especially drugs and alcohol, becomes often more debilitating than the condition it was originally prescribed for.
Kudos to Ms. Abdul to realizing there was a problem and taking the steps necessary to deal with it. She has become a shining example to us that there is always help and hope for an addict willing to recover.
Friday, April 17, 2009
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