The Addiction Industry: Scientist Says Opioid Treatment Needs To Change

There’s a solution to the national opioid crisis. But unfortunately, the powers that be aren’t interested unless they can make a buck, Shiva Ayyadurai says.

Ayyadurai, a Livingston High School alum who holds four degrees from MIT, says that “real solutions do exist for big problems.” And that includes the country’s growing opioid addiction issues.

On Thursday, Ayyadurai – who is currently running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican from Massachusetts and holds the U.S. copyright to the term “EMAIL” – held an online press conference where he described a “holistic systems-based approach” that he claims can help more than 50% of users continuously stay off opioids for one year.

Conventional opioid treatment programs show a success rate of only 2% to 3%, Ayyadurai claims.

Ayyadurai’s plan, which he says is the result of 20 years of medical field tests among 250,000 patients, calls for a four-part system:

• Home detox
• Sobriety maintenance
• Lifestyle changes
• Primary care (follow-up checkups)

In particular, Ayyadurai was critical of the use of methadone and expensive inpatient clinics as treatment options.

“[New Jersey Governor] Chris Christie says there’s a national [opioid] emergency,” Ayyadurai said. “But if you really look at it, most of what he’s supporting is methadone clinics. Methadone – moving someone from one opioid to another – creates side effects. And then you have to prescribe drugs for those side effects.”

A recent preliminary report from the President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis – which Christie chairs – recommended the Trump administration allow all 50 states to use Medicaid funds for treatment in facilities with more than 16 beds, now prohibited under the program.

According to a NJ.com report, other recommendations to fight the opioid crisis included “working with the pharmaceutical industry to develop non-opiate pain medicines and new drugs to help treat addiction.”

Ayyadurai said that a better idea is to keep those recovering from drug addictions in home-based treatment, noting that many low-income patients can’t afford to “go somewhere” to heal themselves.

“Let’s address this in the home,” Ayyadurai said, adding that it’s also important to give those recovering from opioid addictions “meaningful things to do” with their lives, fundamentally changing their lifestyles.

There are other medical professionals and scientists who agree with Ayyadurai.

Treating addiction at home makes sense because it's the place where people learned all their bad habits, Stuart Gitlow, past president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine recently told NPR.

"It's all based on this concept that addiction is not about the substance use, but is about what led to the substance use in the first place," Gitlow said. “And you can't really get there without getting to know the patient."

• See related article: More Than 300 N.J. Heroin, Opioid Addicts Tell Their Stories

Ayyadurai said that he plans to release open-source plans for his recovery system to medical professionals in the near future. Listen to him explain the four-point model in the below videos.

‘THE ADDICTION INDUSTRY’

According to Ayyadurai, his recovery system attempts to bypass the blockade caused by what he terms “the addiction industry.”

The scientist has gone on the offensive against the military-industrial complex before, once issuing a $10 million challenge to corporate giant Monsanto to disprove his claim that there are “no safety assessment standards” for genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

• See related article: Scientist Challenges Monsanto: $10 Million If You Can Prove Me Wrong

Here are some of the interests that he claims combine to drive each other like an engine, perpetuating a system that is preventing true change from taking place.

• Criminal justice industry
• Correction industry
• Homeless industry
• Addiction treatment industry
• News/media industry
• Political industry

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Photo: Flickr Commons