A new clinic in Hinton aims to provide not only general medical but also drug addiction treatment to the community.
According to the Centers For Disease Control (CDC), “The number of drug overdose deaths increased by nearly 5% from 2018 to 2019 and has quadrupled since 1999. Over 70% of the 70,630 drug overdose deaths in 2019 involved an opioid.”
In 2018, 702 West Virginians died as a result of an opioid overdose; 551 of them involving fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, and 234 associated with prescriptions.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports, “In 2018, West Virginia providers wrote 69.3 opioid prescriptions for every 100 persons, compared to the average U.S. rate of 51.4 prescriptions. This was among the top 10 rates in the U.S. that year; however, it was also the lowest rate in the state since data became available in 2006.”
Regarding the ongoing opioid epidemic, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said, “West Virginia has one of the highest rates in the country of non-medical use of prescription pain-relievers in 19- to 25-year-olds. Opioids are the number one cause of death associated with drug overdoses. The drug epidemic in this state knows no socioeconomic or geographical boundaries and continues to affect West Virginians from all walks of life.”
Opioid misuse has been a plague upon West Virginia for two decades. The World Health Organization reports that “only about 10% of people who suffer from opioid dependence are being treated for it”.
To compound matters, the restrictions and lock-downs imposed upon West Virginia’s residents as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have only served to exacerbate the issue.
However, after their opening in early 2021, one Summers County facility is working to better the situation.
Located in Hinton, Three Rivers Clinic is a drug-addiction treatment center and medical practitioner, providing both urgent medical care and addiction rehabilitation services to those in need. In addition, Three Rivers Clinic also offers free COVID-19 testing to the community, as well as testing for the flu, strep throat and mono.
The clinic offers a wide variety of treatment and counseling services to those struggling with opioid addiction. One such method is the use of a medication known as “suboxone” to treat those suffering from acute addiction.
According to the American Addiction Centers, “Suboxone is a medication used to treat opioid dependence, containing buprenorphine and naloxone. [] Buprenorphine is considered a ‘partial opioid agonist’, meaning that it produces a milder form of the effects produced by opioids (which are ‘full opioid agonists’). It essentially fills the brain’s opioid receptors without producing the same high as full opioids. One of the advantages of using Suboxone is that it cannot be taken to achieve a full opioid effect, making it more difficult to abuse than other forms of medication-assisted treatment, such as methadone.”
Suboxone has been proven to be an effective treatment weapon in the war against opioid addiction. In a study performed by Dr. Richard D. Blondell, Suboxone has been shown to have greater accessibility for those suffering, as well as lower potential for abuse and a higher rate of success than other medicated-treatment options, such as methadone.
This is a fact of which West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is keenly aware.
While speaking with the Hinton News, Morrisey said, “Our office has long supported a holistic approach to attacking the root causes of opioid addiction. We focus on the problem from a supply, demand and educational perspective. We acknowledge that medication-assisted treatment can be effective and our office supports reducing regulatory burdens to make such treatment more accessible while recognizing that medication-assisted treatment is only one step toward getting people right in the head and the heart.”
Three Rivers Clinic is located at 158 Hinton Bypass in Hinton and can be reached at 304-309-4143. The clinic and urgent care facilities are open Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
