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Sheboygan, WI (WHBL) - Medical experts say that heroin addiction is a rampant problem in Wisconsin that often results in overdose, or death.
Doctors say that heroin addiction is progressive, worsens over time, and becomes more difficult to treat.
It is a race against time for first responders who use the drug Narcan to revive people who overdose on opiates. In Wisconsin, Narcan was deployed more than nine thousand times between 2011 and 2012, according to Doctor John L. Olsen MD., of Sheboygan’s Prevea Health. Olsen, a psychiatrist, says it is possible to beat heroin addiction, but warns it is not an easy road.
“..It takes a lot of work,” says Olsen.
Still, Dr. Olsen says a number of medical treatments for Opiate addiction are showing promise including; inpatient treatment centers, outpatient programs, and medication therapy- as well as twelve step programs.
Some of the medications showing promise in the fight against heroin addiction include the drugs Buprenorphine and Suboxone.
Suboxone, says Doctor Olsen, reduced the rate of heroin related deaths by eighty eight percent within the first six months of being used in the United States. Similar results were seen in France, where the drug was first used.
Doctor Olsen can be reached at Prevea Health Behavioral in Sheboygan at (920) 458-5557.