In 2022, more than 7,000 people in California died from opioid overdoses, with 87% of those deaths involving fentanyl., highlighting the critical need for effective prescription drug treatment centers.
The three most commonly abused classes of prescription drugs are:
At West Valley Detox, we offer a variety of addiction treatment programs tailored to individuals struggling with prescription drug addiction. Our prescription drug rehab programs combine medical detox and medication-assisted treatment to support individuals through the withdrawal process and help manage cravings.
Many individuals worry about becoming addicted to medications prescribed for medical conditions, such as painkillers prescribed after surgery. While prescription medications are essential for managing pain or other health conditions, they can be highly addictive if misused. In fact, 1 in 4 people who receive long-term opioid prescriptions for non-cancer pain in primary care settings struggle with addiction. You can lower your risk of prescription drug addiction by carefully following the instructions provided by your doctor.
Several risk factors contribute to the misuse of prescription drugs, including:
Hundreds of other contributing factors can push a person to misuse their medications. One common cause of prescription drug abuse is increasing doses to cope with post-surgery pain. When individuals misuse prescription drugs, they raise their risk of serious health complications, including organ failure, cardiovascular disease, overdose, and death, if they do not seek help from a prescription drug treatment center.
At West Valley Detox, we understand the complexities of prescription drug addiction and offer comprehensive addiction treatment programs to address both the physical and psychological aspects of addiction. Whether you’re struggling with opioid painkillers or other prescription medications, our specialized prescription drug rehab program is here to help.
The signs and symptoms of prescription drug addiction can vary depending on the type of medication being misused. Prescription drugs fall into several categories, such as opioids, stimulants, and depressants, each with its own unique effects on the body. Recognizing these symptoms early is crucial for seeking timely drug addiction treatment. More than 16 million people in the United States misused prescription drugs in 2020, with opioids, stimulants, and sedatives being among the most commonly abused medications.
Here are some common negative effects and symptoms associated with the misuse of various prescription medications:
Opioids (commonly prescribed for pain relief):
Stimulants (often prescribed for ADHD or narcolepsy):
Depressants (such as sedatives or tranquilizers):
General Symptoms Across Prescription Medications:
If you or a loved one is experiencing any of these symptoms, it is essential to seek professional help at a prescription drug treatment center. At West Valley Detox, we offer comprehensive addiction treatment programs tailored to individuals struggling with prescription drug misuse.
While prescription medications are intended to treat specific medical conditions, they can become extremely dangerous—and even life-threatening—when misused or combined with other substances. Understanding the risks associated with prescription drug misuse is essential for preventing harmful side effects or fatal outcomes.
Prescription drugs can be hazardous and may lead to serious health complications, including death, under the following circumstances:
Taking more than the prescribed dosage of a medication, especially opioids, sedatives, or stimulants, can overwhelm the body’s systems. This can lead to overdose, causing respiratory failure, heart complications, or even death. Opioid addiction, for instance, is a leading cause of overdose-related fatalities due to respiratory depression.
Certain medications can interact dangerously when combined. For example, mixing sedatives like benzodiazepines with opioids significantly increases the risk of overdose, as both drugs depress the central nervous system (CNS). This can result in slowed breathing, extreme drowsiness, and potentially fatal outcomes. Discussing any combination of medications with a healthcare provider is important to avoid harmful interactions.
Over-the-counter medications, such as antihistamines, decongestants, or pain relievers, can also interact with prescription drugs, leading to dangerous side effects. For instance, combining OTC cold medicine with certain antidepressants or stimulants can elevate blood pressure to dangerous levels, increasing the risk of heart attack or stroke.
Combining prescription drugs with alcohol is particularly hazardous. Alcohol use disorder can intensify the effects of many medications, such as opioids and sedatives, increasing the risk of overdose. It can also interfere with how the liver metabolizes certain drugs, leading to toxic levels in the bloodstream. Even small amounts of alcohol combined with prescription medications can impair judgment, coordination, and reaction times, increasing the risk of accidents or injury.
The combination of prescription drugs with illegal substances, such as cocaine, heroin, or methamphetamine, is highly dangerous. For example, mixing opioids with stimulants like cocaine can place excessive strain on the heart, leading to heart attack, stroke, or sudden death. Recreational drug use, when combined with prescription medications, can amplify the risk of unpredictable and life-threatening side effects.
These risks underscore the importance of taking prescription medications only as directed by a healthcare provider. Misuse or dangerous combinations can lead to severe health issues, including organ failure, overdose, and death.
The options for treating prescription drug abuse vary but typically start with the detoxification process. After the detox process is complete, recovery work with substance use disorder professionals aims to change the thoughts and behaviors that contribute to and maintain prescription drug use. This part of the recovery process is best supported in a residential level of care, where there is around-the-clock supervision, intensive addiction therapy, and ongoing medical support.
West Valley Detox & Treatment Services can offer Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for prescription drug addiction for any individual needing additional support in reducing cravings and withdrawal symptoms. MAT is supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and can be used in combination with the above treatment therapies.
West Valley Detox & Treatment Services is the premier facility for treating substance use disorder and other co-occurring challenges. We provide medically assisted detox and residential treatment. Our highly trained staff is committed to providing you and your loved ones with the highest level of care.
If you or your loved one is ready to start your recovery journey today, please call 213-861-4445 or email us at admissions@westvalleydetox.com.
West Valley Detox Treatment
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email ara@westvalleydetox.com
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers).
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to ara@westvalleydetox.com