A new version of the painkiller OxyContin, designed by Purdue Pharma to be harder to abuse, is not keeping addicts from improperly using the medicine, a new study finds.
The newer version of the powerful drug, introduced five years ago, is more difficult to crush for the purpose of snorting or using intravenously for a quick high. But that change hasn't deterred drug abusers as effectively as officials might have hoped,
CBS News reports.
The study, by researchers with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, found that that up to 25 percent of drug users entering rehab programs say they are still abusing the newer formulation of OxyContin.
Their findings, based on surveys of 11,000 drug users at 150 drug treatment facilities in 48 states, were published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.
"There are still some people who have figured out how to circumvent abuse-deterrent formulation," Theodore J. Cicero, a professor of neuropharmacology in psychiatry and lead author of the study, told CBS News. Some users have simply resorted to taking the pills orally.
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