Study: Meth addicts in rural areas face more health problems
OMAHA — At 49, Barry Schmidt has spent more years of his life on drugs than off.
He recalls smoking his first joint at 12 and graduating to other drugs — PCP, acid, meth — about 17.
Schmidt said he’s been in rehab 19 times over the past 30 years, the first time when he was 19.
“I just figured I’d never quit doing drugs,” the north Omaha resident said, noting that he continued his habit during two stints in prison.
But things are changing for Schmidt. He’s graduated from the treatment program at Omaha VA Medical Center and attends six to seven recovery meetings a week. He credits those meetings and the people he meets there with his success so far.
“I know that if I called any one of them at any given time and said I’m thinking of using and I’m in a bad place, they’d be there for me,” said Schmidt, who’s been drug free for 18 months.
The recovering meth addict said he had to move from Fort Dodge, Iowa, to Omaha in order to get the help he needed to overcome a lifetime of drug and alcohol abuse. He left his wife and gave up seeing his father, who lives in a nursing home there.
“I changed my playground, playmates and playthings,” Schmidt said.
It was hard, but necessary to get over his addictions. His environment and a lack of recovery support were obstacles to staying clean, he said.
The part of Iowa where Schmidt was living had few treatment options and no meetings for recovering drug abusers. He said he tried once to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, but was asked to leave after he revealed he was a drug addict.
Experts say rural addicts typically have limited access to treatment facilities and health services, but that’s become even more unsettling in light of a new study comparing meth users living in rural areas with their urban counterparts.
The Nebraska-funded study compared addicts from a 20,000-square-mile region who sought help at the nearest treatment facility in Grand Island with those living near and seeking help in state’s two largest cities, Omaha and Lincoln. In all, 172 meth abusers were interviewed between July 2004 and July 2005.
The study showed that rural addicts began using meth at a younger age, were more likely to use the drug intravenously and were more likely to also be dependent on alcohol or cigarettes. They also exhibited more signs of psychosis than urban addicts — 45 percent vs. 29 percent, according to the study.
The findings, released in the March/April edition of The American Journal of Addictions, suggest rural addicts are at higher risk for medical and psychiatric problems, said lead researcher Dr. Kathleen Grant, who works at the Omaha VA Medical Center and the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
That’s troubling, she said, because addicts living in rural areas have less access to care — due to distance and transportation issues — than those living in cities.
“These people continue to slide into addiction and are not able to get the treatment they need,” said Dr. Jennifer Sharpe Potter, an opiate specialist at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass.
She said meth addiction is difficult to treat because there are few treatment options available, and often the options that work best are not available in rural areas. That points to what she calls a long-standing health problem that reaches beyond drug treatment: the availability of health care services in rural areas.
He recalls smoking his first joint at 12 and graduating to other drugs — PCP, acid, meth — about 17.
Schmidt said he’s been in rehab 19 times over the past 30 years, the first time when he was 19.
“I just figured I’d never quit doing drugs,” the north Omaha resident said, noting that he continued his habit during two stints in prison.
But things are changing for Schmidt. He’s graduated from the treatment program at Omaha VA Medical Center and attends six to seven recovery meetings a week. He credits those meetings and the people he meets there with his success so far.
“I know that if I called any one of them at any given time and said I’m thinking of using and I’m in a bad place, they’d be there for me,” said Schmidt, who’s been drug free for 18 months.
The recovering meth addict said he had to move from Fort Dodge, Iowa, to Omaha in order to get the help he needed to overcome a lifetime of drug and alcohol abuse. He left his wife and gave up seeing his father, who lives in a nursing home there.
“I changed my playground, playmates and playthings,” Schmidt said.
It was hard, but necessary to get over his addictions. His environment and a lack of recovery support were obstacles to staying clean, he said.
The part of Iowa where Schmidt was living had few treatment options and no meetings for recovering drug abusers. He said he tried once to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, but was asked to leave after he revealed he was a drug addict.
Experts say rural addicts typically have limited access to treatment facilities and health services, but that’s become even more unsettling in light of a new study comparing meth users living in rural areas with their urban counterparts.
The Nebraska-funded study compared addicts from a 20,000-square-mile region who sought help at the nearest treatment facility in Grand Island with those living near and seeking help in state’s two largest cities, Omaha and Lincoln. In all, 172 meth abusers were interviewed between July 2004 and July 2005.
The study showed that rural addicts began using meth at a younger age, were more likely to use the drug intravenously and were more likely to also be dependent on alcohol or cigarettes. They also exhibited more signs of psychosis than urban addicts — 45 percent vs. 29 percent, according to the study.
The findings, released in the March/April edition of The American Journal of Addictions, suggest rural addicts are at higher risk for medical and psychiatric problems, said lead researcher Dr. Kathleen Grant, who works at the Omaha VA Medical Center and the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
That’s troubling, she said, because addicts living in rural areas have less access to care — due to distance and transportation issues — than those living in cities.
“These people continue to slide into addiction and are not able to get the treatment they need,” said Dr. Jennifer Sharpe Potter, an opiate specialist at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass.
She said meth addiction is difficult to treat because there are few treatment options available, and often the options that work best are not available in rural areas. That points to what she calls a long-standing health problem that reaches beyond drug treatment: the availability of health care services in rural areas.
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