The third day without food, in constant nausea and pain from withdrawal, was always the one she couldn’t get past.
Autumn Howard had tried more than once to get off heroin. But the withdrawal symptoms were too much to bear and she would relapse.
Nearly two years ago, she tried something new. Her father found a program in Union County where she could use the BRIDGE device meant to lessen or stop withdrawal symptoms after stopping opioid drugs, such as heroin or prescription pain medications.
Within an hour, she could eat and knew this time was different.
And Howard is still clean.
The device is being used in 200 programs in more than 30 states. Howard is one of 5,000 people who have tried it, including 12 in Greenwood. The device, which attaches to a patient’s ear, uses neuro-stimulation to reduce the effects of withdrawal. Multiple studies have shown that it works, said Brian Carrico, vice president of sales for Innovative Health Solutions that makes the device.
In Greenwood City Court, Judge Lew Gregory said the device has about a 50 percent success rate with getting people beyond withdrawal and onto a drug treatment program.
But the 12 people who have used it so far make up about 1 percent of all the people who could use it, Gregory said.
And that’s an issue the court wants to address, he said.
At the same time, officials also want to address the other issues leading people to go back to using again, he said.
The BRIDGE device works to significantly lessen withdrawal symptoms, but it doesn’t stop people from choosing to use again. The biggest factor that is causing people in the city’s court program to relapse is going back home to friends and family, who are often users as well, and falling back into old habits, Gregory said.
Now, officials want to look into housing options that could get users away from those situations and give them a better chance at staying clean, Gregory said.
And they want more people using the BRIDGE device to start that process, he said.
Currently, the Greenwood program, which is paid for with a grant, is only open to people referred to the program as part of their criminal case.
But the creators of the device, Versailles-based Innovative Health Solutions, are looking to expand the use of BRIDGE.
Late last year, the device got FDA approval to be used as a method to treat withdrawal symptoms. Next up, getting the treatment covered by Medicaid, Carrico said.
Multiple studies have been done, including a double-blind study where neither the participants nor the experimenters know who is receiving a particular treatment, and they have shown the device works nearly 100 percent of the time on opioid withdrawal symptoms and also significantly reduces cravings, Carrico said.
BRIDGE is being used in hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, detoxification centers, by doctors who treat addiction, county health departments and court programs. Most recently, the device is being used with pregnant mothers addicted to opiates in a program at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville to try to get them off drugs so their babies are not born addicted and has a 90 percent success rate, Carrico said.
The company is averaging 22 inquiries a week in Indiana alone, and the biggest hurdle people are facing is the cost, Carrico said.
"People can’t afford it, so if the state doesn’t pay for it, we are just leaving people out to dry and they don’t have an opportunity to get clean," he said.
The device costs $595 and typically an additional amount for a medical provider to implant it. But that is also a significant savings from the cost of inpatient treatment for detox and rehabilitation, which can easily cost thousands, he said.
BRIDGE allows patients to detox without waiting for an open bed in a center or facility, and studies have shown when the device is combined with drug treatment programs and counseling, the success rate is 70 percent, compared to 15 percent when someone is trying to quit on their own, Carrico said.
For Howard, getting into rehabilitation was too costly, and she was either too high from using or too sick from withdrawal to set it up, she said. In many cases, buying heroin was cheaper, she said.
"For someone who is on heroin, you don’t have money. The majority of people that are using are on the street," she said.
But when her father found the BRIDGE device, she was hopeful, while still skeptical since nothing had worked in the previous five years she had been using heroin.
"I had gotten to a point where I knew I needed help, I knew I needed away from it," Howard said. "I knew that’s not what I wanted out of life."
The day she got the device, she had been sober for 24 hours as required and had been vomiting and in severe pain, unable to even fill out paperwork.
Moments after the device was put on her ear, she felt well enough to eat. Her life changed after that day, and she became involved with her family again, no longer spending every waking moment trying to get and use heroin, she said.
Gregory knows the device works and wants to do more to get the word out, he said. Instead, people are being sentenced to probation as part of a drug-related case and then testing positive for drugs and being sent to jail, he said.
One of his goals is to try to address the opiate crisis without sending everyone to jail, which is consistently overcrowded, Gregory said. His hope is to continue to expand the BRIDGE program and build its success rate, he said.
He isn’t sure why more people aren’t signing up for the program in city court and using the device.
The issue isn’t cost, since the device and implantation are covered by a grant. And it isn’t the device itself, since it does work, he said.
"I think we are just working against a couple of very, very powerful obstacles. It is a huge issue," Gregory said.
"It’s evidence of the strength of what we are fighting."
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="<strong>ABOUT THE DEVICE</strong>" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Here is a look at the BRIDGE device:
<strong>What it does</strong>: Significantly reduces withdrawal symptoms and cravings for opioid drug users, including heroin and prescription pain medications.
<strong>How it works</strong>: The device is implanted on the back of the ear and uses neuro-stimulation, blocking pain signals from reaching the brain.
<strong>Cost</strong>: $595, plus cost of implantation
<strong>Who has it</strong>: The device is offered through a program in Greenwood City Court for people who are referred to it as part of their criminal case. The cost of the device and implantation is covered through a grant.
<strong>More information</strong>: For more information, visit <a href="https://i-h-s.com/">https://i-h-s.com/</a>
[sc:pullout-text-end]
