Youths recover from addiction at Boston Children's Hospital

(NECN: Latoyia Edwards) – It’s a sad reality for many New England families: children abusing drugs and alcohol. There are lots of programs out there to help adult addiction. But Boston Children’s Hospital has one of the few crated solely for young people. In tonight’s cover story, Latoyia Edwards introduces a young addict undergoing treatment. If you passed Gaby on the street you might assume she was your average girl next door. Starting at age 11, Gaby abused alcohol, prescription drugs, and heroine. After nearly two dozen stints in some form of rehab Gaby’s road toward recovery has led her to Children’s Hospital Boston. Gaby took her first drink as a 7th grader at the prestigious Boston Latin school to cope with high expectations. By 10th grade she’d dropped out– and by 18 she was shooting heroin into her veins. Heroin is part of the opiate class of drugs. Opiates overpower an addicts brain chemistry- making it extremely hard to quit. Gaby was not only addicted to heroine– she is one of the few people in the country allergic to it. A year ago a friend told Gaby about to the adolescent substance abuse program at Children’s Hospital Boston. One of the few treatment centers in the area solely focused on the special needs of substance abuses as young as 13 years old. Children’s Hospital Boston doctors put Gaby on an opioid replacement therapy called suboxone- it controls Gaby’s heroine cravings and appeases her chemically altered brain receptors. Gaby stayed clean for 7 months on suboxone– but because the medicine is partially an opiate– Gaby was allergic to it. Medical complications forced her to stop therapy she tried to kick her heroine habit could turkey. Anxious to help Gaby– Children’s Hospital Boston doctors performed a rare treatment called desensitization. It miraculously suppressed Gaby’s allergic reaction. She was soon back on opioid therapy– and again on her way to being drug free The adolescent substance abuse program provides young patients with an extensive evaluation, customized addiction treatment plan, plus individual and group counseling for the patient and her family. Gaby is 21, attending college. And for the first time she’s dreaming of a future without drug addiction. The ASAP program leader says without opioid replacement therapy- 95 percent of the abusers return to using heroine or other opiates. It usually takes young patients up to 3 years to wean themselves off of the treatment without relapsing.