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Launch HN: Ophelia (YC W20) – At-home recovery for opioid addiction

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Re: Launch HN: Ophelia (YC W20) – At-home recovery for opioid addiction

#31

Post by therealx »

ryneandal wrote: post #16
gavinray wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is entirely anecdotal, but I know six people who've quit either heroin or prescription/illicit oxycodone usage via Kratom. The only real problem to Kratom is that there is no standardization to potency or means of labeling. The percentage content of the active alkaloids in Kratom (Mitragynine and 7-Hydroxy-Mitragynine) can vary widely, with the stuff sold in gas stations and smoke shops being particularly low-po…

I second your anecdotes, it's been great within my friend group, especially with a few that were returning from deployment with injury and oxy prescriptions. The withdrawal-type symptoms are something I've also nothing I've experienced, I'm sure it's entirely psychological. The industry is beginning to mature, with online vendors actively getting their batches tested before sales. Seeing % alkaline contents is a very…

It's not purely psychological, especially when you get into extracts or higher potency items, but it is very minimal comparatively.

Re: Launch HN: Ophelia (YC W20) – At-home recovery for opioid addiction

#32

Post by mattangriffel »

irscott wrote: post #29

Which medication(s) are you using? My personal experience with both Suboxone and methadone were absolutely horrible and made my getting clean 10x worse.

We're primarily focused on medication-assisted treatment with Suboxone. Sorry to hear about your experience irscott, it's certainly not the right solution for everyone.

Re: Launch HN: Ophelia (YC W20) – At-home recovery for opioid addiction

#33

Post by ZackGray »

orangefarm wrote: post #17

I’ve got nothing useful to add except saying that I find it inspiring that you were able to turn a personal loss into entrepreneurial energy for positive change. Good luck to you guys. I’m certain that your endeavors would make her proud.

I really appreciate that - and it's useful to me! Thank you.

Re: Launch HN: Ophelia (YC W20) – At-home recovery for opioid addiction

#35

Post by ZackGray »

Barrin92 wrote: post #28

>There's a problem, though: we're restricted by regulations from letting people know that this treatment is available. On this, do you have yourself published research on how effective your particular application of this treatment is, how many patients stick with it, or anything else along those lines?

This is a great question. Our medical directors have published a lot of research on this protocol (MAT). If you're interested, I recommend this book by Dr. Bisaga: https://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Opioid-Addiction-Authorita...

More generally: MAT is very well researched, vetted, and accepted by the medical community. Our innovation is in the delivery of this treatment, through ways that make it easier to opt into and stick with. MAT has historical adherence rates of 60-70% (same as diabetes and depression), but often people drop out because they grow tired of visiting a clinic regularly for group therapy, just to get their medication refilled. We think we can increase adherence rates by making MAT less of a burden to people, particularly as they enter into the later stages of treatment.

Re: Launch HN: Ophelia (YC W20) – At-home recovery for opioid addiction

#37

Post by ZackGray »

davecyen wrote: post #22

Sorry to hear about the loss of your girlfriend. This is an amazing way to honor her life, and important work you're doing to help solve a painful problem for millions of people. I've lost a family member to this disease, and have friends who have as well. I'm going to share this with someone I know who is also battling opioid addiction today. Thank you for building this.

I'm so sorry to hear that, but I really appreciate your words of support, and I hope whoever you know who is struggling is doing OK. The biggest barrier to accessing treatment is just the lack of awareness that it exists. Please reach out if you want to chat or want more information as they consider options.

Re: Launch HN: Ophelia (YC W20) – At-home recovery for opioid addiction

#38

Post by mattangriffel »

staticautomatic wrote: post #27

It's not clear from your post what you're implying when you say you're restricted by regulations. Are you saying they are regulations you're unable to comply with? Why? It's also not clear what the relationship is, if any, between those regulations and third-party certification. Likewise, is third-party certification something you're unable to comply with? Why?

Oof, where to begin. There are regulations around what states we're allowed to operate in, what kinds of clinicians are able to see patients, how we have to treat patient data, and what the clinical protocols have to look like.

In terms of regulations restricting what we can say publicly, besides FDA regulations around medical claims we're allowed to make, our biggest obstacle is that many of the common channels available to startups for building awareness are restricted or blocked entirely. Facebook and Google, for example, both require LegitScript (https://legitscript.com/) certification. We're in the process of going through that and it may take several months. That's also a requirement for us to be able to do payment processing through services like Stripe, since we qualify as a "high-risk business" since we do both telemedicine and addiction-recovery services.

But even when we do have those certifications, Google, Facebook, Reddit, and many other sites have a blanket ban against targeting users who are part of addiction and addiction-recovery groups.

It's not that we can't comply with any of these regulations (and in fact, we're working on many of them as we speak), but many of them are really onerous and time consuming for a startup given the stage that we're at.

Re: Launch HN: Ophelia (YC W20) – At-home recovery for opioid addiction

#39

Post by Cyberdog »

> There's a problem, though: we're restricted by regulations from letting people know that this treatment is available. Both Facebook and Google require a third-party certification before allowing us to use their platforms, and many sites like Reddit don't allow any advertising for addiction treatment at all.

When you say "regulations" here, do you mean government law, or just the rules of online services as in your examples?

To advertise to addicts, go where the addicts are; bulletin boards in halfway houses, homeless shelters, probation/parole offices, and clinics that offer court-mandated treatment programs. Granted, these are the places where the most down-on-their-luck addicts will be, but perhaps they will be more open to change than the "successful" ones. That said, you might have some luck targeting those types on web forums for drug addicts and experimenters - some of these use their own in-house ad systems rather than something like AdSense for obvious reasons.

(If it sounds like I might know some things about where you can find drug addicts… well…)

I wish you nothing but the best of luck with your project.

Re: Launch HN: Ophelia (YC W20) – At-home recovery for opioid addiction

#40

Post by tonydiv »

Hi, Tony here, Flower Co W19

I'm really keen on what you're working on. It's fantastic. I am a big believer in what you're doing.

I have some marketing ideas for you. I work in cannabis so I face all these same challenges of closed tech platforms.

Email is in profile, let's talk

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