Op-Ed Making Addiction Treatment More Realistic And Pragmatic: The Perfect Should Not Be The Enemy Of The Good

[thegreenhand]

Making Addiction Treatment More Realistic And Pragmatic: The Perfect Should Not Be The Enemy Of The Good​

Nora D. Volkow
Health Affairs
03 Jan 2022

This month saw drug overdose deaths in the U.S. surpass an unthinkable milestone: 100,000 deaths in a year. This is the highest number of drug overdoses in our country’s history, and the numbers are climbing every month.

There is an urgent need for a nationwide, coordinated response that a tragedy of this magnitude demands. Recent data from 2020 shows that only 13 percent of people with drug use disorders receive any treatment. Only 11 percent of people with opioid use disorder receive one of the three safe and effective medications that could help them quit and stay in recovery.

The magnitude of this crisis demands out-of-the-box thinking and willingness to jettison old, unhelpful, and unsupported assumptions about what treatment and recovery need to look like. Among them is the traditional view that abstinence is the sole aim and only valid outcome of addiction treatment.

Read the full story here.

 

[thegreenhand]

I have a lot of qualms with Dr Volkow’s work in NIDA, however, I’m glad she put out a statement like this. Quick read, I recommend it