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Prioritizing Addiction Medicine: Key to Closing Gaps in Addiction Treatment
A new addiction medicine fellowship aims to expand the number of addiction specialists to close gaps in addiction treatment.
America’s opioid addiction problem began, in my opinion, over 30 years ago in what many consider an unlikely place: America’s medical schools. Prolonged anxiety, grief, isolation, and financial worries stemming from COVID-19 have only exacerbated an already growing problem.
There’s been a dramatic surge in opioid-related deaths during the past six months. In fact, just this month, the American Medical Association issued a statement citing rising cases of opioid-related mortality in more than 40 states, urging those governors and legislatures to take swift action to help curb the deadly tide.
Lack of training leads to over-medication
In four years of medical school plus a five-year surgical residency, I had no formal instruction in substance use or addiction. In fact, it was mostly treated as an annoyance-doctors were tasked to “deal with the junkie in Room 208.”
I found this ironic, considering that as surgeons, we were frequently the cause of a patient’s pain-the result of a procedure to treat their primary…
