Vivek Murthy became the first surgeon general to address substance use disorder with a blunt report released Thursday that called addiction to drugs and alcohol a moral test for America.
The challenge, says Murthy, is acknowledging that addiction is a brain disease, not a character flaw, in a country where more than 20 million people have substance abuse problems.
“The surgeon general’s first-ever report presenting the state of the science on substance use, addiction and health,” says Dr. Craig Allen, Rushford‘s medical director, “emphasizes what we have been teaching for years: that addiction is a disease of the brain and should be treated as other chronic diseases, with evidence-based approaches and compassionate care.”
Because of the stigma associated with addiction, only a small percentage actually seek treatment, according to the report. Here are the numbers: One in seven Americans will likely develop substance use disorder during their lifetime, but only one in 10 will receive treatment.
“We can never forget that the faces of substance abuse disorders are real people,” Murthy wrote in a letter released with the report. “Are we able to live up to that most fundamental obligation we have as human beings: to care for one another?”
Despite the report’s passion, its effects are uncertain given that this comes so late in the Obama administration, which earlier this year received only $181 million in funding from Congress after requesting $1 billion to fight opioid abuse and the heroin epidemic crisis. In Connecticut, overdose deaths primarily involving heroin tripled from 2012 to 2014. Those numbers increased again from 325 to more than 400. Accidental drug-induced intoxication deaths that include other opioids such as oxycodone, Percocet, hydrocodone, Vicodin, fentanyl are expected to spike more than 20 percent in Connecticut this year.
The report recommends:
- Enhanced public education to improve awareness about substance use problems and demand for more effective policies and practices to address them.
- Widespread implementation of evidence-based prevention policies and programs to prevent substance misuse and related harms.
- Improved access to evidence-based treatment services, integrated with mainstream health care, for those at risk for or affected by substance use disorders.
- Recovery support services to assist people in maintaining remission and preventing relapse.
- Research-informed public policies and financing strategies to ensure that substance misuse and use disorder services are accessible, compassionate, efficient, and sustainable.
“This supports the work we have been doing in the Behavioral Health Network and Hartford HealthCare,” says Dr. Allen, “and will invigorate and drive collaboration, coordination and integration of substance abuse and behavioral health into all service lines.”