9781422274323

Alison hopes to regain control over her life, but she’s still in the process of recovery. She’s part of a Physician Health Program (PHP) that’s offered by the majority of US states. PHPs provide some of the best drug treatment available. The kind of long-term treatment that Alison benefited from is too expensive or unavailable to most people who are addicted to opioids. About 100 people a day die from opioids, according to STAT, the health website affiliated with the Boston Globe . Opioid overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans under age fifty. STAT surveyed health policy experts at ten leading universities, who predicted that the opioid epidemic will get worse before it improves, and that it could lead to the deaths of up to 500,000 Americans over the next ten years. The kind of treatment Alison received is needed by millions of Americans, but it may be too expensive to provide. Who Is Most At-Risk of Opioid Addiction? Most people are aware of the dangers of street drugs like heroin. Prescription opioids and street heroin are all very similar drugs with different ways that they are manufactured and taken. These drugs are called “opioids” because they all produce similar effects as the original opioid, the juice of the opium poppy. According to the Centers for Disease Control, taking prescription opioids for longer periods of time or higher doses increases the risk of addiction, also called opioid use disorder. Prescription opioid use is also a risk factor for the use of street drugs like heroin, which can also be mixed with extremely strong, dangerous opioids like fentanyl. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reported that 75 percent of people who received treatment for heroin addiction in the 2000s started

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Who Needs Treatment For Opioid Addiction?