By Sandra G. Boodman
They are seen every day in doctors' offices, outpatient clinics and hospital emergency rooms: men in their 50s with bleeding ulcers; young adults pulled from car crashes; middle-aged women fighting a losing battle against chronic pain.
As dissimilar as they seem, many of these patients are also suffering from another illness -- alcohol or drug abuse -- that is at the root of the more obvious ailments that keep them cycling through the medical system. Even so, their addiction is rarely addressed by doctors.
A recent comprehensive report by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University found that most doctors fail to identify or diagnose substance abuse "or know what to do with patients who present with treatable symptoms."
Only about 10 percent of the 22 million Americans with a drug or alcohol problem receive treatment, the report found. After including 18 million other people whose only addiction is to nicotine, it estimated that 40 million Americans are addicted to one or more substances. And although effective treatments exist, "the vast majority of people in need of addiction treatment do not receive anything that approximates evidence-based care," researchers concluded.
Despite its prevalence and impact -- addiction is linked to more than 70 diseases or conditions and accounts for a third of inpatient hospital costs, according to CASA -- the subject is rarely taught in medical school or residency training. Of the 985,375 practicing physicians in the United States, only about 1,200 are trained in addiction medicine, a scarcity of skills that poses a "formidable barrier" for patients, CASA concluded.
A new training program underway at 10 academic medical centers around the country, including the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, seeks to address this acute shortage by offering one- and two-year residencies in addiction medicine to physicians who have finished training in another specialty, such as family practice or internal medicine.
Continue Reading: washingtonpost.com
They are seen every day in doctors' offices, outpatient clinics and hospital emergency rooms: men in their 50s with bleeding ulcers; young adults pulled from car crashes; middle-aged women fighting a losing battle against chronic pain.
As dissimilar as they seem, many of these patients are also suffering from another illness -- alcohol or drug abuse -- that is at the root of the more obvious ailments that keep them cycling through the medical system. Even so, their addiction is rarely addressed by doctors.
A recent comprehensive report by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University found that most doctors fail to identify or diagnose substance abuse "or know what to do with patients who present with treatable symptoms."
Only about 10 percent of the 22 million Americans with a drug or alcohol problem receive treatment, the report found. After including 18 million other people whose only addiction is to nicotine, it estimated that 40 million Americans are addicted to one or more substances. And although effective treatments exist, "the vast majority of people in need of addiction treatment do not receive anything that approximates evidence-based care," researchers concluded.
Despite its prevalence and impact -- addiction is linked to more than 70 diseases or conditions and accounts for a third of inpatient hospital costs, according to CASA -- the subject is rarely taught in medical school or residency training. Of the 985,375 practicing physicians in the United States, only about 1,200 are trained in addiction medicine, a scarcity of skills that poses a "formidable barrier" for patients, CASA concluded.
A new training program underway at 10 academic medical centers around the country, including the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, seeks to address this acute shortage by offering one- and two-year residencies in addiction medicine to physicians who have finished training in another specialty, such as family practice or internal medicine.
Continue Reading: washingtonpost.com
Leave a comment