Topic: opioids

But the repair isn’t cheap, and the outcomes require some patience. And that’s why efforts often fail. America gives up too early. 

When he speaks, he reminds me of others I’ve known who come from families that fought and lost a battle with addictive disease.

It’s the basic unit of most drug-free approaches. What would happen if it could be incorporated into the OTP curriculum?

Nurses and doctors experience the same feelings about homeless alcoholics they see in the ER every Saturday night.

The larger issue is that most drug pricing is still market-driven, or as my endocrinologist puts it, “they charge whatever they can get away with charging.”

So if… the real problem at this late stage isn’t the lack of a plan but the absence of motivation to implement it– then what’s in the way?

He compares the patients he treats, who are often homeless, to “outcasts” and ‘lepers”, who have been “derided, despised, and marginalized.”

There’s no blood test, no scan to aid diagnosis. Knowing intellectually that one in ten will succumb is very little help; it has no practical value in terms of predicting an individual outcome.

I fear they’re regular Americans, like some of us, except for their twisted attitudes and beliefs about addiction.

That’s why I’d welcome more research into the tapering process, with an eye to improving success rates.