Doctors and Addiction

Doctors, especially family physicians, can be vital catalysts when it comes to convincing those who need it to seek treatment for an addiction problem. The doctor has authority, so when a patient hears that physical complications will develop if they continue to drink heavily or use this drug or that drug, the patient is more likely to listen than if a lay person says something about their drinking or drug use. This is from a Washington Post article a few years back:

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.

I’m finding more physicians know about addiction and are willing to treat it, but there is still a lot that can be done to address the fundamental problem of addiction. I would like to see more cooperation between addiction treatment providers and the medical community. If doctors don’t feel comfortable evaluating for an addiction problem,  physicians could call on local addiction counselors to assess patients the doctor believes have a problem with alcohol or other drugs. Conversely, addiction treatment providers can coordinate better with family physicians, bringing the physician into the long term recovery management plan for clients being discharged from treatment centers. If addiction treatment providers and family physicians work together it can only improve treatment outcomes.