Drug and Alcohol Addiction, Costs and Lack of Care

October 22, 2012 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Treatment 

Interesting article in the Washington Post/ Kaiser Health News I stumbled across in our sidebar; it discusses both the cost of addiction, with emphasis given to drugs and alcohol, and the absolute dearth of doctors trained in addiction medicine.

The article states that

“Of the 985,375 practicing physicians in the United States, only about 1,200 are trained in addiction medicine….”

And notes that

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.’

Which is problematic, given that the report is said to have found that “Only about 10 percent of the 22 million Americans with a drug or alcohol problem receive treatment,” “addiction [including nicotine] is linked to more than 70 diseases or conditions and accounts for a third of inpatient hospital costs. The press release from the report, “Closing the Gap between Science and Practice,” also notes that “Costs to federal, state and local governments amount to 11 percent of total spending; 95 cents of every dollar pay for the consequences and only 2 cents go to prevention and treatment.”

And rather ominously, the WaPo/Kaiser Health News article reports that “The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration estimates that up to a third of the 30 million Americans who may gain health insurance under the Affordable Care Act have a substance abuse or mental health problem.”

There’s some math to be done here regarding costs, and I won’t suggest that I know what percentage the total spending should be for prevention- but I’ll guess that 2% for prevention and treatment is not ideal. And the thought that “most doctors fail to identify or diagnose substance abuse ‘or know what to do with patients who present with treatable symptoms,’” is less than comforting.

But, as someone with a rather large personal stake in all this- in recovery for nearly two decades- what is somewhat comforting is that if, as the report suggests, there is a gap between the science and practice (actually, the more you look, “chasm” seems more fitting a description), a closer look at the science shows some remarkable advances in medical science’s understanding of addiction-especially as it regards the  neurobiological processes, focus on the brain’s “reward circuitry,”  neuroadaptations maintained by former drug users long after drug use has stopped, with particular attention on the mesolimbic dopamine system, and, more generally, addiction as a disease of bio-psycho-social etiology.

Armed with this knowledge and the prospect of the newly insured and afflicted making their way to emergency rooms and court houses all across America, perhaps this next decade can be about implementation- always difficult, but surely the fruit of hard won knowledge. And if you have any doubts about the actual costs of drug and alcohol addiction- tallied in lives and families ruined- or to get a sense of just how important implementation is-I would highly recommend you find your way to an Al-Anon or Nar-Anon meeting, and just listen.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Drug and Alcohol Addiction, Costs and Lack of Care”
  1. Ruchama says:
    10/26/2012 at 1:57 pm

    As a retired woman with few resources trying to find a treatment program for a son in his 40′s who has an addiction issue and as a result has lost his family and his home, I am appalled to find how difficult it is to find a residential program that is accessible to anyone who is not extremely wealthy. My son’s father was involuntarily placed in such a program over 40 years ago as a result of a drunk driving charge. It enabled him to get sober and he remained sober for many years. I’d like to believe that society can provide such valuable preventive and treatment options for those who, like my son, have a genetic predisposition to addiction without waiting until a crime has been committed. Sadly, it seems not so

  2. Alcohol Addiction Treatment says:
    11/20/2012 at 11:27 pm

    I think these programs are really necessary, they motivate people to stop doing things which are not good publically, at home and even at work place. I think there should be free seminar for such programs.

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