MASAM - Massachusetts Society of Addiction Medicine
860 Winter Street
Waltham, MA 02451
masam
MASAM
October 22, 2019
MASAM's president, Dr. Peter Friedmann, offered testimony on his behalf and MASAM's before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary in support of House and Senate bills H.1343 & S.937 "An Act Relative to Treatment, Not Imprisonment". A copy of Dr. Friedmann's testimony is available here.
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MASAM has been active in supporting inclusion of language in various state bills that would mandate evidence-based treatment of OUD for adults incarcerated in the Commonwealth. We include a letter from the Association for Behavioral Healthcare that nicely summarizes the issues. In which bill we ultimately succeed in promoting humane and effective care is not predictable currently.
Letter to HCF Chairs re MAT in CARE Act 5.15.18 (click here)
ASAM Weekly news
Below you'll find ASAM's Weekly news lead stories (2020)
2020
June 30, 2020
The Difficulty Of Counting the COVID-19 Pandemic’s Full Death Toll
In the U.S., COVID-19 is a “notifiable disease”, yet experts are certain that a lack of widespread testing, variations in how cause of death is recorded, and the virus’ economic and social disruption are hiding the full extent of the pandemic’s death toll. Therefore, researchers track what are known as “excess” deaths. In April, the number of deaths in the U.S. was running about 12% higher than the average from 2014 through 2019.
Time >>>
June 23, 2020
Industry Voices – Incarcerated People Need Health Coverage to Help Stop Drug Overdose – and Stem COVID-19 Spread
When addiction and incarceration intersect, the health risks skyrocket. Recent events have exposed long-standing institutional and structural inequities in the United States, underscoring the urgent need for systemic policy changes that address these disparities.
June 16, 2020
Researcher Face Hurdles in Examining COVID-19 Racial Disparities
As the country reels from days of unrest in major U.S. cities as Americans protest police brutality and racial inequality, researchers are working toward quantifying the disproportionate impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on minority communities. What they are finding is that preexisting racial disparities in the United States contribute to more coronavirus-related deaths among minority groups while also making it difficult to quantify the differences.
June 9, 2020
“We Were Already in an Epidemic”: How Coronavirus has Impacted Addiction Recovery in SC
Those leading addiction recovery efforts in Horry County and South Carolina report increases in relapses since COVID-19 restrictions were put into place, and they worry about the long-term impact as associated stress and anxiety pushes more people toward substance abuse issues.
June 2, 2020
When Coronavirus Pandemic Passes, We'll Still Face the Opioid Epidemic
The novel coronavirus has eclipsed another American crisis, deadlier and much longer in the making: the scourge of opioid addiction. And for those in recovery, the pandemic and the lockdowns are especially dangerous.
May 26, 2020
Changes In Opioid Supply Create New Risks As Stay-At-Home Rules Ease
There is no national data yet on the pandemic's impact on drug supply and overdose rates in the United States, but experts in addiction and law enforcement say availability and prices of illegal drugs have changed in different areas of the country. And as drug users adjust to new patterns of use, that's creating a patchwork of new overdose risk as well.
May 19, 2020
75,000 Americans at Risk of Dying from Overdose or Suicide Due to Coronavirus Despair, Group Warns
As many as 75,000 Americans could die because of drug or alcohol misuse and suicide as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to an analysis conducted by the national public health group Well Being Trust.
CNN>>>
May 12, 2020
The Coronavirus Pandemic is Pushing America into a Mental Health Crisis
Just as the initial outbreak of the novel coronavirus caught hospitals unprepared, the United States’ mental-health system — vastly underfunded, fragmented, and difficult to access before the pandemic — is even less prepared to handle this coming surge.
May 5, 2020
Economic Recovery From Pandemic Requires Investment in Recovery of a Different Kind
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, congress has passed legislation, and the administration and state governments have changed regulations at record speed to infuse our economy with money and to support many parts of our health care system. We need a similar sense of urgency when it comes to responding to the mental health and addiction ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic and to ensuring that we have a healthy workforce after this pandemic passes.
April 28, 2020
Treating Substance Use Disorders in the Era of COVID-19
The novel coronavirus, COVID-19, has been wreaking havoc on a global scale. Every aspect of society has been impacted by what is projected to be the largest mass casualty event in American history and there are several things we should be doing to help those with addiction. A recent opinion piece published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, outlined the urgent need for streamlined access to treatment.
Annals of Internal Medicine>>>
April 21, 2020
Virus Forebodes a Mental Health Crisis
Mounting economic pressures and health concerns coupled with social isolation during the COVID-19 public health emergency have led to a rise in individuals seeking mental health care and increased use of drugs and alcohol. Experts and advocacy groups are calling for more funding in preparation of the increased needs of mental health and addiction treatments.
April 14, 2020
Virus Pandemic, Opioid Epidemic Collide Around Social Distancing
The physical distancing needed to mitigate the worst pandemic in more than a century could exacerbate the opioid epidemic and other public health emergencies that continue to loom in the face of Covid-19. Before this pandemic, the nation was already grappling with an opioid crisis, rising rates of methamphetamine use, and a surge in teenage vaping. Those haven’t gone away.
April 7, 2020
Coronavirus Could Worsen Ohio’s Opioid Crisis
Before COVID-19 started spreading across the U.S, Ohio was handling a separate health emergency: opioid addiction. Opioid-treatment programs are considered essential public facilities and will be allowed to stay open during the statewide stay-at-home order, but experts are worried the coronavirus outbreak could exacerbate the opioid epidemic, possibly leading to more overdoses.
March 31, 2020
We Can’t Leave Those with Mental Illness, Addiction Disorders Behind
By now, most people are aware of a novel coronavirus, COVID-19, that is wreaking public health havoc on a global scale. Many individuals with SUD have chronic illnesses which are risk factors for developing a COVID-19 infection as well as other challenges such as decreased access to health care, unstable housing and increased risk of arrest and incarceration. There are things we can do to help individuals in recovery during this crisis.
March 17, 2020
Alcoholics Anonymous and Other 12‐Step Programs For Alcohol Use Disorder
This review summarized research comparing the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and similar Twelve‐Step Facilitation (TSF) programs (AA/TSF) to other treatments to see if they help people with drinking problems to stay sober or reduce alcohol consumption and drinking‐related consequences. Manualized AA/TSF interventions usually produced higher rates of continuous abstinence than the other established treatments investigated and non‐manualized AA/TSF performed as well as other established treatments. AA/TSF will probably produce substantial healthcare cost savings while simultaneously improving alcohol abstinence.
March 10, 2020
The Death Toll of the Opioid Epidemic is Higher than Originally Thought, Researchers Say
A substantial share of fatal drug overdoses is missing information on specific drug involvement, leading to under‐reporting of opioid‐related death rates and a misrepresentation of the extent of the opioid epidemic. A new study in the journal Addiction compared different methodological approaches to predicting rates of opioid involvement in unclassified drug overdoses, which account for approximately one-fifth of all drug overdose deaths. Based on the predictive models used in this study, 71.8% of unclassified drug overdoses in 1999–2016 involved opioids, translating into 99,160 additional opioid‐related deaths, or approximately 28% more than reported.
March 3, 2020
Trends in Alcohol-Induced Deaths in the United States, 2000-2016
In this serial cross-sectional study using US mortality data from 2000 to 2016, large increases in alcohol-induced mortality among both men and women were observed. Despite initial decreases among some groups, significant increases in mortality were observed among all racial/ethnic groups in the years 2013 to 2016. The prevalence of alcohol use and recent acceleration in deaths presents a broad public health challenge worthy of urgent attention.
February 25, 2020
Meth Is Flooding the Streets – and It's Uglier Than Ever
The 23 drug task forces funded through the Ohio High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area agency saw a 1,600% jump in meth seized from 2015 to 2019. This is becoming a problem for systems that have only recently adjusted to the opioid epidemic as any methamphetamine users transitioned from opioids but there are currently fewer treatment options available.
February 18, 2020
Police Offering Drug Recovery Help: “We Can't Arrest Our Way Out of This Problem”
For many individuals with addiction, a call to the police — for a nonfatal overdose or a drug-related crime such as theft — may be the first time they get on the radar of any authority, which could be an opportunity to help. Some towns in Massachusetts have developed a partnership between police and public health — known as the Drug Addiction Recovery Team (DART) which uses encounters with law enforcement as the first step to offering services
NPR>>>
February 11, 2020
Mental Health and Addiction Providers for Medicaid Patients Go Unpaid in Maryland
Doctors and others who provide mental health and addiction services in Maryland under the Medicaid program have had millions of dollars in bills go unpaid this year because a new state payment system is malfunctioning, which some providers say could jeopardize care during the ongoing drug overdose crisis.
February 4, 2020
Surgeon General Releases First Report Focused on Smoking Cessation in 30 Years
Three decades after the first Surgeon General's report on smoking cessation, the Surgeon General is releasing a new report that reviews and updates evidence on the importance of quitting smoking. The report outlines the latest research on treatments including counseling and medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and discusses emerging strategies to further promote smoking cessation.
US Department of Health & Human Services >>>
January 28, 2020
Treating Addiction as a Terminal Disease
Ms. A already had a long history of opioid use and failed attempts at treatment when she ended up in the hospital with sepsis and her first episode of endocarditis. Initially, she was not a candidate for surgery but things slowly improved - until she refused treatment. In this perspective, the author discusses the bioethical concerns of capacity, addiction, terminal illness, and the inevitable result of treating addiction as a disease in a system that is not equipped to do so successfully
New England Journal of Medicine >>>
January 21, 2020
Substance Use Disorders in Older Adults: A Growing Threat
In 2020, substance use disorders among adults over age 50 will increase to 5.7 million, up from 2.8 million in 2006. A major hurdle across the care spectrum is that substance use disorder in older adults remains a hidden problem because of lack of screening in primary care and few guidelines for assessing older adults at risk
January 14, 2020
Talk About the Severe Shortage of Addiction-treatment Doctors | Opinion
(Op-ed by ASAM’s Dr. Scott Teitelbaum)
Florida is a national leader when it comes to beautiful beaches, citrus production and ... drug overdose deaths. The Sunshine State, like the United States as a whole, during of a crisis. In 2018 alone, provisional data indicate there were 4,936 overdose deaths in Florida from drugs including heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine.
TCPalm>>>
January 8, 2020
Cannabis-related psychosis, Let's addiction, ER visits: For young users, marijuana can be a dangerous game
Marijuana, legal for medical uses in well over half the states in the country and as a recreational substance in even more states, is generating increasing concern as a drug capable of serious impairment and harm, particularly among its youngest users. The potency of today’s cannabis products can range up to 90% and the impact on developing brains is of great concern for medical experts.
The Philadelphia Inquirer >>>
2019
ASAM Weekly news 2019 (lead stories)
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Copyright 2009-2019
MASAM- Massachusetts Society of Addiction Medicine.
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MASAM - Massachusetts Society of Addiction Medicine
860 Winter Street
Waltham, MA 02451
masam