MASAM - Massachusetts Society of Addiction Medicine
860 Winter Street
Waltham, MA 02451
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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
November 17, 2020
Substance Use Disorders and Addiction: Mechanisms, Trends, and Treatment Implications
The current issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry focuses on the understanding of factors contributing to substance use disorders and their comorbidity with psychiatric disorders, the effects of prenatal alcohol use on preadolescents, and brain mechanisms that are associated with addiction and relapse. An important theme that emerges from this issue is the necessity for understanding maladaptive substance use and its treatment in relation to health care inequities. This highlights the imperative to focus resources and treatment efforts on underprivileged and marginalized populations.
The American Journal of Psychiatry >>>
November 10, 2020
How Addiction Treatment Prepared One Woman To Face The Pandemic Head On
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Barbara Allen’s life became more complicated overnight. Allen is an essential worker where she cares for people who have disabilities and live in group homes. Then schools closed and she was forced to navigate virtual learning with seven children at home. To face these challenges, she used the skills and supportive community she built while in recovery.
NPR>>>
October 27, 2020
America is Still in the Middle of an Opioid Epidemic. Why Did We Stop Talking About It?
Over the past few years, opioids have become a political battleground. Unfortunately, when addiction mixes with politics, we forget there are real people struggling, and that has fatal consequences. Jeff Wahlberg reflects on his personal experiences with addiction and the impact for those currently struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
October 20, 2020
Increase in Drug Overdose Deaths Involving Cocaine: United States, 2009–2018
Deaths from drug overdose continue to contribute to mortality in the United States. The rate of drug overdose deaths involving cocaine has nearly tripled in recent years. This Data Brief provides additional information on drug overdose deaths involving cocaine by examining trends in rates by sex, age group, race and Hispanic origin, and by concurrent involvement of opioids from 2009 through 2018.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention >>>
October 13, 2020
Pointers From Portugal on Addiction and the Drug War
Many people point to Portugal as an example for the United States to emulate in dealing with illicit drugs. but Portugal’s experience is often misunderstood. A lot of the benefits over the years from Portugal’s policy shift have come not from decriminalization but in the expansion of substance-use disorder treatment.
October 6, 2020
Governor Newsom Signs a Law to Grow Mental Health Coverage
Given the challenges of safely delivering addiction medicine treatment within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ASAM Weekly would like to highlight this important resource developed and recently updated by the ASAM Caring for Patients During the COVID-19 (CPDC) Task Force. Our readers will find much valuable information for themselves and the community.
September 29, 2020
ASAM COVID-19 Guidance and Resource: Update
Given the challenges of safely delivering addiction medicine treatment within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ASAM Weekly would like to highlight this important resource developed and recently updated by the ASAM Caring for Patients During the COVID-19 (CPDC) Task Force. Our readers will find much valuable information for themselves and the community.
September 22, 2020
COVID-19 is Destroying the Rehab Industry
At the beginning of 2020, addiction treatment was a solid, growing industry, with 15,000 providers, $42 billion yearly revenue, and a projected 5.2% annual growth. Then Covid-19 hit.
By the summer, the industry had lost $4 billion in revenue, and about 1,000 providers—and that’s just the beginning.
September 15, 2020
Risk of Suicide, Unintentional Death Soar after Nonfatal Overdose
Emergency department patients who survive an opioid overdose are 100 times more likely to die of an unintentional overdose and 18 times more likely to die of suicide within a year than patients who visit the emergency department for other reasons, a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine has found. The study also revealed that patients who survive an overdose of sedative or hypnotic drugs such as barbiturates or benzodiazepines are nearly 25 times more likely to die of unintentional overdose and nine times more likely to die of suicide within a year compared with their peers in the general population.
September 8, 2020
Narcan Must Become as Commonplace as CPR
While the world continues to navigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, our other epidemic hasn’t gone away: The rate of opioid overdoses, already a national nightmare, has accelerated since the onset of COVID-19. It’s time to end this continuing tragedy and Dr. Calarco advocates for making narcan as common as CPR.
September 1, 2020
'A Pandemic Upon an Epidemic.' Syringe Services Struggle to Provide Care to Those Battling Drug Addiction Amid COVID-19
Americans who struggle with drug addiction have turned to syringe services programs (SSPs) for decades—not only to exchange used needles for clean ones but also as a first step towards treatment. But the coronavirus pandemic has made it more difficult for participants to get clean needles as sites shut down or reduce their operating hours. SSPs also provide human connectedness that is important for supporting recovery.
August 25, 2020
Multiple States Seeking $26.4 Billion From Drug Companies Over Opioid Crisis: Report
Multiple states are seeking a combined $26.4 billion from three major drug distributors and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson to help pay for damages brought on by addiction to opioid drugs manufactured and sold by the companies
August 18, 2020
Mental Health, Substance Use, and Suicidal Ideation During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, June 24–30, 2020
According to a recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. adults reported considerably elevated adverse mental health conditions associated with COVID-19. Younger adults, racial/ethnic minorities, essential workers, and unpaid adult caregivers reported having experienced disproportionately worse mental health outcomes, increased substance use, and elevated suicidal ideation.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention >>>
August 11, 2020
States Scramble To Deal With The Compounding Covid and Opioid Epidemic
Since the coronavirus pandemic began, experts have feared that the opioid crisis would get worse and early data shows their fears are justified. Recent research is showing that accessing addiction treatment is also becoming more difficult for Americans to access. As a result, experts are now calling for governors and state legislators to take action to counteract the effects of the “collision of epidemics”.
August 4, 2020
Understanding the Final Rule for 42 CFR Part 2 and Next Steps
Starting on August 14, 2020, a new final rule will go into effect, updating the regulations administering the confidentiality of substance use disorder patient records known as 42 CFR Part 2 (Part 2). conforming to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act can be promulgated. Join the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP), American Psychiatric Association (APA), and American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) for a webinar to learn about the transitional final regulation released and provisions included in CARES Act to further modernize and align Part 2 with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
July 28, 2020
FDA Calls for Removal of Puff Bars, a Type of Fruity, Disposable Vape
U.S. health officials are cracking down on a brand of fruity disposable e-cigarettes that is popular with teenagers, saying the company never received permission to sell them in the U.S. The Food and Drug Administration sent a letter Monday telling the company to remove Puff Bar e-cigarettes from the market within 15 business days, including flavors like mango, pink lemonade, and strawberry. The agency sent warning letters to nine other companies either selling similarly unauthorized e-cigarettes or nicotine solutions that illegally appeal to children.
July 21, 2020
Should We Be Drinking Less?
For many years, the federal government’s influential dietary guidelines implied there was evidence that moderate drinking could lower the risk of heart disease and reduce mortality. But now a committee of scientists that is helping to update the latest edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans is taking a harder stance on alcohol. Britain, Australia, France, and other countries have already issued new guidelines lowering their recommended limits on daily and weekly alcohol intake.
July 14, 2020
Bill Could Make Remote Addiction Treatment Permanent
U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) introduced the Telehealth Response for E-prescribing Addiction Therapy Services (TREATS) Act to support the expansion of telehealth services for substance use disorder treatment. The bill would build upon the Trump Administration’s action to waive regulatory restrictions for accessing care in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the temporary waivers let patients continue their treatments and counseling virtually, they are time limited and will expire at the conclusion of the public health emergency.
July 7, 2020
Coronavirus Cases Trickle into Addiction Treatment Centers; Some Workers Worry
While many addiction treatment centers have developed protocols requiring face masks, temperature checks, testing and isolation of new clients, as well as the use of virtual meetings whenever possible and practical, some facilities apparently aren’t making the same effort. State-licensed and certified addiction treatment facilities in California have reported 89 COVID-19 cases at 55 different sites, according to data from the Department of Health Care Services. The names of all facilities reporting cases are now online and regularly updated.
The Orange County Register>>>
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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This final rule will serve as an interim and transitional standard until regulations
and American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) for a webinar
Copyright 2009-2019
MASAM- Massachusetts Society of Addiction Medicine.
All rights reserved.
MASAM - Massachusetts Society of Addiction Medicine
860 Winter Street
Waltham, MA 02451
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