The Picture of Addiction

A physician mother shares her true story of learning about opioids in a rural community as she begins medical practice. This class of medications, highly desired for treatment of pain but resulting in addiction for many due to liberal prescribing, fuels an opioid epidemic. Following a reduction in legal opioid availability in her town, heroin arrives to fill the gap. The market for this illegal drug had already been created, leading to many more developing opioid use disorder. Her own son makes a single bad decision and is exposed to heroin. As a result of her experiences doing everything a mother can to keep her son alive, she is shocked by the stigma and lack of effective and affordable care for people with this disease. She discovers that the treatment with the best track record in helping people achieve recovery is a medication called buprenorphine. When emergency departments provide the first dose when a person with opioid use disorder is in withdrawal, then refer to out-patient clinics plus community programs to provide jobs and housing, people with this disease can recover. She initiated inductions with buprenorphine in her ER and demonstrates how easily this can be done in every hospital.