Taking a Holistic Approach to Treating Opioid Addiction

Opioid overdoses led to more than 33,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2015—an average of 91 per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control. That national death toll is the “equivalent to America enduring another 9/11 attack every two-and-a-half weeks,” says New Jersey governor Chris...

Treatment Recommendations for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Lessons from Neuroimaging

This paper reviews current treatment recommendations for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We focus in particular on therapeutic interventions and how neuroimaging studies have informed treatment options. PTSD can develop after exposure to potentially traumatic events such as assault,...

Through Health Care System Integration

In many communities, harm reduction programs have helped prevent overdoses, lower HIV risk and hepatitis transmission and open the door to treatment for substance users. Originally started in the late 1980s, harm reduction approaches introduced syringe exchange initiatives with the goal of reducing...

A Human Right Still Unmet: Medical Treatment of Mentally Ill Prisoners

Individuals with mental illness have the right to receive appropriate medical treatment in correctional settings and upon release. It sounds perfectly reasonable, but unfortunately, is far from reality. That was the consensus of a distinguished panel of mental health and legal experts who recently...

Address Comorbidities with Tech-Supported Approaches to Integrated Care

Consider this common scenario: Trying to assess a high-need patient with diabetes, a care coordinator with access only to the patient’s physical health record is unaware of her history of depression. Conversely, a behavioral care coordinator reviewing her depression charts, may be unable to...

Housing People with Serious Mental Illness in Jails and Prisons: Why Are We Still Criminalizing Mental Illness?

Lack of appropriate access to mental health care for the seriously mentally ill in the U.S. is a critical issue. Such lack of access can lead to significant, adverse living outcomes for individuals living with mental illness, including homelessness and incarceration. It is a disturbing fact that...

Treating Vulnerable, Mentally Ill Patients Who Are Navigating the U.S. Criminal Justice System

It is an alarming statistic that more people with serious mental illness are housed in America’s jails than in the nation’s hospitals (Torrey, E. F., Kennard, A. D., Eslinger, D., et al. 2010. More mentally ill persons are in jails and prisons than hospitals: a survey of the states....