Methadone Offers Hope, Not Harm

• By: Michael Coburn, MD AdCare Rhode Island
• May 7th, 2025
• addiction recovery, harm reduction, medication-assisted treatment, methadone clinics, methadone treatment, opioid crisis, opioid use disorder, overdose prevention, public health policy, stigma reduction
• 1841    0

For more than a decade, I’ve been caring for patients who struggle with opioid addiction and have seen firsthand the devastating toll it takes on their lives. For many, medications for addiction treatment, including methadone, have given them their lives back. Yet, I see time and again the...

Pain and Its Impact on the Opioid Epidemic

• By: Michael B. Friedman, LMSW Columbia University School of Social Work
• April 16th, 2020
• addiction prevention, healthcare funding, opioid epidemic, overdose reversal, pain management, prescription opioids, public health policy, substance use disorder
• 1313    0

In several past articles on the opioid epidemic in America, I have complained that the problem of severe, chronic pain has been overlooked as a contributing factor. It appears that that is no longer true. For example, a very recent report by the National Academies of Science to the Food and Drug...

The Opioid Epidemic: Expanding Access to Medicated Assisted Treatment

• By: Ellen Hoffman-Jeffrey, MS, CASAC-G, SAP, MAC, FDC, CAR VIP Community Services
• April 16th, 2020
• heroin use, medication-assisted treatment, opioid abuse, opioid epidemic, overdose deaths, prescription opioids, public health policy, substance use disorder
• 1231    0

The Researched Abuse, Diversion, and Addiction-Related Surveillance (RADARS) System describe the diversion and abuse of prescription opioid analgesics, using data from January 2002 through December 2013. Because drug abuse is an illegal activity that is often concealed from authorities, the RADARS...

Pain and The Nation’s Opioid Epidemic: An Interview with Luana Colloca, MD, PhD, MS

• By: Michael B. Friedman, LMSW
• January 1st, 2020
• addiction treatment, individualized care, mental health, non-pharmacological interventions, opioid epidemic, pain management, precision medicine, public health policy
• 1274    0

The so-called “opioid epidemic” is a far more complex social phenomenon than it appears to be when politicians and pundits propose solutions to it. They work largely from a simplistic and only partially true narrative that lately concludes that the villains are the drug companies that promoted...

Opioid Epidemic and Partnerships: Working Together to Solve Problems

• By: Jason Lippman Jason Lippman Solutions, LLC
• January 1st, 2020
• community collaboration, harm reduction, medication-assisted treatment, opioid epidemic, public health policy, recovery services, social determinants of health, substance use disorder
• 1370    0

It feels like not a day goes by where the sheer scale of the opioid epidemic is not felt. The epidemic impacts nearly every American through our families, friends, loved ones, co-workers and classmates. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in 2017: On average, 130 Americans died...

BHN Winter 2020 Issue

• January 1st, 2020
• addiction treatment, behavioral health, community outreach, medication-assisted treatment, opioid epidemic, overdose prevention, public health policy, substance use disorder
• 2024    0

"Addressing the Nation's Opioid Epidemic"   Articles in This...

Put Mental Health into “Healthy Aging”

• By: Michael B. Friedman, LMSW Jaclyn Nguyen, BA, BS
• October 1st, 2019
• anxiety disorders, depression, healthy aging, life satisfaction, older adult mental health, psychological well-being, psychotic disorders, public health policy
• 1538    0

In June 2019 the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) issued a report on the health of older adults5. That’s good news since it reflects serious recognition of the aging of the population of New York City and of the need for the field of public health to pay greater attention to...