MDC Opioid Use Addiction and Overdoses Discussion

Opioid Use, Addiction, and Overdoses:

Please read the Psychology Discussion Requirements fully, and then Read pages 174 – 184 in your text.

Opioid use, addiction, and overdoses have increased to alarming rates in the United States in recent years. Millions of Americans are affected by the opioid epidemic every day.

Read Volkow et al.’s (2014) article and Brown’s (2018) articles (PDF’s below) before discussing the following questions.

References

Brown, A. R. (2018). A systematic review of psychosocial interventions in treatment of opioid addiction, Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/1533256X.2018.1485574

Coon, D., Mitterer, J.O., & Martini, T. (2022). Introduction to psychology: Gateways to mind and behavior (16th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Volkow, N. D., Frieden, T. R., Hyde, P. S., & Cha, S. S. (2014). Medication-assisted therapies — tackling the opioid-overdose epidemic. New England Journal of Medicine, 370(22), 2063-2066. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1402780

For this week’s main post, answer all of the following questions. Be sure to include factual, properly cited information in your post.

• What are some ways that opioid addiction is affecting the United States?
• What are some forms of treatment available to those suffering from opioid addiction?
• If you had a friend or family member suffering from opioid addiction, what sort of help would you recommend they seek?