County-level map shows one reason opioid epidemic keeps getting worse - Entrepreneur Generations

HIV/AIDS advocacy group amfAR offers three maps that illustrate some reasons for the worsening opioid epidemic. They show three things: the number of substance abuse treatment facilities in the U.S., which facilities provide at least one medication for opioid addiction, and which facilities provide all three kinds of avaiable medications for opioid addiction, German Lopez reports for Vox.

amfAR map; click on the image to enlarge it.

The first map, which shows where substance abuse treatment facilities are located in the U.S., makes it clear that there are a lot of coverage gaps, especially in rural America. The map likely understates the amount of addiction treatment available in some parts of the U.S., since doctors can prescribe MAT drugs like buprenorphine via a special waiver in their general practice, and that wouldn't show up on this map.

amfAR map; click on the image to enlarge it.

The second map shows how many of those treatment facilities offer at least one form of medication-assisted treatment (commonly called MAT). It's a markedly smaller number--only 41.2 percent of the more than 12,000 facilities, German reports. That's a problem because MAT is "widely considered by experts to be the gold standard in opioid addiction care," German reports, cutting mortality rates among opioid addicts by half or more. MAT is considered so effective that Trump's commission on the opioid crisis called for a big expansion in MAT.

amfAR map; click on the image to enlarge it.

The last map shows an even smaller subset of treatment facilities: those that offer all three kinds of MAT. "The individual types of medications don’t work for everyone — nothing in addiction treatment does — so it’s important to provide multiple options," German reports.

One reason for the lack of substance abuse treatment facilities is social stigma, but another is the lack of federal funding. "In the past few years, for example, the only new federal effort to dedicate a serious amount of money to the opioid crisis was the Cures Act, which committed $1 billion over two years," German reports. But experts say tens of billions of dollars are needed annually to deal with the opioid epidemic. 

Stanford drug policy expert Keith Humphreys told German, "Crises in a nation of 300 million people don’t go away for $1 billion. This is the biggest public health epidemic of a generation. Maybe it’s going to be worse than AIDS. So we need to go big."

from The Rural Blog http://ift.tt/2Dt6Rh2 County-level map shows one reason opioid epidemic keeps getting worse - Entrepreneur Generations

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