"Most Doctors Are Ill-Equipped To Deal With The Opioid Epidemic. Few Medical Schools Teach Addiction" - Jan Hoffman
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, addiction — whether to tobacco, alcohol or other drugs — is a disease that contributes to 632,000 deaths in the United States annually. But comprehensive addiction training is rare in American medical education. Timothy Brennan, MD, assistant professor psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and director of the Addiction Institute at Mount Sinai West, said that combating the crisis with this provider work force is “like trying to fight World War II with only the Coast Guard.” Now, a decade-long push by doctors, medical students and patients to legitimize addiction medicine is resulting in blips of change around the country. A handful of students have begun to specialize in the nascent field, which concentrates on prevention and treatment of addictions and the effect of addictive substances on other medical conditions.
- Timothy Brennan, MD, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director, Fellowship in Addiction Medicine Program, Addiction Institute, Mount Sinai West
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