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- Title
The Challenge of Implementing Medication for Addiction Treatment (MAT) in the Nation's Justice System.
- Authors
MAURER, KATHLEEN F.
- Abstract
Drug addiction is widely understood to be a chronic brain disease characterized by dysfunction in certain brain centers that control reward, executive function, and motivation, which leads to compulsive behavior despite adverse consequences. This understanding suggests that substance use is thought of as a chronic disease and should be treated using the chronic disease model. Substance use disorders (SUDs) are markedly overrepresented in the justice system. With the onset of the opioid epidemic, opioid use disorder (OUD) is increasingly prevalent among those in the nation's prisons and jails. Studies have shown that most correctional systems do not provide evidence-based treatment for SUD including medication for addiction treatment (MAT), yet correctional populations offer distinct opportunities for this care. The opioid epidemic has brought this lack of treatment into focus; the impact of current treatment modalities in some corrections settings may increase the risk of drug overdose and death when incarcerated persons are released. As a result, there is now a national movement bringing attention to deficiencies in this care and moving the practice of SUD treatment forward in the justice system. Evidence-based care for OUDs and the use of medications along with counseling for those with OUD is increasingly important for treating those in the community as well as the justice population.
- Publication
Connecticut Medicine, 2019, Vol 83, Issue 5, p251
- ISSN
0010-6178
- Publication type
Academic Journal