Mounting a Scientifically Informed Response to the Opioid Crisis in the Veterans Health Administration

Excerpt

Since at least 2012, the opioid crisis has been widely recognized as a leading public health crisis in the USA. Overdose deaths involving opioids, including prescription opioids, heroin, and synthetic opioids (i.e., fentanyl), claimed the lives of nearly 47,000 Americans in 2018, with 32% of those deaths involving prescription opioids.¹ Opioid use disorder (OUD) has had an even greater impact among Veterans,² where the rate of overdose deaths is double that of the general population. The risk for opioid use disorder—defined as the compulsive taking of opioids despite harm—also is higher among Veterans than the general public. This is partly because patients who receive care in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) have a high rate of comorbidities that contribute to the incidence and severity of OUD—including major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and chronic pain. …