I’m excited to welcome Kali Lux, from Workit Health. Kali shares a new innovative way to provide treatment to our teens and young adults.
We’re in the midst of an opioid crisis, so why aren’t teens receiving the treatment they need?
A recent study showed that less than 3% of teens receiving treatment for heroin addiction received the gold-standard treatment for opioid use disorder. It’s time to change that.
If your teen was diagnosed with diabetes, what would your go-to treatment be? Would you recommend that they willpower their way out of the diagnosis and blame their sugar cravings for the diagnosis? Would you threaten to kick them out of the house until they got their blood sugar under control? Or would you recommend they go to a doctor and receive insulin, the gold standard and recommended treatment for diabetes?
We’re in the midst of an overdose epidemic. The headlines remind us of this regularly so I’ll spare you the statistics. But a partial reason for the continuing crisis is related to the solutions we’re offering.
We live in a society that stigmatizes the evidence-backed, gold-standard of care when it comes to opioid use disorder: medication-assisted treatment like buprenorphine or methadone. These drugs drastically cut death rates from overdose , and those people who are struggling with opioid addiction get their lives back. (The jury is still out on the more socially acceptable, opioid-free alternative Vivitrol, which requires seven days of total abstinence before beginning treatment).
Adolescents deserve the best chance at recovery.
A recent JAMA study found startling statistics of an opioid crisis filled with staggering numbers: over 10 to 30 times as many adults as teens receive medication as part of their treatment plan for opioid addiction. Only .4% of teens received medication like buprenorphine or methadone as part of their treatment plan for a pain pill addiction. Only 2.4% of teens received methadone or buprenorphine for heroin addiction.
Why does this matter? Because buprenorphine and methadone work. They save lives and increase recovery rates. Period.
The JAMA study explains, “Youths who received buprenorphine were 42% less likely to discontinue treatment, those who received naltrexone were 46% less likely to discontinue treatment, and those who received methadone were 68% less likely to discontinue treatment compared with youths who received behavioral treatment only.”
When offered medication, the odds of discontinuing treatment decreased by half. And this isn’t the only data we have. As early as 2006 the research illustrated that buprenorphine improved treatment outcomes for adolescents. When parents are advocating for their teen’s recovery, they should also be advocating for the medication that will give their adolescents the best chance at recovery.
Stigma can be life-threatening.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that “pediatricians consider offering medication-assisted treatment to their adolescent and young adult patients with severe opioid use disorders or discuss referrals to other providers for this service.” They also crucially note that “Policies, attitudes, and messages that serve to prevent patients from accessing a medication that can effectively treat a life-threatening condition may be harmful to adolescent health.”
Stigma often keeps adults and adolescents from accessing recovery meds like buprenorphine and methadone. The messaging in abstinence-based rehab programs and 12-step programs like Narcotics Anonymous is often that “a drug is a drug,” implying that prescribed pharmaceuticals should be shunned in the same fashion as illicit street drugs.
But addiction isn’t the same as dependence. Addiction is a brain disease that affects the reward circuitry in your brain. It causes a cycle of craving that negatively affects other aspects of your life. Dependence is when your brain and body adapt to a drug. Blood pressure medication and antidepressants cause dependence. Addiction takes your life away, whereas many drugs that cause dependence can give your life back.
Opioid addiction is a really tough beast to conquer (I speak from experience, it’s not easy).
Every single person, whether they are an adolescent or adult deserves all the tools available for their recovery. This is why at Workit Health in California and Michigan, we’re offering buprenorphine via telehealth after a single in-person office visit. But we also urge pediatricians, family practitioners, and traditional abstinence-based rehabs to begin offering medication. It’s time to step up and fight for our kids.
Kali Lux is in long-term recovery from addiction to drugs and alcohol and is especially interested in exploring the culture gaps between those in active addiction, those in recovery, and the medical community. She is the Head of Community for an online addiction treatment service called Workit Health. As Kali explains it, Workit Health offers evidence-based, on demand, online treatment for addiction including counseling, coaching, engaging courses on overcoming addiction, and medication-assisted treatment when appropriate. She can be reached via email at kali@workithealth.com.
The first few sentences got me Cathy and Kali. Of course this is what you’d want for any member of your family who was suffering with an illness.
I’m so glad you are here, sharing your valuable information with the world.
Thank you. 🙂
Yes, everyone should have access to the best treatment possible, and yet so many are falling through the crack. Thanks for your support, Elle.
I recently attended an all-day conference on various aspects of the opioid epidemic where MAT was mentioned in every talk. It was enlightening to learn how much more effective behavioral treatment is when medically assisted. The community behavioral health center where I work opened medically-assisted treatment programs in the last year that have been very popular and successful. There’s no reason this type of treatment shouldn’t be utilized with teens. Great article!
That is wonderful Paige, that the behavioral health center where you work is utilizing medically-assisted programs. They have been shown to save lives. Unfortunately, in some groups, there still is a stigma around using a drug to assist with substance use disorder. Fortunately, the tide is finally starting to turn where more people are open to medically-assisted treatment.
Cathy and Kali, thank you for this in-depth information. The opioid epidemic is scary as it is, but to know that most teens are not receiving adequate treatment makes it even more tragic. Of course, youth deserve the very best treatment there is. In some ways, it is very important to having productive, functioning adults in our society. As with all mental health stigma, I hope this is changing. Thank you for being a part of that positive force.
It is important that we have functioning adults in our society – great point, Debbie. It costs all of us when we have people who continue to suffer without appropriate services. Thank you for stopping by.
It’s difficult to understand why teens aren’t receiving the best treatment possible for opioid addiction. Thanks for helping to change that.
It’s a huge problem, Sandra. Unfortunately, substance use disorder isn’t always covered under insurance policies, so families are having to pay outright for services. Treatment can be very expensive, and many families find that they can’t afford it or treatment isn’t available in their area. There are many issues right now in the treatment industry that need our attention. That is why it is wonderful to have an option like Workit Health that is trying to bring services to clients in a way that is more accessible.
Some great information here for parents of teenagers. Its so helpful to have this information. Thank you for sharing.
I do feel bringing services to clients in a more accessible way will be helpful to those in need. Thanks, Zeenat.