The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (NCASA) at Columbia University has just released an important must-read five year national study – Addiction Medicine: Closing the Gap between Science and Practice – that finds that only one in 10 people with addiction to drug and/or alcohol reports receiving any treatment at all. That is a travesty.
Other highlights from the report:
- Forty million Americans ages 12 and older (16 percent) have the disease of addiction involving nicotine, alcohol or other drugs, a disease affecting more Americans than heart conditions, diabetes or cancer; another 80 million people are risky substance users – using tobacco, alcohol and other drugs in ways that threaten health and safety.
- About 7 in 10 people with diseases like hypertension, major depression and diabetes receive treatment; only about 1 in 10 people who need treatment for addiction involving alcohol or other drugs receive it while the number receiving treatment for nicotine is not even known.
- Addiction treatment facilities and programs are not adequately regulated or held accountable for providing treatment consistent with medical standards and proven treatment practices.
- In 2010 only $28 billion was spent to treat the 40 million people with addiction. In comparison, the United States spent:
- $44 billion to treat diabetes which affects 26 million people;
- $87 billion to treat cancer which affects 19 million people;
- $107 billion to treat heart conditions which affect 27 million people.
Tags: addiction, alcohol, Columbia University, disease, drug, medical standards, National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, NCASA, nicotine, Pasadena, Pasadena Recovery Center, treatment
