Addiction Medicine: Closing the Gap between Science and Practice

Health Centers (FQHCs),* the Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Indian Health
Service (IHS):

 Allocate a designated portion of the
federally-funded (primarily through
Medicare) medical residency training
positions to residency training in the
specialty of addiction medicine, including
addiction psychiatry.

 Allocate residency training slots through the
VA and the IHS to addiction medicine to
help ensure the availability of specialty care
for veterans and Native Americans.

 Provide additional resources as needed to
immediately increase the training and
availability of addiction medicine specialists
to meet the need nationwide.

• FQHCs serve populations such as the homeless,

those residing in public housing and migrant workers.

Implement a National Public Health

Campaign

Implement a nationwide public health campaign

through the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) and other federal

agencies charged with protecting the public

health to educate the public about all forms of

risky substance use and addiction, specifically

with regard to:

 What constitutes risky substance use and the

nature of the disease of addiction;

 Risk factors for each as well as their health,

social, safety and economic consequences;

 The importance of preventing all forms of

substance use among adolescents to protect

their immediate health and safety and

because of the link between early use and

later addiction;

 How to spot signs of risk in individuals of

all ages; and

 When to seek help and where to turn for

effective intervention and care.

Invest in Research and Data Collection to

Improve and Track Progress in Addiction

Prevention, Treatment and Disease

Management

Invest in research designed to:

 Develop reliable and valid screening and

assessment tools that address risky

substance use and addiction involving all

substances and addictive behaviors, and that

can be tailored to special populations.

 Identify bio-markers associated with disease

stages.

 Provide evidence from clinical trials to

further the understanding of:

I think we have to be mindful that creating a

subspecialty is not a substitute for physicians

and other providers developing greater

knowledge and skill in the addiction field. There

are too many patients. We’re not going to be

able to train enough specialists to treat all those

folks. The general medicine field needs to accept

that these are legitimate medical conditions for

which they should take responsibility.^1

--Peter D. Friedmann, MD, MPH

Professor of Medicine

Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice

Brown University

We want addiction prevention, screening,

intervention, and treatment to become routine

aspects of medical care, available virtually any

place health care is provided.^2

--Kevin B. Kunz, MD

Former President

American Board of Addiction Medicine

(ABAM)