Drug overdose and opioid-related deaths continue to grow at an alarming rate in the United States. According to the CDC, more than 700,000 people died from drug overdoses between 1999 and 2017, and on average, 130 Americans die from an opioid overdose every day. 

On today’s Broken Brain Podcast, our host, Dhru, talks to Dr. John Kelly, Professor of Psychiatry in Addiction Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Founder and Director of the Recovery Research Institute at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Program Director of the Addiction Recovery Management Service, and Associate Director of the Center for Addiction Medicine at MGH. He has served as a consultant to U.S. federal agencies and non-federal institutions and foreign governments. His clinical and research work has focused on enhancing the effectiveness of addiction treatment and recovery support services, stigma reduction, and addiction and criminal justice. 

In this episode, Dhru and Dr. Kelly talk about the current approach to addressing addiction in our country, and the power of language when it comes to destigmatizing addiction. They discuss how the opioid crisis became a self-manufactured epidemic and the importance of building an effective public health infrastructure to combat the opioid crisis and other substance use disorders. They also talk about the best way to support a loved one with an addiction, and the importance of social connections for long-term recovery. 

In this episode, we dive into:

-Changing the language around addiction (13:39)

-The current model of treating addiction: admit, treat, discharge (23:56)

-The National Recovery Study (26:40)

-Pathways to recovery (33:31)

-The social factors into and out of addiction (36:16)

-Preventative approaches to substance use disorder (41:01)

-The opioid crisis (45:27)

-Mindfulness-based interventions for recovery (51:08)

-Safe injection sites (57:38)

-Resources for family members (1:01:08)

-The power of AA for long-term recovery and reducing health care costs (1:04:53)

-Learn more about Dr. Kelly and his work (1:16:44)

For more on Dr. John Kelly, be sure to follow him on Facebook @RecoveryAnswers and on Twitter @RecoveryAnswers. Check out his website and sign up for his monthly newsletter at https://www.recoveryanswers.org.

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