As has been widely reported the US has faced an opioid addiction epidemic over the past decade. Opioid-related overdose deaths have quadrupled in recent years. (Drug overdose deaths, in sum, now equal or exceed auto accident fatalities.) What explains the dramatic increase use and addiction to these medicines? In Drug Dealer, MD, recently published by Johns Hopkins University Press, Dr. Anna Lembke presents a nuanced explanation of what is a highly complex problem.
The 30 minute conversation begins with Dr. Lembke briefly explaining work's title, Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked and Why It's So Hard to Stop. Moreover, Dr. Lembke discusses several of the numerous reasons that explain the opioid addiction epidemic, i.e., patient and prescribing physician behavior, organized medicine's contribution, pharmaceutical industry marketing strategies and market forces that all contribute to fostering the epidemic.
Dr. Anna Lembke is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. She is also a faculty member at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Program Director for the Sanford University Addiction Medicine Fellowship and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. She is also a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and a Diplomate of the American Board of Addiction Medicine. Dr. Lembke has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles, chapters and commentaries in numerous journals including the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Journal of General Internal Medicine and Addiction. Dr. Lembke recieved her undergraduate degree in Humanities from Yale University and her medical degree from Stanford.
For more information on Dr. Lembke's work go to: https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/drug-dealer-md.
What Explains the Opioid Epidemic? Dr. Anna Lembke Discusses Her Recent Work, "Drug Dealer, MD" (November 16th)