Overcoming Opioid Addiction

May 1, 2018
Bisaga, an addiction psychiatrist and researcher at Columbia University, aided by coauthor Chernyaev, lays out the depressing facts (though less than five-percent of the world's population, Americans consume 80-percent of the world's painkillers) and outlines a commonsense solution to opioid dependency. Opioids change the brain so much that willpower and 12-step programs fall short. To prevent relapse, addicts need medications like naltrexone, says Bisaga, who oversees a national program that trains physicians to treat opioid use disorder. Unfortunately, only one in five Americans with OUD get treatment. Bisaga includes such helpful information as signs and symptoms of an opioid overdose, which include slow, shallow, or irregular breathing and lips and fingernails turning a blueish-purple or gray. The book also includes stories of composite patients like Eric, a high school football player who gets hooked after taking painkillers for a sports injury. It's a worthy read in a time when the stakes of opioid addiction are high?in 2016, drug overdoses contributed to a drop in life expectancy in the U.S. for the second year in a row.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)