How to Combat the Global Opioid Crisis

Catherine Dennen, A.¹, Kenneth Blum^2-5*, Abdalla Bowirrat⁵, Marks Gold⁶, Igor Elman⁷, Panayotis Thanos, K.^8,9, David Baron³, Eric Braverman, R.², Ashim Gupta¹⁰, Drew Edwards¹¹ & Rajendra Badgaiyan, D.^12**

¹Department of Family Medicine, Jefferson Health Northeast, Philadelphia, PA., USA
²The Kenneth Blum Behavioral & Neurogenetic Institute, LLC., Austin, TX 78701, USA
³Center for Sports, Exercise, Psychiatry, Western University Health Sciences, Pomona, CA., USA
⁴Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
⁵Department of Molecular Biology and Adelson School of Medicine, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel⁶Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO., USA
⁷Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA., USA
⁸Behavioral Neuropharmacology and Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Clinical Research Institute on Addictions, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY., USA
⁹Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY., USA
¹⁰Future Biologics, Lawrenceville, GA., USA
¹¹Drew Edwards & Associates, Lakeview, FL, USA
¹²Department of Psychiatry, South Texas Veteran Health Care System, Audie L. Murphy Memorial VA Hospital, Long School of Medicine, University of Texas Medical Center, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA

Dr. Kenneth Blum & Rajendra Badgaiyan, D. The Kenneth Blum Behavioral & Neurogenetic Institute, LLC., Austin, TX 78701, USA & Department of Psychiatry, South Texas Veteran Health Care System, Audie L. Murphy Memorial VA Hospi

Keywords: Opioid Use Disorder (OUD); Substance Use Disorder (SUD); Genetic Addiction Risk Severity (GARS); Preaddiction, Brain Health Check (BHC); Drug Overdoses

Abstract

Since 2000 there have been 915,515 people who have died from a drug overdose in the United States (US). This number continues to increase and in 2021 drug overdose deaths reached a record high of 107,622, and opioids specifically were responsible for 80,816 of those deaths. This unprecedented rate of drug overdose deaths is the direct result of increasing rates of illicit drug use in the US.
It was estimated that in the US in 2020, approximately 59.3 million individuals had used illicit drugs, 40.3 million had a substance use disorder (SUD), and 2.7 million had opioid use disorder (OUD). Typical treatment for OUD involves an opioid agonist (i.e., buprenorphine or methadone) along with a variety of psychotherapeutic interventions (i.e., motivational interviewing, cognitivebehavioral therapy (CBT), behavioral family counseling, mutual help groups, etc.). In addition to the aforementioned treatment options, there is an urgent need for new therapies and screening methods that are reliable, safe, and effective. Similar to the concept of prediabetes is the novel concept of “preaddiction.” Preaddiction is defined as individuals with mild to moderate SUD or those at risk for developing a severe SUD/addiction.

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