Getty Images Thousands of people with drug addiction and related illnesses go to hospital emergency departments every day. People with a drug addiction are generally in poorer health than the rest of the population, he explained. Instead of providing anti-addiction medication, most hospitals typically give ER patients with drug-related conditions the telephone numbers of local treatment clinics, he said. Approved by the FDA in 2002 for the treatment of opioid addiction, buprenorphine has been shown to be more than twice as effective as non-medication therapies at helping opioid users quit. Hospital administrators also consider people with addiction to be poor insurance risks in states that have not expanded Medicaid, he said.

Source: Huffington Post September 21, 2018 16:07 UTC