Fighting addiction

For the first time since the 1960s, life expectancy declined in the U.S. two years in a row. Remarkable given the absence of a major war, this corresponds with increases in death-by-overdose among young men and women. While many hoped that the 21st century would witness significant reductions to dependent relationships with various substances and activities, the problem has endured and even proliferated.

The current crisis is relevant to every one of us. Not just because few people go unaffected by the epidemic—those lucky enough not to have lost friends or kin to addiction almost certainly know others who have—but also owing to the way in which its intensification involved and continues to affect the medical community.

It’s complicated, of course. If solving the crisis was only a matter of tactical shifts, such as different attitudes toward the treatment of physical pain, doctors could adjust their behavior and expect to see significant progress in ending the epidemic. A quick glance at the history of humankind’s relationship with drugs, however, confirms the lament that there is “no new thing under the sun”: crises like these have occurred before, and successfully resolving them has required more than swift, decisive action, though that is needed too.

Some successful efforts to combat the crisis have begun here at Yale. Pioneered by students, faculty, and alumni, our community has conceived of, tested, and implemented programs and techniques that show great promise in helping to halt the epidemic. It’s inspiring to be able to share stories of how the school’s faculty and alumni apply their expertise to such a pressing social need. Their innovations will certainly have an impact on the struggle to gain control over the deluge of overdoses.

Shelter from the Storm is my first issue as editor of Yale Medicine Magazine, and I can’t think of a more pressing topical theme than this to cover. Every one of us can help shape solutions by thinking more carefully about the way we talk and think about drugs and those whose lives are affected thereby. We can be more careful with the words we choose, the choices we make in describing serious health challenges. Ultimately, we’re all in this together, and beating the opioid epidemic is going to take all of us, working in concert to check the rising tide of this public health crisis.