"In 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a public health emergency due to an increase in the misuse of opioids. The administration introduced a strategic framework called the Five-Point Opioid Strategy, which includes providing access recovery services, increasing the availability of reversing agents for overdose, funding opioid misuse and pain research, changing treatments of people managing pain, and updating public health reports related to combating opioid drug misuse.The US epidemic in the 2000s is related to a number of factors. Rates of opioid use and dependency vary by age, sex, race, and socioeconomic status. With respect to race the discrepancy in deaths is thought to be due to an interplay between physician prescribing and lack of access to healthcare and certain prescription drugs. Men are at higher risk for opioid use and dependency than women, and men also account for more opioid overdoses than women, although this gap is closing. Women are more likely to be prescribed pain relievers, be given higher doses, use them for longer durations, and may become dependent upon them faster.Deaths due to opioid use also tend to skew at older ages than deaths from use of other illicit drugs. This does not reflect opioid use as a whole, which includes individuals in younger age demographics. Overdoses from opioids are highest among individuals who are between the ages of 40 and 50, in contrast to heroin overdoses, which are highest among individuals who are between the ages of 20 and 30.
However, the use of CBT alone in opioid dependence has declined due to the lack of efficacy, and many are relying on medication therapy or medication therapy with CBT, since both were found to be more efficacious than CBT alone. A form of CBT therapy known as motivational interviewing (MI) is often used opioid use disorder. MI leverages a person intrinsic motivation to recover through education, formulation of relapse prevention strategies, reward for adherence to treatment guidelines, and positive thinking to keep motivation high—which are based on a persons socioeconomic status, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and their readiness to recover. Twelve-step programs
While medical treatment may help with the initial symptoms of opioid withdrawal, once the first stages of withdrawal are through, a method for long-term preventative care is attendance at 12-step groups such as Narcotics Anonymous. Narcotics Anonymous is a global service that provides multilingual recovery information and public meetings free of charge. Some evidence supports the use of these programs in adolescents as well.The 12-step program is an adapted form of the Alcoholics Anonymous program. The program strives to help create behavioural change by fostering peer-support and self-help programs. The model helps assert the gravity of addiction by enforcing the idea that addicts must surrender to the fact that they are addicted and be able to recognize the problem. It also helps maintain self-control and restraint to help promote ones capabilities.