National Addiction Treatment Week, April 23 through April 29, raises awareness that addiction is a disease, evidence-based treatments are available, and more clinicians need to enter the field of Addiction Medicine in order to treat the nationwide epidemic.

The American Society of Addiction Medicine, or ASAM, hosts the week alongside its partners.

The United States is in the midst of an addiction epidemic. Nearly 20.5 million Americans suffer from a substance use disorder, yet only one in 10 people with a substance use disorder receive treatment.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 64,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2016, and more than 88,000 people die each year from alcohol-related use in the US.

“We must increase patient’s access to evidence-based treatments by decreasing the stigma surrounding the disease and recognizing addiction as the disease it is; while growing a qualified addiction medicine workforce to provide patients a continuum of care,” the organization said in a statement.

Despite the growing epidemic, progress is being made.

Since 2017, the American Board of Preventive Medicine, or ABPM, started offering physicians, who are certified by a Member Board of the American Board of Medical Specialties, the opportunity to become board-certified in Addiction Medicine.

In 2017 more than 1,200 physicians became board-certified in Addiction Medicine through the ABPM.

ASAM collaborated with the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and American Academy of Physician Assistants to train more than 5,000 nurse practitioners and physician assistants to treat opioid use disorder through a waiver qualifying course.

“Raising awareness that addiction is a chronic brain disease, and not a moral failure, and qualifying more clinicians to treat addiction is vital to increasing patients’ access to treatment.” said Kelly Clark, MD, MBA, DFASAM, president of ASAM. “National Addiction Treatment Week supports ASAM’s dedication to increasing access and improving the quality of addiction treatment, and helping physicians treat addiction and save lives.”

Join the association for National Addiction Treatment Week with events focused on research-verified, evidence-based addiction medicine including webinars informing physicians and medical students about the pathways to addiction medicine certification. Help them treat addition and save lives, by getting involved and raising awareness.

Learn more by visiting www.TreatAddictionSaveLives.org.