Addiction stigma costs lives, and one word can change that

A man told his doctor he was struggling with addiction. The doctor told him this was not something he could help with. Devika Bhushan is a public health physician and a former acting surgeon general of California. This episode is based on her article "How addiction stigma in health care costs lives," co-written with medical student Taylor Moss and published on KevinMD. You will hear what happened when about 500 clinicians read the same patient described two ways, as a substance abuser in one version and as a person with a substance use disorder in the other. Devika explains why fewer than 1 in 5 people with addiction ever get appropriate treatment, why they receive 30 percent less guideline-based care for conditions like heart disease and diabetes, and why life expectancy can run up to almost 24 years shorter. You will also hear which words open doors in addiction care and which close them, plus six things patients and families can do when a clinician will not listen.

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