In my four decades as a physician, I have seen the path of destruction that addiction leaves on individuals, families and communities.
I have served patients from Connecticut to California. From Appalachia to the Navajo, Apache, Sioux and Hopi reservations. From Eskimos in Alaska to the Shuar people in the Amazon jungle. And, now from rural West Tennessee to urban and suburban Memphis. My calling and my passion have grown out of the awareness of how addiction affects all of public health.
Each of the top 10 causes of death in the United States, which together account for 80 percent of all deaths in the nation, has links to substance use. As many as 24 percent of all deaths in this country, have substance use as a direct cause.
As one of the first 106 doctors in North America to be recognized as a diplomate in Addiction Medicine, I was thrilled on March 16, 2016, when the American Board of Medical Specialties approved recognition of Addiction Medicine as the newest subspecialty in medicine.
Physicians and scientists have been working since the time of Hippocrates to describe the impact of substance use and to develop effective approaches for treatment. But today, addiction science is exploding beyond myths, thanks to scientific inquiry that ranges from genetics to brain imaging.
[For more of this story, written by Daniel Sumrok, go to http://www.commercialappeal.co...fcee4-392233031.html]
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