New research suggests providers need mental health resources to address conditions and trauma that plague more than half of patients who visit emergency rooms for drug misuse. Experts say identifying and treating mental illness could effectively stop people who misuse drugs from relapsing in their recovery.
"In order to truly reach overdose survivors, we need a much better understanding of who they are and the many challenges they face when they seek care," said Dr. Krista Brucker, assistant professor of Emergency Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine.
Brucker authored a study presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians. She found that 55% of patients who visited the ED for substance misuse had mental health issues and 60% were severely traumatized when they were children.
[For more on this story by Steven Ross Johnson, go to http://www.modernhealthcare.co...71030/NEWS/171039983]
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