{"title":"Treatment Failure Versus Failed Treatments: The Risks of Embracing Treatment Refractory Addiction.","authors":"David A Fiellin","doi":"10.1097/ADM.0000000000001351","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Abstract: </strong>In this issue, Strain advocates for the field of addiction medicine to consider a new diagnostic signal-treatment-refractory addiction. Also in this issue, Nunes and McLellan support the concepts advanced by Strain. I provide an alternate view and propose that it is premature to create such a signal and that doing so could lead to unintended adverse consequences. My argument is based on 4 concerns: (1) the lack of neuroscientific correlates, (2) the profound impact that context has on what patients receive as \"treatment,\" (3) the rare provision of sequentially stepped treatment, and (4) the potential for misuse of the signal. Addiction medicine should be cautious in introducing concepts such as treatment-refractory addiction to ensure that patients are not seen as \"treatment failures.\" Our efforts should rather focus on the development of additional effective treatments, improving access to existing effective treatments and a creating a system that does not provide \"failed treatments.\"</p>","PeriodicalId":14744,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Addiction Medicine","volume":"18 5","pages":"480-482"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Addiction Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1097/ADM.0000000000001351","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/8/10 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"SUBSTANCE ABUSE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract: In this issue, Strain advocates for the field of addiction medicine to consider a new diagnostic signal-treatment-refractory addiction. Also in this issue, Nunes and McLellan support the concepts advanced by Strain. I provide an alternate view and propose that it is premature to create such a signal and that doing so could lead to unintended adverse consequences. My argument is based on 4 concerns: (1) the lack of neuroscientific correlates, (2) the profound impact that context has on what patients receive as "treatment," (3) the rare provision of sequentially stepped treatment, and (4) the potential for misuse of the signal. Addiction medicine should be cautious in introducing concepts such as treatment-refractory addiction to ensure that patients are not seen as "treatment failures." Our efforts should rather focus on the development of additional effective treatments, improving access to existing effective treatments and a creating a system that does not provide "failed treatments."
期刊介绍:
The mission of Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official peer-reviewed journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, is to promote excellence in the practice of addiction medicine and in clinical research as well as to support Addiction Medicine as a mainstream medical sub-specialty.
Under the guidance of an esteemed Editorial Board, peer-reviewed articles published in the Journal focus on developments in addiction medicine as well as on treatment innovations and ethical, economic, forensic, and social topics including:
•addiction and substance use in pregnancy
•adolescent addiction and at-risk use
•the drug-exposed neonate
•pharmacology
•all psychoactive substances relevant to addiction, including alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, marijuana, opioids, stimulants and other prescription and illicit substances
•diagnosis
•neuroimaging techniques
•treatment of special populations
•treatment, early intervention and prevention of alcohol and drug use disorders
•methodological issues in addiction research
•pain and addiction, prescription drug use disorder
•co-occurring addiction, medical and psychiatric disorders
•pathological gambling disorder, sexual and other behavioral addictions
•pathophysiology of addiction
•behavioral and pharmacological treatments
•issues in graduate medical education
•recovery
•health services delivery
•ethical, legal and liability issues in addiction medicine practice
•drug testing
•self- and mutual-help.