Giving Compass' Take:

· Although the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018 has been established, there is not much focus on researching what causes people to turn to opioid use—pain. Susan Sered, a medical sociologist, suggests that research should analyze the particular groups of individuals most affected by the opioid crisis and how the demographics can better deal with the root cause of pain.

· How can communities address the root cause of the opioid crisis?

· Learn about the effects of the US opioid crisis.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee unanimously approved a bill in April 2018 designed to address the opioid crisis. The bill called the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018 covers much of the same territory as the 138-page report released in November 2017 by a commission appointed by President Donald Trump.

Both the Senate bill and the commission document, unlike the president’s own March 2018 call for executing drug dealers, recognize addiction as a health problem and focus on treatment rather than punishment.

All of this is important, but as a medical sociologist, I am particularly interested in developing better understandings of the root causes of the current crisis. Why are so many Americans willing to ingest substances that, they most likely know, can lead to grievous harm? In other words, I am interested in the demand side of opioid overuse.

Recent preliminary research points to a number of directions that may be useful in terms of getting at root causes. I am particularly interested in several quantitative and qualitative studies that link low social capital, social isolation, weak community ties and economic despair to higher opioid abuse rates. Overall, however, considering the extent of the opioid crisis, there is surprisingly little written addressing root causes.

Read the full article about the opioid crisis by Susan Sered at The Conversation.