Training in addiction medicine should be standardised and scaled up

Substance use disorders represent a substantial social and public health burden. An estimated 149 million to 271 million people use illicit drugs worldwide,1 and the related physical and psychological morbidity places challenging demands on healthcare systems.2

Addiction science has identified approaches to treat substance use disorders, particularly through early identification and treatment. Most interventions are underused, however.3 4 Adequate diagnosis and treatment by healthcare providers fails partly because of lack of knowledge and accredited training in addiction medicine.5 The public health consequences stemming from high rates of untreated addiction result from a lack of addiction treatment, secondary to a lack of trained physicians. Training doctors better is likely to improve accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment6; it may also help reduce the public health epidemics that can result from improper prescribing, such as the current epidemic of opioid analgesic dependence in the United States.