- National Institute on Drug Abuse - National Institutes of Health (Maryland, United States).
- Date and time: October 3, 13:00
- Place: Faculty of Medicine Graduate Hall. < /span>
Summary:
In the United States, more than 500,000 people have died in the past 20 years from opioid overdoses. We can speak of a true epidemic of consumption of these substances. In part, this epidemic is due to the misuse of prescription drugs to treat pain, such as hydrocodine, oxycodine, and morphine. More than 10 million people used inappropriately prescribed opioids over the past year in the United States; that is, 5% of the adult population of that country.
Death from overdose of these substances is the most dramatic consequence of this epidemic. To combat it, a combination of actions are being proposed that involve everything from health personnel to political and social leaders.
About the speaker:
Dr. Montoya is a psychiatrist and epidemiologist, specialized in the development of therapies for substance use disorders. It oversees research into new therapies and the medical consequences of those disorders. Also provides medical oversight to implement procedures to monitor data and medical safety of clinical trials. He leads NIH's Helping to End Addiction Long Term (HEAL) initiative, developing new interventions to prevent and treat opioid use disorders and overdoses.
