Socio-Cultural Perceptions of Addiction and Population Health

                                                Stigma and Addiction      In 1970, American psychologist Bruce Alexander did an experiment known as "Rat Park". This experiment conducted by Dr. Alexander proved that stigma is very dangerous in addiction treatment. The normal responds when anyone is being stigmatized is to withdraw, it is human nature to go where you are loved and appreciated. In the Rat Park experiments "  which showed that animals housed in enriched environments with access to other rats self-administered morphine much less frequently than those housed in isolation"  (Volkow, 2020). When there is stigma, people isolates. There are no positive benefit of stigma. In Dr. Amarendran's lecture on stigma in substance use disorder treatment, He made good point on how stigma  Limits access to care, stigma leads to patients be...

BACKSTORY ON ADDICTION  It is important for me to recognize an addict. In the backstory episode on addiction, Brain pointed out " Morphine was one of the first opiates. When injected into a patient's bloodstream, it was much more powerful than opium pills or powders. And thanks to the spread of syringes, morphine soon flowed into wide use" (2018).   It is no secret that opiate addiction is a national epidemic. According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services " In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to opioid pain relievers and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates" (2021). The U.S Department of Human and Human Service also stated "i ncreased prescription of opioid medications led to widespread misuse of both prescription and non-prescription opioids before it became clear that these medications could indeed be highly addictive" (2021).  In m...

  Health Care in the U.S.  There are two health systems in the United States (U.S.) Private and the Government. Over 74% of people under 65 years of age in the U.S. have private health insurance, this is mainly through their employer (De Lew et al., 1992).  The U.S. spends more money on healthcare than any other country, and has the most expensive health system. One will think spending more money and having the most expensive health system will lead to health country, that is not the case in the U.S. The U.S. has the highest chronic illness, two times the obesity rate, highest suicide rate, and lowest life expectancy compared to other countries in the developed world ( Tikkanen & Abrams, 2020).  What are some of the underlying causes that explain these findings?    Policies and Improving access to care. Policies - Each health system has its own policy that govern their practice. unlike the U.S., most of the develop countries get more from their healthca...

The SDoH literature use terms such as "health inequities" and "health disparities" to describe different population health outcomes.  What is the critical distinction between these concepts. Health  inequities - This is defined as an unfair avoidable advantage in healthcare whereby a group of people or community are better off than another.  Health Disparities - measurable differences in health status that can be measured base on this can include but not limited to “ race and ethnicity, gender, employment and socioeconomic status, disability and immigration status, geography” (Sciences et al., 2017).  Health disparities - systemic disadvantage that is measurable Health inequities-   systemic advantage  that is avoidable  What explains the lack of progress toward reducing health disparities among vulnerable groups?    Racism, discrimination, education, income and wealth, health systems and the services they provide, transpo...