No time to waste - Evidence-based treatment for drug dependence at the United States Veterans Administration

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) should remove barriers to ensure access to evidence-based drug dependency treatment and make overdose prevention programs available to veterans in the community, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

An estimated more than one million US veterans take prescription opioids for pain, and nearly half of them use the drugs chronically, yet drugs to treat dependence on pain medicines fail to reach tens of thousands of veterans in need.

The report compiles and analyzes findings from a wide range of sources about problems of drug dependency among veterans and the implications for treatment and assistance.

Human Rights Watch found that alcohol and drug dependence are strongly associated with homelessness as well as with mental health conditions – including post-traumatic stress syndrome and depression – that affect 40 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in VA care. Drugs or alcohol are involved in one of three Army suicides, and the VA estimates that 22 veterans commit suicide each day.

The report is based on interviews with dozens of veterans and their advocates, VA officials, and community service providers, as well as extensive review of government, academic, and other research. Human Rights Watch also reviewed and assessed the availability of a wide range of evidence-based programs – that is, programs that have been proven effective – to treat dependency and address veterans’ drug-related problems.

One of the report’s findings is the need to expand the availability of naloxone, an inexpensive prescription medication, used in emergency rooms for decades, that can reverse overdose from opioids such as heroin. Evidence-based drug dependency treatment programs also should be expanded.

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