Return To Substance Use

People suffering from addiction or people who are in recovery from the condition, face a variety of challenges, including, in many cases, in their interactions with health-care services. Many of these challenges may be attributed to the stigma that still clings unhelpfully to addiction. It may also be due to a surprising lack of awareness even among health-care professionals about the nature of addiction and the susceptibilities and anxieties of those initiating or attempting to sustain recovery. This review and report is a starting point, an attempt to get a handle on the state of play and the issues that need addressing when it comes to pain management in people with current or past addictions. It helps to identify gaps in knowledge, understanding, skill, practice and culture, pointing the way to how these deficiencies might be remedied.