Occupational Therapy and the Opioid Epidemic: Recognizing the Need to Address Mental Health Comorbidities in Resolving Opioid Substance Abuse

The incidence of opioid abuse internationally, and notably in the United States, has reached an admitted crisis level. While meaningful attempts have been made across all healthcare disciplines to address this tragedy, the primary emphasis within these attempts has been limited to the management and treatment of pain as an underlying causal agent. Unfortunately, attention toward the identification and treatment of associated mental health syndromes, specifically those acknowledged to have a concomitant connection with opioid abuse/addiction, has been severely lacking. Occupational Therapy, however, is one profession uniquely prepared to respond to this crisis through the acceptance of a co-morbidity treatment model stemming from its foundational roots in mental health, its contemporaneous philosophy, and its current treatment stratagems.