Civil commitment for opioid misuse: do short-term benefits outweigh long-term harms?
J Med Ethics
; 48(9): 608-610, 2022 09.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2001892
ABSTRACT
In response to a sharp rise in opioid-involved overdose deaths in the USA, states have deployed increasingly aggressive strategies to limit the loss of life, including civil commitment-the forcible detention of individuals whose opioid use presents a clear and convincing danger to themselves or others. While civil commitment often succeeds in providing short-term protection from overdose, emerging evidence suggests that it may be associated with long-term harms, including heightened risk of severe withdrawal, relapse and opioid-involved mortality. To better assess and mitigate these harms, states should collect more robust data on long-term health outcomes, decriminalise proceedings and stays, provide access to medications for opioid use disorder and strengthen post-release coordination of community-based treatment.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Drug Overdose
/
Opioid-Related Disorders
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
J Med Ethics
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Medethics-2020-107160
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