Doctor Says 75% Of Those Suffering Addiction Will Reach remission

A taskforce of lawmakers has been meeting monthly since the summer to better understand Missouri’s substance abuse crisis and find ways to address it.

Doug Burgess, an addiction psychiatry professor at University Health in Kansas City, says step one towards treating substance abuse disorder is getting rid of the stigma.

Burgess says that because of stigma, people who are in recovery are afraid or ashamed to tell their story. He routinely tells his students that regardless of what field of medicine they enter, they ultimately will be dealing with and treating substance abuse disorder.