About this Research Topic

Background

Over the past several decades, addicting medications have become widespread and dangerous health problems within the United States. The opioid crisis, along with other drugs such as marijuana, stimulants, and psychedelics is permeating and creating negative consequences for the population. Additionally, this rise in use is causing an unprecedented increase in mental health issues, and legal issues exacerbate already-present conditions and cause other negative health effects, including death. It is important that we begin to educate physicians and show, through research, that these addicting medications may ultimately cause more harm than good and provide evidence that they’re ineffective for long-term or chronic treatment via risk-benefit analysis either clinically or through research. This Research Topic will explore how these drugs affect people and their lack of efficacy, emerging research on how to help patients suffering from addiction diseases, the science of addiction itself, and the possibility that psychedelics are the next type of proposed medication that could lead to health consequences for the public.

The ultimate goal of this Research Topic is to assess the effects that opioids, marijuana, stimulants, and psychedelics have on people’s health and society, due to addiction. This Research Topic will evaluate available studies that show addictive medications have limited positive effects due to inherent addictive properties for out-of-control use, even in controlled settings, when used chronically, or short-term, depending on the drug. The research on psychedelics is in its infancy, and the issue will examine why the authors maintain the history of problems, including addiction, can be overcome by prescribing in therapeutic settings. They do not tackle these problems by prescribing inherently addicting medications in a “controlled” setting, as we know from our experience with opioids, marijuana, and amphetamines.

The Research Topic will also be exploring the laws and legal precedents used to allow physicians to prescribe these controlled substances under limited conditions. The Research Topic will question the differential diagnosis and how the marketing strategies targeting physicians have led to widespread and harmful effects in stimulant use, due to misdiagnosis. We believe that the evidence and research presented will optimistically help physicians, and perhaps even the general public, understand the problems surrounding addicting medications. This issue will encourage a point of view for the consideration of and research on addiction that could potentially improve the overall efficacy of addicting medications.

A further aim of this Research Topic will be to examine the effects of the medical-industrial complex and its influence on physicians. This Research Topic will explore the issue that pharmaceutical companies and physicians are eager to create new addicting medications that they claim will fix many chronic problems such as pain, mental illnesses, defects, or even addiction itself. This Research Topic will question why some physicians appear unwilling to prevent and treat addiction and diseases caused by it. The Research Topic will also examine the responsibility of medical institutions and physicians in providing the necessary education and change in medical practice to effectively diagnose and treat addiction. The opioid crisis will be used as a model for how the medical-industrial complex was able to deceive for-profit physicians and the public into using addicting medications through exaggerated research and influence.

We encourage research about the following topics for submission:

• What is addiction?
• Amphetamines and differential diagnosis
• Psychedelic history
• Addictive use of medications, despite the controlled environment
• The complicity of pharmaceutical companies and physicians with addicting medications
• Ease of diversion of addicting medications
• Health problems with psychedelics
• Examining the potential negative effects of these medications and their limited effectiveness due to addiction
• Why addicting medications are controlled substances
• Lack of research support
• Disrespect for addicting diseases

Keywords: Addictions, opioids, marijuana, psychedelics, medications

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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