{"id":4162,"date":"2021-06-03T03:59:16","date_gmt":"2021-06-03T02:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=4162"},"modified":"2021-06-03T03:59:16","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T02:59:16","slug":"civil-commitment-for-opioid-misuse-the-need-for-an-ethical-use-framework","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2021\/06\/03\/civil-commitment-for-opioid-misuse-the-need-for-an-ethical-use-framework\/","title":{"rendered":"Civil commitment for opioid misuse: The need for an ethical use framework"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John C Messinger, Daniel J Ikeda, Ameet Sarpatwari<\/p>\n

In the 12 months prior to September 2020, there were over 66,000 fatal opioid overdoses in the United States<\/a>, a 36% increase over the previous year. Many scholars have hypothesized<\/a> that this dramatic rise was driven at least in part by conditions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, including increased barriers to accessing treatment for opioid use disorder and loss of social support.<\/p>\n

As the crisis has worsened, states have scrambled to devise interventions to slow the loss of life. One strategy that has gained favor in recent years is the use of civil commitment, which enables others to petition a court to forcibly detain individuals whose opioid misuse presents a clear and convincing danger to themselves or others. Between 2015 and 2018, 25 states amended or passed new legislation related to involuntary commitment for substance misuse generally<\/a>. More recently, now-President Joe Biden offered support for expansion of \u201cmandatory rehab\u201d<\/a> on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite political investment in the use of civil commitment for opioid use disorder, evidence of its effectiveness is sparse. Concern has also grown regarding the conditions within civil commitment facilities: investigations by the Prisoner\u2019s Legal Services of Massachusetts<\/a> found \u201cdozens of consistent accounts of the unit where initial detoxification takes place, describing the unit as filthy and stinking of the vomit, urine, and excrement of patients in the throes of cold-turkey withdrawal\u2026\u201d. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, these conditions are not only inhumane but also dangerous due to high disease transmissibility within institutionalized settings. Indeed, civil commitment programs in Massachusetts have reported COVID-19 outbreaks affecting dozens of individuals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Given these concerns, it is necessary to re-evaluate the use of civil commitment for treatment of opioid use disorder. In our article in the Journal of Medical Ethics<\/em>, we review the merits of this intervention and propose a comprehensive, ethical framework for its limited use.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Paper title: Civil Commitment for Opioid Misuse: Do Short-Term Benefits Outweigh Long-Term Harms?<\/a><\/p>\n

Authors: John C Messinger1<\/sup>, Daniel J Ikeda1<\/sup>, Ameet Sarpatwari1,2<\/sup><\/p>\n

Affiliations:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA<\/li>\n
  2. Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL), Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.<\/p>\n

    Social media accounts of post author(s): Twitter: @johncmessinger<\/a> @ameetsarpatwari<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By John C Messinger, Daniel J Ikeda, Ameet Sarpatwari In the 12 months prior to September 2020, there were over 66,000 fatal opioid overdoses in the United States, a 36% increase over the previous year. Many scholars have hypothesized that this dramatic rise was driven at least in part by conditions brought on by the […]<\/p>\n

    Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":353,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8057],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medical-ethics"],"yoast_head":"\nCivil commitment for opioid misuse: The need for an ethical use framework - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2021\/06\/03\/civil-commitment-for-opioid-misuse-the-need-for-an-ethical-use-framework\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Civil commitment for opioid misuse: The need for an ethical use framework - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By John C Messinger, Daniel J Ikeda, Ameet Sarpatwari In the 12 months prior to September 2020, there were over 66,000 fatal opioid overdoses in the United States, a 36% increase over the previous year. 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