USA. Inside the Battle for the Future of Addiction Medicine
USA. Inside the Battle for the Future of Addiction Medicine
NEW ORLEANS — Elyse Stevens had a reputation for taking on complex medical cases. People who’d been battling addiction for decades. Chronic-pain patients on high doses of opioids. Sex workers and people living on the street.
“Many of my patients are messy, the ones that don’t know if they want to stop using drugs or not,” said Stevens, a primary care and addiction medicine doctor.
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But not everyone agrees with this flexible approach that prioritizes working with patients on their goals, even if abstinence isn’t one of them. And it came to a head in the summer of 2024.
“The same things I was high-fived for thousands of times — suddenly that was bad,” Stevens said. (KFF Health News, USA, 07.01.2026)