ABSTRACT
The late 1990s marked a turning point in America's crisis with opioid consumption. As a result, an increased prescription rate of opioids and other habit-forming medications played a major factor in the current opioid epidemic. A study published in the US National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health suggests that benzodiazepine prescriptions increased by 67% between 1996 and 2013 and likely contributed to an increase in accidental dependence. Traditional addiction, or substance use disorder, is the result of changes in the brain that result in a loss of control, compulsive use, and intensive cravings, and continued use despite consequences. Services like Lucid Lane are helpful in long-term discharge planning from recovery centers for traditional addiction and partnering with those afflicted with an accidental dependency, but they are only able to scratch the surface of the need at this point.
