How data could help the mental health and addiction crisis in the United States

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Nearly one million people have died since 1999 from drug overdoses, and 75% of overdose deaths in 2020 involved an opioid – a tragic statistic that has increased eightfold since 1999.

Are you making the problem worse? Almost a fifth of the country has a diagnosed anxiety disorder – and it can start as early as puberty. Chronic anxiety can lead to worsening mental and physical conditions such as depression, substance abuse, chronic pain, poor quality of life and suicide, impacting the country's already strained healthcare system.

Let's not sweeten it up: we're in crisis. And current treatment models for substance use disorders (SUD) and mental health aren't working.

Unlocking the right data – at the individual patient and population level – is key to reversing this crisis.

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look here How can data help?

Health data is complex, fragmented and often incomplete. In behavioral health, the reality of the data is most dire.

Patient mental health and addiction data is often separated from other health records due to a lack of interoperability, regulatory constraints, and underinvestment in health informatics. But, if providers could easily and securely access reliable behavioral health data, they could develop more effective treatment plans based on a patient's complete history.

This concept sounds simple, but it's more complex in practice.

Imagine this: A patient with a history of opioid addiction is brought to the emergency room after a car accident. The attending physician prescribes an opioid for pain management without knowing the patient's chart. The patient takes it unknowingly and subsequently relapses.

What are the barriers to data integration and insights for healthcare providers?

The health sector continues to struggle with a lack of data on mental health and addiction. The reasons for this gap stem from many entrenched and institutionalized realities.

For starters, the healthcare sector and SUD and mental health care providers in particular are slow to adopt new technologies and processes.

Notably excluded from the incentives provided by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009, behavioral health has been left behind in access to technology and funding.

The persistence of the problem is evidenced by the drumbeat of reform of political centers and organizations in the sector. In a June 2022 report from Medicaid...