Attend Sept. 12 opioid talk with NFL vet Ryan O'Callaghan and Dan Schneider, focus of 'The Pharmacist'

• Medication-assisted opioid-addiction recovery still holds stigma, is not widely supported
• ‘To help people recover from their opioid addictions, medication-assisted treatment is our path forward’

CHICAGO --- Northwestern University opioid-addiction expert Sterling Elliott will moderate a panel discussion on the opioid epidemic at the Sept. 12 annual meeting of the Illinois Council of Health System Pharmacists.

The event will feature former NFL player and recovering drug addict Ryan O’Callaghan, whose fears of being outed as a closeted gay man and a shoulder injury led him to a drug addiction and planned suicide; and pharmacist and activist Dan Schneider, the focus of the 2020 Netflix docuseries, “The Pharmacist.”

Media are invited to attend the 90-minute event, which will begin at 12:50 p.m. (CT), Thursday, Sept. 12, at the Drury Lane Conference Center (100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181). Media interested in attending or covering the event should RSVP with Melissa Dyrdahl at MelissaD@ichpnet.org. Media must check in at the registration desk.

The session will focus on bolstering support of medication-assisted opioid treatment (MAT), which uses medications, alongside counseling and behavioral therapies, to treat substance-use disorders. Despite decades of research showing MAT is a highly effective tool in treating opioid-use disorder, it still holds stigma and is not widely supported or adopted, even among some pharmacists and clinicians.

“There’s a significant segment of the population that looks at drug addiction as a set of very poor choices rather than understanding that, yes, there’s a component to that, but at its base, it’s a disease in which the brain chemistry is altered in such a way that people are poorly wired to make poor decisions,” said Elliott, an assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a pharmacist. “They don’t necessarily start that way, but they might be more prone to it.”

He said he hopes the session will open attendees’ minds to the effectiveness of MAT.

Read about what physicians and care teams across Northwestern Medicine are doing to bring better care to people with substance use issues.

Where we stand in the opioid epidemic

In 2023 — the first time in five years — there were 3% fewer total deaths from opioid overdose than in 2022, which is largely attributed to the increased availability of the overdose-reversing drug Narcan. However, a larger percentage of people died from fentanyl in 2023 than in 2022.

“The American Zeitgeist is to make an achievement, shout it from the rooftops and then take a breath,” Elliott said. “You start to let your guard down. The longer you take a breath, the longer people will keep dying from the most insidious killer, fentanyl. 

“We’re saving more lives from people who are overdosing on pharmaceutical pain medications like Percocet and Norco, but we’re still not saving enough lives from the guy who bought heroin laced with fentanyl. We need to be helping people recover from their opioid addictions, and medication-assisted treatment is our path forward.”

The ICHP Annual Meeting runs from Sept. 12 to 14, 2024, at Drury Lane Theatre & Events.  The event provides education and networking for health-system pharmacists, technicians and pharmacy students from the state of Illinois. Learn more at www.ichpnet.org.