Multifaceted Approaches to Addressing the Opioid Epidemic: St Louis Edition

This ignite symposium examines approaches to addressing the opioid epidemic, using a series of brief presentations.
Seven speakers introduce the problem and potential solutions from their disciplinary perspective (i.e., pharmacy, public policy, pain management, neuroscience, psychology, and sociology) while also discussing potential barriers to implementation. This team of panelists delivered a pre-COVID presentation at UHSP, including a Women’s health pharmacist who works in prenatal care (Alicia Forinash, UHSP); Opioid withdrawal/anxiety researcher (Ream Al-Hasani, UHSP/Washington University School of Medicine); Pharmacist who works with community partners to address opioid issues (Amy Tiemeier, UHSP); and the chair is a Psychologist who researches medication hoarding (Melanie VanDyke, UHSP).
Overall, the presenters covered 4 primary approaches to confront the Opioid Epidemic: Treatment, Harm Reduction, Supply, and Demand-a crisis that has not gone away during the COVID-19 outbreak.