The Preventable Epidemic: A Frontline Doctor’s Experience and Recommendations to Resolve America’s Opioid Crisis

The Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller!

Every day, nearly 275 people are dying from opioid addiction in America. This doctor wants to stop the crisis.

Over the past two decades, the opioid addiction has resulted in the deaths of nearly one million people in our country. Screening and brief intervention for addictions will mean fewer people dying from illegal overdose and ensure that patients get prescription-grade pain pills or buprenorphine from the pharmacy, but doctors are not taught this in American medical schools.

In 2006, after years of feeling powerless to help those addicted to opioids, benzodiazepines, and stimulants, general practitioner Dr. Arun Gupta joined the American Society of Addiction Medicine and earned his certification to treat patients with addictions. Now, in his eye-opening new book, after decades of research and first-hand experience, he tells us how to end this crisis that is destroying so many lives. Here are some hard facts:

• The CDC classifies Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and overdoses as “preventable,” and yet nearly 275 are dying every day.
• SAMHSA says 41.1 million people needed Substance Use Disorder (SUD) treatment in the past year, but only 6.5% received it. There are not enough addiction doctors to care for them.
• Doctors are trying to comply with the literally thousands of regulations that have been thrown at them, or they face serious punitive consequences.
• Respecting an addict's basic human dignity means they must have access to treatment. If they do not, we confirm their lives are not worth saving. The medical profession is trusted to save lives.

Passionate, factual, and written with truth as the only agenda, this book offers the practical solutions for the War on Drugs that American so desperately needs.

Dr. Arun Gupta has worked as a solo primary care physician for 35 years, and as an addiction doctor for the past 15 years. He is an American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) certified Addiction Provider and Certified Medical Review Officer.Dr. Gupta did his pre-medical from 1971-1973 and graduated from Medical School at Punjab University in India in 1979. He practiced as a physician there until he came to the USA, where he continued his medical residency through Michigan State University. He is currently affiliated with Promedica Reginal Monroe Hospital.Over the years of treating addiction patients, he has seen firsthand the devastation and heartbreak caused to their families and has a passion for stopping the Opioid Crisis that is claiming so many lives in our country. He is a member of Rotary International and Chair of the Rotary's Medication Treatment Action Group to promote Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) and Addiction Prevention in North America. His other affiliations include Michigan State Medical Society, American Society of Addiction Medicine, the Michigan Society of Addiction Medicine (MiSAM), Monroe County Medical Society, American Society of Lasers in Medicine and Surgery, and the Mercy Memorial Foundation, Trustee Society. He has also served as a board member of Meadow Montessori School, in Monroe.His research includes Phase II, investigating (IRB's) for treating addictions using laser acupuncture for smoking, weight, stress, alcohol and drugs, and he is a highly sought-after speaker, having given more than 200 educational talks on addiction since 2008. He enjoys teaching and regularly has medical students, NPs, and PAs rotate through his practice.Dr. Gupta is the author of the highly acclaimed new book, The Preventable Epidemic: A Frontline Doctor's Experience and Recommendations to Resolve America's Opioid Crisis.He and his wife live in Monroe, MI, where he practices medicine. They have three grown, married children who are all medical doctors.