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Abstract
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This Research Topic of Frontiers in Psychiatry was developed by scientists and clinicians within the Louisiana Addiction Research Center (LARC). The LARC is one of six research centers at Louisiana State University Health Shreveport (LSUHS). LSUHS includes the School of Medicine, School of Graduate Studies, and School of Allied Health. The campus is attached to a large level-1 trauma center and safety-net hospital that serves the vulnerable communities of North Louisiana, East Texas, South Arkansas, and elsewhere. It is one of only 120 academic medical centers in the United States.
The mission of the LARC is to provide addiction research and education in an integrated environment pursuing the latest in innovative approaches and learning. Through this research it is our goal to develop therapeutic models that optimize compassionate care to patients suffering from substance use disorders (SUDs), while improving knowledge and understanding of SUDs as a public health issue through active collaboration with our community. This LARC is also focused on understanding the interaction between SUDs and critical comorbid conditions such as depression and anxiety that may contribute to drug taking. It places great emphasis on understanding how the interactions between these comorbidities and drug taking can lead to the devastating outcomes of fatal drug overdoses and suicide.
The emergence of the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic created a public health crisis of unprecedented magnitude. The leadership of the LARC wrote from early in the pandemic that the stress, economic insecurity, and breakdown in social support were likely to lead to or exacerbate ongoing mental and behavioral health crises, with dramatic increases in depression, anxiety, substance use, drug-related overdoses, and suicide. To combat these crises locally, the LARC organized a Mental Health Summit in Shreveport, Louisiana. Participants included local physicians and allied health clinicians, LSUHS medical residents and students, LSUHS scientists and Ph.D. graduate students, LSUHS allied health professionals and students, and LSUHS physician alumni. The goals of the summit were to educate and train scientists, providers and our community about SUDs and suicide...
Language: en |