Fred Muench, a clinical psychologist and President of the Partnership to End Addiction in New York, spoke to Anna – Kynthia Bousdoukou on addictions in the midst of the pandemic. The interview was featured during the Wednesday, April 21 SNF DIALOGUES event, “Substance Abuse: A Pandemic within a Pandemic.”
Muench, who has faced his own experience of addiction, discussed the international scope of the problem. “The first thing we see is, whether you have a problem or not, alcohol sales have skyrocketed, across the globe. The other thing we’re seeing is an increase in prescriptions. And those are both for anti-depression, but also anti-anxiety medications and sedatives. We’re seeing a 30% increase, particularly during the beginning of COVID. We’re also seeing more synthetic use, and this has created an overdose crisis in the U.S., and in the use of methamphetamine because you can create it in a trailer in the middle of nowhere.”
The SNF DIALOGUES discussions are held through journalism nonprofit iMEdD (the incubator for Media Education and Development) and curated by Anna-Kynthia Bousdoukou.
