Psychostimulants, Opioids and Our Brain

Psychostimulants, Opioids and Our Brain contains an overview of different drugs effects on the brain and body. It explains stigma, the science behind opioid and stimulant dependency, and how to identify an overdose and how to respond to save a life.Parents and caregiver addiction and drug use is a major risk factor for child abuse and neglect. Neglect is the #1 form of child abuse inAmerica, and the main reason children are removed from their homes. The increase in the number of children in foster care comes at the same time there is an increase in the percentof children entering foster care due to substance abuse. Anecdotal evidence and expert opinion link this increase to the parallel rise in parentalopioid addiction and overdoses. One- Third of children entering foster care in 2016 were due at least in part to provider awareness of drug misuse by parents or foster children, with the aim to provide early interventions, reducing the number of children taken from their homes.