Substance Use Disorder in Forcibly Displaced Populations

Globally, only one in five people with substance use disorders (SUD) are receiving treatment, which is largely due to stigma, policy, and lack of infrastructure. Forced migrant populations experience extreme mental and physical stress, trauma, abuses, and human rights violations, and subsequently have high prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression. These situations can worsen or trigger pre-existing mental health disorders, and SUD. Refugee populations in humanitarian settings remain vulnerable to SUD, yet they often go unaddressed and are trumped by larger issues including psychosocial distress, availability of substances, duration of displacement, competing priorities within the political realm, and stigmatization. This webinar will review current data on refugee mental health and SUD and present a relevant case. The aim is to exemplify the importance of understanding SUD in forcibly displaced persons and discuss its importance to public health practitioners.

Please join NNLM and our two guest speakers:

Kaveh Khoshnood PhD, MPH
Dr. Khoshnood is an Associate Professor at Yale School of Public Health.  He is trained as an infectious disease epidemiologist with over 30 years of experience studying HIV/AIDS and substance use in populations in US and internationally, particularly in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Dr. Khoshnood has been involved in research with refugees and forcibly displaced populations, particularly in the middle east region, for over a decade.

Jenna Butner MD, MPH
Dr. Butner is a double-boarded addiction medicine and family physician specializing in treating substance use disorders. She is an Assistant Professor Adjunct in Medicine, in the Program in Addiction Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine where she completed her addiction fellowship. She has recently completed her master’s in public health focusing on chronic disease epidemiology and environmental health sciences. Dr. Butner’s interests and research are in the treatment of opioid and alcohol use disorders, hepatitis C, chronic pain, and substance use disorders among forcibly displaced persons.