Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

Throughout the book, Lembke indirectly refers to the opioid epidemic and often uses it in examples to help make various points. For example, she mentions that “[o]ne of the biggest risk factors for getting addicted to any drug is easy access to that drug. When it’s easier to get a drug, we’re more likely to try it. In trying it, we’re more likely to get addicted to it” (18). The author describes how opioid medication was routinely overprescribed, citing one data point showing that in 2009, “doctors in Arkansas wrote 116 opioid prescriptions per 100 persons living in Arkansas” (124). This is one state, in one calendar year. The sheer amount of opioids made available to the population is staggering and, as Lembke points out, increased the prospect that a vast number of those taking the drugs would acquire an addiction.

Lembke cites the Arkansas data in the context of detailing the story of her patient Chris. While the author doesn’t probe into the epidemic’s complexities, she uses Chris’s example to show what flooding the market with such a product can do to people. Although Chris was a somewhat sensitive individual contending with some personal problems, he didn’t simply wake up one day and decide to compulsively take opioids.