E-Mail BOSTON - Opioid addiction is persistently stigmatized, delaying and preventing treatment for many - an urgent problem with overdose deaths continuing to rise. To help alleviate this, various medical ways of describing opioid-related impairment, such as "a chronically relapsing brain disease," "illness," or "disorder," have been promoted in diagnostic systems and among national health agencies. "While intensely debated, there were no rigorous scientific studies out there to inform practice and policy about which terms may be most helpful in reducing stigma," says John F. Kelly, PhD, lead investigator of a study published in Addiction on this topic, and director of the Recovery Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). "We wanted to test to what extent, if any, exposure to a variety of commonly used medical and nonmedical terms describing opioid-related impairment actually makes a difference in people's attitudes toward those with opioid addiction," he explains.