Blogs

The theory is that the more users we put in jail or prison, the fewer left out on the street. So why hasn’t that substantially reduced arrest and overdose statistics?

They qualify for the diagnosis, but have not yet experienced the sort of problems that are usually required to motivate a serious attempt to abandon drug use.

Maybe you’ll even suggest the medication. And the marketing team wants you to leave the doctor’s office with a prescription for that med.

I’ve been expecting a public relations counterattack on behalf of, and probably funded by, the pharmaceutical industry.

Based on the vast number of prescriptions for opioid medications written by US practitioners over the past few decades, we’ve become the clear leaders in opioid prescribing.

The author correctly observes that the type of treatment offered for addiction will reflect prevailing beliefs about addiction itself– its causes, effects, likely outcome.

Is that pain evidence of a worsening physical condition or of drug withdrawal?

Many of those programs treat opioid users without relying on medication, and yet manage to achieve remarkable success rates– sometimes 80% over a five year period.

…provoking is behavior that encourages a return to use.

Too many doctors worry about “those people” showing up in the waiting room. They don’t particularly want to be known as a resource for the addicted.