An Unusual Way to Die
I keep waiting for the intrepid detective to show up and take charge, solve the mystery.
Ketamine and The Hype Around It
I was surprised to learn that the antidepressant effects of ketamine were completely blocked by naltrexone, an opioid antagonist. That certainly suggests ketamine is making use of the brain’s opioid systems...
…stop drinking alcohol, that is, for an extended period, regardless of reason. It makes a difference if your previous drinking qualifies as heavy, but even if it doesn’t, you’re still likely to experience a number of changes.
Science is becoming clearer as to what those changes might be. A recent article on the subject:
Here’s what happens to your brain when you stop drinking alcohol
My primary interest lies in what happens to people with high-moderate to severe alcohol problems, once they do quit drinking.
“Well, for one thing, they stop getting worse”, observes a colleague. That’s certainly true. But what about getting better? How much (if any) improvement can they expect — and how soon?
As the article notes, a 2024 systematic review of studies found that people with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) who successfully abstained from drinking experienced significant improvement in a number of crucial cognitive abilities — including the all-important...
Science is becoming clearer as to what those changes might be. A recent article on the subject:
Here’s what happens to your brain when you stop drinking alcohol
My primary interest lies in what happens to people with high-moderate to severe alcohol problems, once they do quit drinking.
“Well, for one thing, they stop getting worse”, observes a colleague. That’s certainly true. But what about getting better? How much (if any) improvement can they expect — and how soon?
As the article notes, a 2024 systematic review of studies found that people with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) who successfully abstained from drinking experienced significant improvement in a number of crucial cognitive abilities — including the all-important...
- Thinking About Addiction
- In the News
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An Unusual Way to Die
I keep waiting for the intrepid detective to show up and take charge, solve the mystery.
Those Troubling OD Statistics
In recent months, samples have been found with as much as 20% fentanyl content. It’s easy to see how this could increase both the total number of overdoses, and the percentage of victims who did not survive.
Kid-Friendly Pot
I couldn’t find any evidence of consequences suffered by the pot peddlers, so can only assume there weren’t many. And it does look as if they’re still making the same products in the same packages.
- Resources About
- Addiction
- Addictive Substances
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Here’s What Happens When You Stop
Even simply reducing alcohol consumption to low levels without full abstinence nonetheless increased cortical brain volume.
An ADHD-maxxer
Those signs and symptoms happen to be shared by most people who arrive in treatment for opioid or alcohol or stimulant disorders. They're behaviors that clinicians use to help them identify addictive disorders in their patients.
Here’s What Happens When You Stop
Even simply reducing alcohol consumption to low levels without full abstinence nonetheless increased cortical brain volume.
What We Can Learn from Estonia
...the situation has improved, mostly because of renewed efforts on the demand side. Estonia adopted harm reduction strategies used effectively in other countries, such as take-home naloxone; ready access to MAT; and efforts to destigmatize drug use and drug users.
The Storytellers
One young man explained that he avoided speaker meetings because the “drunkalogues” he heard triggered in him an awful craving for a drink.
Doubts about Diagnosis
It’s vulnerable to bias, both on the part of the patient and the practitioner.
- Resources For
- Addiction Clinicians
- Families
- People in Recovery
- Programs
Rage-baited
From a counseling standpoint, it’s a time when we ought to be advising patients to restrict their social media activity, at the very least to selected forums and sites that support recovery goals
Rage-baited
From a counseling standpoint, it’s a time when we ought to be advising patients to restrict their social media activity, at the very least to selected forums and sites that support recovery goals
Parenting Under The Influence
Children raised in such families are more likely to be exposed to violence, to initiate their own substance use at an earlier age, and to have mental health problems in childhood.
Is This Recovery?
...there are other folks out there like these— pretending to sobriety yet still secretly using, and hoping to avoid the sort of trouble that haunted them in the past.
Officers in the House
...with law enforcement agencies taking on vastly different roles, planning and practicing our response appears more important than in the past.
- Library
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A Novel Approach
...the author, who grew up in and around the region, chose to use its earnings to found Higher Ground, a home for recovering women.
A Novel Approach
...the author, who grew up in and around the region, chose to use its earnings to found Higher Ground, a home for recovering women.
Diagnosing Cannabis Use Disorder: Updated
It certainly makes sense that if you suffer from a major mental illness, you should stay away from pot.
Video: Practical Advice on Prescription Painkiller Problems
People have abused opiates for 5,000 years. As much as medicine depends on them, they've always created problems for a percentage of users.
