The nuts and bolts of addiction, recovery, prevention, treatment and addictive substances. 

Addiction



Back to Biases

The Cognitive Biases Tricking Your Brain I’ve often wondered why it’s so difficult to change popular attitudes and beliefs about





Secondhand Drinking

We’re all familiar with the concept of secondhand smoking. It’s a form of direct pollution of the environment, comparable to





Buyer Beware

Buyer Beware: If ever there were a time to heed that ancient maxim, it’s now. This case centers on revealing





In the News: Return

Guess what’s getting renewed attention? The “gateway” theory of drug use. Here’s one link. The gateway model was the brainchild





Naloxone Fatigue

We’re seeing some pushback from first responders, particularly law enforcement, to administering naloxone at the scene of an opioid overdose.





In the News: Opioid

I’ve been reading some very interesting things about the possibility of developing a vaccine to protect against opioid addiction. On





Pain Pill Cycle

Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo) made the headlines with a demand for documents to help Congress determine if opioid makers fueled





The View Depends on

Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation long-term opioid users poll shows very different perspectives One thing that emerged clearly from the recent survey of





War Within

A brief followup to a previous post about one woman’s experience with addiction to Adderall. Here’s the article that started





Cross-Addiction

I was asked again for an opinion on the concept of cross-addiction– a term that’s been around a long time





What is a Cannabis

Half the US population reports having tried cannabis at one time or another. Only a minority of users– perhaps 9-10%–





Miracle Max

I came across this well-written account of a young woman’s struggles to help her heroin-addicted uncle out of the morass





Theory

Someone in a discussion group was challenging people to ‘refute’ the research of this one scientist into the origins of





The Power of Loss

It’s well established in research: people are loss-averse. That means that given a choice, we’re more preoccupied with the possibility





Pot and the NFL

This was NFL Draft week, and yet again several potential high draft choices found themselves slipping in the ranks due





Compulsion

The notion of compulsion confuses many people. It’s not all that easy to come up with a precise definition. You’ll





Spontaneous Remission?

We’re hearing the phrase spontaneous remission used now in discussions of addiction. It’s borrowed from cancer treatment, where it’s used





Language and Labeling

Interesting piece in the Guardian by an author who suffers from bipolar disorder. An excerpt: Referring to somebody as “bipolar”





Heavy Users

Here’s an interesting blog from the Washington Post on how American adults drink. It’s based on a 2007 book. Check





The Labels We Use

There’s an ongoing debate in mental health and addictions about the merits and demerits of ‘labeling’ clients. One side argues





The Culture of Drug

I learned a new term today: “feetoxing”. It’s used by clients of methadone clinics to describe the practice of quickly





The War Within

I never had much luck with alcoholics who wanted to moderate their drinking rather than give it up altogether. One





Hidden Withdrawal

Everyone knows that addicts and alcoholics use substances to reduce the pain of withdrawal. Yet in the early and middle





How Easy am I

How and Why Addicted People Do It “How easy am I to manipulate?” It’s a good question and one that





Fear of the Disease

Just the other morning someone in a discussion group airily informed me that knowledge of addictive disease was irrelevant to





Do I Have a

This article is shareblogged from A Young Psychologist’s Blog, with thanks to the author. A hard question. Not always an





What KIND of Disease

I’m currently studying addictions and I’m somewhat confused by different opinions run into about medications like methadone or Suboxone. In





Evolution of a Disease

E.M. Jellinek’s book The Disease Concept of Alcoholism appeared in 1960. Jellinek reviewed a broad spectrum of available knowledge from





Defense: Denial

Denial is an inability to accurately perceive the extent or severity of a problem. Denial often goes hand in hand





The Disease Debate

Today I received yet another article about yet another physician who declared that addiction was not in fact a disease.





Nature or Nurture?

Is it nature or nurture? (What are the roles of genetics verses environment?) Why does it skip generations sometimes? ”





Is There a Cure?

I’ve seen a commercial on TV by someone who claims that his program ‘cures’ addiction. And I noticed you saying




Treatment



Life Without Opioids

There have been some very powerful arguments made by patients and pain specialists in support of liberalized prescribing practices for





Proposing a Plan

I was interested in this candidate’s plan for the drug crisis because Senator Klobuchar hails from Minnesota, a state with





Why No Opioid Taper?

The Politico website (of all places) recently published a long and informative discussion about the unintended consequences of various measures





Pain Psychology

I wanted to call attention to this piece on the development of psychological approaches to chronic pain. More attention is





Conflict of Interest Case

https://youtu.be/hWQiXv0sn9Y John Oliver’s piece on Rehab specifically mentions a situation where the owner of a well-known treatment program also owns





Depression Update

This Washington Post article is a decent overview of current thinking on depression treatment. Some takeaways: The two most common





Is MAT Enough?

I’ve noticed a push from some quarters to add therapeutic programming to Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), particularly Opioid Treatment. That





Cannabis Treatment

Here’s a very interesting piece from Stanford professor and psychiatrist Keith Humphreys on changes in the profile of a typical





Recovery Homes

You may have heard or read about scandals involving recovery homes, which over the past decade have become a fixture





The Cannabis Cure?

I was fascinated by this article in The Guardian. It concerns a Southern California treatment facility that has integrated pot





A Place for Placebo?

In the midst of an opioid epidemic, we find ourselves searching for alternatives to our dependence on  painkillers for chronic





Pot in Rehab

I’ve been curious to see how inpatient rehabs will respond to people who arrive in treatment expecting to continue smoking





In Again, Out Again

I’ve often wondered about the high dropout (or if you prefer, low retention) rates in some medication-based Opioid Treatment Programs





Twenty-Eight Days

NPR recently did a short piece on the origins and merits of the traditional 28-day inpatient addiction treatment program. When





Three Challenges

Observing outpatient treatment in different settings (as I often do), it strikes me that we might divide a typical client





Boxing

A counselor had asked me how Suboxone might be abused. I e-mailed a couple docs who have experience with it





Miracle Max

I came across this well-written account of a young woman’s struggles to help her heroin-addicted uncle out of the morass





The Last Dose

What is it about the last dose of methadone or Suboxone that sinks so many well-intentioned attempts to successfully taper





Going to Pot

Some not-at-all startling info: Marijuana use among US adults doubled between 2002 and 2012– to 9.5%, or 23-24 million people.





Cycles

There was an article on the front page of the Washington Post recently, telling the story of a young man who





The Monitoring Model

If addictions are so resistant to treatment, then why do certain approaches– I’m thinking now of the professional assistance programs for





Beyond the Jargon

What you’re reading on that Treatment Program website or brochure. The substance abuse treatment industry is growing fast. New payment





To Maintain or Not

…that is the question.” I came across an Internet debate on the relative merits of opioid maintenance versus opioid-free treatment.





Alternatives

Cecile was describing her experience with a local chiropractor. This is Santa Fe, so it’s not the bone-crunching style of





Ideology Wars

A colleague of mine was speaking favorably of his own experience of residential treatment some years before. “The way I





Do I Have a

This article is shareblogged from A Young Psychologist’s Blog, with thanks to the author. A hard question. Not always an





Can We Make Patient

We’re designing a patient education program as part of a research project. We’ve heard this is something of a specialty




Prevention



Proposing a Plan

I was interested in this candidate’s plan for the drug crisis because Senator Klobuchar hails from Minnesota, a state with





In The News: 56

Panel Recommends Opioid Solutions but Puts No Price Tag on Them Bruce Springsteen once recorded a song complaining about the





In the News: Painkiller

The Washington Post recently posted an update on the impending prosecution of an Oklahoma physician who allegedly over-prescribed painkillers and muscle





Borders and Drugs

This past year has focused considerable attention on the issue of protecting our nation’s borders. I’ve been thinking about our





The Cannabis Debate

You know that old argument about legalizing cannabis because it’s no worse for your health than alcohol or tobacco? That’s





Medical Manipulation

John Talmadge, an eminent Dallas-based addiction psychiatrist, reports stumbling on this while browsing the web (misspellings courtesy of the author):





Another Worry for the

A study recently reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine indicates that older adults prescribed opiate painkillers after minor surgical




Addictive Substances


Skunked

You may have come across a popular form of marijuana known as ‘skunk’, sometimes called ‘stinky weed’, a hybrid of





Stimulants Today

Given our preoccupation with opioids, we’may have neglected some important events involving a group of drugs that not so long





Microdosers

This article may not be of much direct use to addiction clinicians, since I doubt many of you will be





Edible Alert

You may have read about the marked increase in ER visits in states such as Colorado where legal cannabis use





The New Herbalists

“The New Herbalism” is a term coined by Steven Modello M.D. over at the Science-Based Medicine website, to describe the recent





The Pot Wars Continue

Popular book on marijuana’s apparent dangers is pure alarmism, experts say The above-linked article was ostensibly intended to refute some





LSD in the UK

Amanda Feilding: ‘LSD can get deep down and reset the brain – like shaking up a snow globe’ This is





Does CBD Work?

I like Richard Friedman’s columns in The New York Times for his well-reasoned opinions and for his ability to express





Vaping Goes Pro

JUUL Hits the Big Time Here are a couple recent stories about the multibillion dollar investment made in Juul, the





Synergism Strikes

A new Federal report indicates that the majority of fatal overdoses involve multiple substances, instead of just a single culprit:





Is GHB Next?

You’ve no doubt heard of GHB (gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid) as a notorious “date rape” drug. The story doesn’t end there. Turns





Addicted to Pot

Here’s a link to a recent account of a writer’s self-described addiction to marijuana, from the New York Times. Such





Cannabis Marketing

There’s apparently been a dramatic shift in the Pacific Northwest as a result of states legalizing cannabis for widespread consumption.





In the News: The

An extended article provides a useful update on the Kratom debate. It’s a challenge to find media accounts that consider





Psychedelia

This article in the Washington Post is from a physician who specializes in palliative care. He’s advocating use of psychedelic drugs





Controlling Cannabis

  This is a remarkably intelligent look at the growing problem of cannabis “overuse” and its associated consequences. It’s something





About the Binge

I’ve read several recent pieces in the media on an uptick in binge drinking. That doesn’t exactly come as a





Gabapentin

I was reading about the dramatic increase in the use and abuse of gabapentin, brand name Neurontin. Here’s a piece





Beware Lookalikes

More bad news: the next wave of overdoses, fatal and otherwise, will probably feature “lookalikes” for common drugs of abuse,





Cannabis and the Political

I was looking over some recommendations that emerged last summer from House and Senate Appropriations Committee hearings. “Appropriations” means funding,





Cannabis Treatment

Here’s a very interesting piece from Stanford professor and psychiatrist Keith Humphreys on changes in the profile of a typical





Extraordinary Delusions

I’d describe the explosion in cannabis-related business ventures as a classic economic ‘bubble’. They occur regularly in different industries. Cannabis,




THC molecular model


Pot Potency

Exactly how much THC is in today’s marijuana? To some extent, it depends on the sample you’re looking at, and





Cannabis-Related Illness

Here’s some interesting information on a new illness, thought by doctors to be related to longterm marijuana use. The name: “Cannabinoid Hyperemesis





The View Depends on

Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation long-term opioid users poll shows very different perspectives One thing that emerged clearly from the recent survey of





Vagaries of Vaping

The good news: cigarette smoking is down, to around 17% of Americans. I believe that’s an all-time low. But cigarettes





In the News: Adderall

A recent New York Times Magazine features a fascinating piece on one woman’s experience with Adderall– now the second most common





Psychonautics

As we’re hearing more about the potential for psychedelics in the treatment of major mental illnesses and addiction, I thought





Cannabis Next

In Britain at least, there’s increasing concern over escalating cannabis use by young persons assessed as vulnerable to psychosis (young





THC and CBD

Just to clarify something that comes up in discussions of medical marijuana: First, we should probably switch from the word





Boxing

A counselor had asked me how Suboxone might be abused. I e-mailed a couple docs who have experience with it





Snake Oil

In our local weekly: A full page ad by a Colorado company touting the benefits of its products. “The Power





New Club Drugs

A brief update on two drugs that seem to be showing up more often in treatment settings, usually as part of





On Its Way (or

Back in January, National Public Radio did a piece on the emergence of hash oil, a resinous substance extracted from





Aaieee!! Krokodil!

This is the legendary ‘flesh-eating’ drug from Russia that’s been making the news on a regular basis for some months





Bupe Dreams

What’s your position on detox and maintenance? Do you recommend it to programs? I certainly have, especially those that treat




Recovery



Chill Breathing

is about research on the brain’s ability to calm itself when under stress. Most of what I know about calm





Witnessing

There’s been a lot of discussion of transgenderism in the news lately. I couldn’t help noticing some common features with





Intrusive Thoughts

These are common in the experience of many addicts and alcoholics, both during active use and later on, in recovery. Working





Recovery Anxiety

Psychologists sometimes refer to addiction as “a central organizing principle” in the addict’s life. That means that over the months





Whose Life is it,

A Beginner’s Guide to Family Recovery Getting key family members involved, educated, and supportive of clients’ recovery is a major





Sustain the Gain

A Relapse Prevention Workbook for Residential Treatment Programs Victor is bemoaning the fact that after a month in rehab, he





Tools for Recovery

One goal of treatment is to provide the addict or alcoholic with “tools for recovery.”  These aren’t objects or little