When treating addiction, why not equally support programs that target brain receptors and alternative treatments that address the psychological and social dimensions of addiction?
Addiction Is Not a Disease of Free Will
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Addiction Treatment Methods
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Ibogaine and Related Compounds: Safety and Effectiveness
Featured ArticleIbogaine has become increasingly popular in recent years for the treatment of drug and alcohol dependence, but how safe and effective are the treatments?
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Homeopathic Remedies: Helpful, Harmful, or Harmless Hype?
Featured ArticleAre there any real benefits to homeopathic medicine? Recently released data seems to indicate the answer is no.
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Is “Dual Diagnosis” Even Necessary Anymore?
Featured ArticleDespite earning separate DSM classifications, a debate over the strength of the correlation between substance use and other mental health diagnoses still lingers.
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Harm Reduction in Action: Here is Ed’s Story
Featured ArticleThis may just be one example of harm reduction allowing one alcoholic to improve his quality of life. But he didn’t die. I didn’t “let him” use and watch him spiral…
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Death After Treatment for Heroin Dependence
Featured ArticleAlthough a few areas such as New York have made progress in this direction, the country lags behind and remains mired in a slough of ignorance and overdose death.
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Setting the AA Record Straight Part II: Myths and Facts About the Program
Featured ArticleA number of people expressed anger and indignation at Part 1 of this series, with some suggesting that I had “turned” into an AA supporter, but my views have not changed.
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Check Your Blind Spot: Understanding Implicit Bias
Featured ArticleImplicit bias is a well-studied phenomenon. The phrase refers to the unconscious attitudes we have towards groups of people. So, what does this look like in treatment?
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Are You Really Sober if You’re on Medication-Assisted Treatment?
Featured ArticleThe very nature of addiction makes that phrase, “just say no,” or moderating, almost impossible. In the privacy of their own hell, they deem themselves weak, moral failures.
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Explanatory Frameworks for Understanding Addiction
Featured ArticleUsually one doesn’t think about physics in the context of addiction, but there is a valuable lesson to be learned courtesy of quantum mechanics and relativity.
First Study to Show Alternative Recovery Groups as Effective as AA
A large number of observational and quasi-experimental studies support associations between participating in 12-step groups and better substance use outcomes, as well as psychological and social functioning.
A Psychology Major’s Experience With Addiction and Ibogaine Treatment
Jason was a psychology major at a prominent university on the verge of losing everything due to addiction. Then he discovered a radical treatment, illegal in the United States, that changed his life.
Safer Opioids: A Well Kept Secret for Chronic Pain
As a chronic pain patient of more than five years, I have to say I was a bit miffed when, not too long ago, I found out about oral buprenorphine products for pain.
The People Are Ahead of Doctors and Politicians on Legalizing Pot
States that legalize marijuana experience a prompt reduction in opioid addiction and overdose. And legalizing pot has other obvious benefits.
MRI Studies Show Chemical Aversion Therapy Reduces Alcohol Cravings
Numerous studies have demonstrated that conditioned taste aversion therapy is highly effective for alcohol cravings.
What’s the Harm in Using “Harm Reduction?”
I think that the term “harm reduction” suggests something “less than” the ideal which, in the case of substance use disorders, is considered abstinence.
The True Nature of Addiction: Disease or Something Different?
Addiction impacts the individual on all levels: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Lasting recovery means doing the work of healing on all four levels.
Why Are Doctors Afraid to Prescribe Medical Marijuana?
Pot deserves a lot more research and clinical consideration as a much lesser evil relative to opioids and as a potential benefit in a variety of clinical situations.
The Continuing Crusade for Cleaning Up Addiction Language
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: people with active substance use disorders (SUDs) are not “dirty.” So why are they described with “dirty” words?
Landmark Study Reveals Many Pathways to Resolving Alcohol and Drug Problems
We now have findings from an important study that underscore what many of us have been saying for eons: there are many paths to recovery.
