Author Archive
Mother Tells the Story of Letting Go of Her Son … Without Giving Up
The “three Cs” are an important piece of advice for anybody with a family member struggling with addiction: you didn’t cause it, you can’t control it, and you can’t cure it. It can be explained very easily, but actually taking the message on board is far from simple. As a parent, you’re inclined to think that you made some sort of mistake in raising your child, or that if you just restrict his or her freedom enough or find the “right” method, you could help your child get better. Full Story
Parkinson’s Drugs Fueling Addiction
Medications used to treat Parkinson’s disease may make patients more susceptible to compulsive behaviors, which can lead to addictions. The drugs are from a class called dopamine agonists, and the problem with them may be severe enough to warrant the Food and Drug Administration’s most serious warning label: the black-box warning. Full Story
Practitioners Failing at Alcohol Interventions
Alcohol interventions are brief discussions designed to encourage people at risk for serious alcohol problems and people already affected by alcohol abuse or alcoholism to change their drinking behaviors. Professionals not directly involved in substance treatment sometimes receive instruction on how to administer an intervention to potential problems drinkers they encounter while doing their jobs. In a small-scale study scheduled for publication in 2014 in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review, researchers from the United Kingdom’s University of Stirling sought to estimate how often these trained, non-expert professionals actually provide brief alcohol interventions when appropriate. Full Story
Do Teens With Severe Substance Problems Benefit From Brief Interventions?
Researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School have assessed the potential effectiveness of brief interventions for teenagers involved in the serious misuse of alcohol or marijuana, concluding that brief interventions are more effective for mild to moderate instances of substance abuse than for severe cases. Full Story
Topiramate Helps Alcoholics by Reducing Cravings
Topiramate is the generic name of a medication that doctors in the U.S. increasingly use as an adapted treatment for people in recovery for alcoholism. The medication appears to make drinking less likely to occur during the recovery process, but no one knows precisely how or why. In a study published in October 2014 in the journal Addiction Biology, researchers from three U.S. institutions sought to determine the specific reasons why topiramate improves the prospects for successful alcoholism treatment. These researchers concluded that the medication produces its primary effects by reducing the body’s sensitivity to alcohol cravings. Full Story
Drunk and Drugged Driving Over New Year’s—Don’t Become a Statistic
In 2012, 32 million people in the U.S. drove after using drugs or drinking. For drunk driving, New Year’s Day is the worst day of the year, with over half of all fatal crashes involving a drunk driver. It might surprise you that New Year’s Eve doesn’t take the top spot, but it’s after midnight when drinkers leave parties and contemplate doing something very stupid. For anybody struggling with addiction, the risk of relapse is compounded by the possibility that—although not originally intending to drink or use drugs—you decide that you’re sober enough to drive home. If you need to consider whether you’re safe to drive, you probably aren’t. Think that’s extreme? Let’s look at the facts and statistics about drunk and drugged driving. Full Story
Heroin-Assisted Treatment: A Closer Look at a Forbidden Possibility
In drug maintenance therapies for opioid addiction, less dangerous narcotics called methadone and buprenorphine are substituted for heroin and prescription painkillers. Doses are administered in a clinical setting and over time an attempt is made to phase out the maintenance drugs and eliminate opioid dependency entirely. Legally obtained methadone and buprenorphine have become increasingly popular with addiction specialists looking to guide their patients back to good health, as drug replacement therapy has been shown to produce excellent results in both controlled studies and real-world conditions.
But on a worldwide basis, methadone and buprenorphine are not the only options for treatment professionals interested in trying drug maintenance therapy. In a half-dozen European countries, heroin itself, in synthetic form, is also being used as a replacement drug to help addicts control their heroin dependency. Full Story
Wiping Memories to Treat Addiction
A professor and director of research at Cambridge University has completed research that could lead to a dramatic new method of addiction treatment: targeting and eliminating memories related to addiction.
Professor Barry Everitt, one of three winners of the 25th annual Neuronal Plasticity Prize of the Fondation Ipsen, recently revealed his research targeting the memory plasticity of rodents and its effect on their addictive substance use. Much of Everitt’s career as a behavioral neuroscientist has been directed toward understanding how learning and memory relate to addictive drug use. Full Story
Buprenorphine/Naloxone Effective in Opioid Addicts With Co-Occurring Disorders
Buprenorphine and naloxone are two medications often used together to help individuals recovering from an addiction to opioid drugs or medications. A significant number of the people affected by an opioid addiction also have diagnosable problems stemming from a serious mental health issue such as major depression, bipolar disorder or an anxiety disorder. In a study published in March 2014 in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, researchers from five U.S. institutions sought to determine if the buprenorphine-naloxone combination still produces treatment benefits in recovering prescription opioid addicts also affected by a co-existing mental health problem.
Indiana’s Drug Monitoring Program Results in Fewer Prescriptions for Scheduled Meds
In the face of a national epidemic of prescription drug abuse, many states are rolling out prescription drug monitoring programs, or PDMPs. The systems are essentially online databases of patient information that track use of scheduled medications.
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The Addiction Primer: Everything You Need to Know to Get Help for a Loved One
A very inexpensive yet indispensable guide for anyone struggling with a loved one's addiction. Chapters on intervention, what to expect from rehab, and information on how addiction impacts the family.
