Physicians’ Health Programs Offer Confidential, Effective Treatment Options for Impaired Doctors Seeking Recovery

Physicians’ Health Programs Offer Confidential, Effective Treatment Options for Impaired Doctors Seeking Recovery

The term “addicted physician” may seem like an oxymoron to most people, since doctors the world over are viewed as those people who care most about health – one presumes they’d care as much about their own health as much as they do the well-being of their patients. However, the statistics gathered by addiction researchers…

The Pluses and Minuses of the COVID Pandemic Forcing Addiction Support Groups to Go Online for Over a Year

The Pluses and Minuses of the COVID Pandemic Forcing Addiction Support Groups to Go Online for Over a Year

For the estimated 22 million people in the United States in recovery from substance-use disorders[1], recovery group meetings have been part of a daily protocol to help them stay “clean and sober” one day at a time. But once the COVID-19 pandemic kicked into high gear, the vast majority of in-person meetings closed down and…

Visibly upset person wearing a face mask

Pandemic-Fueled Restrictions, Isolation, Harder to Get Treatment All Precipitate Highest Recorded Overdose Deaths Toll, Per Experts

According to a just-released estimate by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a record number of drug overdose deaths were reported this past year—93,000—a 29% increase over the previous record (in 2019).[1] Brandon Marshall, a Brown University public health researcher who tracks overdose trends, said, “This is a staggering loss of human life. The nation…

New NIDA Study Shows Medication Treatment for Opioid Addiction Can Help Prevent Overdose Death

New NIDA Study Shows Medication Treatment for Opioid Addiction Can Help Prevent Overdose Death

The findings of recent research by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) demonstrate both the potentially lifer-saving value of getting medically assisted treatment if you have an opioid use disorder (OUD, a.k.a. opioid dependency or addiction). In the study, of the roughly 50,000 adults who received outpatient treatment for opioid use disorder, there were…

Some Basic Facts to Know About Withdrawal Management and Medication-Assisted Treatment for Detoxing from Opioids

Some Basic Facts to Know About Withdrawal Management and Medication-Assisted Treatment for Detoxing from Opioids

According to a current assessment published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), “Opioids are the most effective and widely used drugs in the treatment of severe pain.”[1] Given they’re so commonly used, what is problematic is how addictive these powerful pharmaceutical drugs are. The Mayo Clinic states, “Opioids are highly addictive, in large…

Rehab 101 – Sometimes the Most Important Action You Can Take to Maintain Your Recovery is Being Honest About Where You Are

Rehab 101 – Sometimes the Most Important Action You Can Take to Maintain Your Recovery is Being Honest About Where You Are

Having occasionally felt myself to be “in the trenches” of recovery myself—as perhaps you have, as well—I’d say some of the most challenging, frustrating and baffling experiences in learning to live this new way of life (especially early on) occur when our insides don’t match our outsides—that is, when what we’re doing at any given…