Looking Honestly – and with Acceptance – at Our Inability to Stop Drinking or Using is the First Step to Freedom

Looking Honestly – and with Acceptance – at Our Inability to Stop Drinking or Using is the First Step to Freedom

Looking Honestly – and with Acceptance – at Our Inability to Stop Drinking or Using is the First Step to Freedom Many of us who have found ourselves afflicted with a substance use disorder (a.k.a., chemical dependency, addiction to alcohol and/or drugs) know quite well the “internal voices” that can battle for dominance in our…

2022 North American Commission Report Addresses the Opioid Epidemic

2022 North American Commission Report Addresses the Opioid Epidemic

2022 North American Commission Report Addresses the Opioid Epidemic The current COVID pandemic, by all measures, has had a devastating effect on countless lives around the world. However, another epidemic is continuing to wreak havoc here in the U.S. and Canada. According to the Stanford-Lancet Commission on the North American Opioid Crisis (“the Commission”), there…

New Research Concludes Light-to-Moderate Alcohol Consumption Significantly Decreases and Deteriorates Brain Matter

New Research Concludes Light-to-Moderate Alcohol Consumption Significantly Decreases and Deteriorates Brain Matter

A just-published study drawing from multimodal imaging data on a large sample size—nearly 37,000 adults—concluded significant losses of both gray and white brain matter are attributable to light-to-moderate alcohol intake.[1] Prior to this study, decades of research on alcohol consumption has demonstrated heavy drinking and alcoholism are leading contributors to worldwide disease and deaths, as…

Addressing the Problem of an Addicted Physician

Addressing the Problem of an Addicted Physician

While exacting statistics regarding addicted physicians are sometimes challenging to arrive at, one study by the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital—which surveyed over 2,000 doctors nationwide across multiple specialties—found that 17% of physicians have encountered a doctor who is impaired by substance abuse or has a substance use disorder, causing problems…

NIH/NIDA Study Finds Decline in Buprenorphine Misuse Among Adults with Opioid Use Disorder

NIH/NIDA Study Finds Decline in Buprenorphine Misuse Among Adults with Opioid Use Disorder

Given the recent unprecedented spike in U.S. drug-related fatalities—statistics show in 2020 over 93,000 people died because of drug overdoses, with 75% of those deaths involving an opioid—a study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA, part of the National Institutes of Health/NIH), published by the Journal of the American Medical Association Open Network…

New Research Shows Amphetamine Abuse Increases Likelihood of Psychosis and Treatment Lowers the Risk

New Research Shows Amphetamine Abuse Increases Likelihood of Psychosis and Treatment Lowers the Risk

According to research published online Feb. 14, 2022 in the British journal Evidence-Based Mental Health (EBMH)—which included a 10-year follow-up study—amphetamine abusers were six times more likely to have psychosis than non-users.[1] However, in addition, the study indicated of those amphetamine abusers who entered addiction treatment (during deferred prosecution), more than one fourth (26%) were…