STAT recently posted a series on the public health costs associated with alcohol. It's a welcome subject of focus. Opioids have overwhelmed media and professional attention, despite far greater death tolls from alcohol and tobacco. ...the number of alcohol deaths occurring in the U.S. each year exceeds the number of opioid deaths at any point in that … Continue reading AA: Poisoned at the root?

Sis Wenger, a pioneering advocate for children affected by addiction and former leader of the National Association for Children of Addiction (formerly National Association for Children of Alcoholics), recently passed away. She also worked tirelessly to reach children living with addiction directly, spreading the message that they were not alone. Under a partnership between Maplegrove … Continue reading Remembering Sis Wenger: a tireless voice for children impacted by addiction

Addiction Research & Theory recently published an interesting article entitled "The unseen burden: exploring the lived experiences of mothers caring for individuals with substance use disorder." It focuses on the lived experiences of Indian mothers caring for sons with severe Substance Use Disorders. The authors set the focus of the paper as follows: This growing … Continue reading Moms, SUDs, & “emotional disintegration within the family”

I recently had the opportunity to see John Kelly present some of his research on recovery. Kelly is doing some of the most important work in the addiction and recovery space. I say this because he's one of the few researchers publishing on long-term outcomes and quality-of-life. Most contemporary research gives us little more than … Continue reading Quality of life in the first five years of recovery

Earlier this year, Frontiers in Public Health published an important study by John F. Kelly, Morgan Klein, Katherine Zeng, Sydney Manske, and Alexandra Abry. I say it's important because research that captures information about relapse tends to focus on the days, weeks, and maybe months following the initiation of recovery. We have very little professional … Continue reading Alcohol Use Disorder Relapse After One Year of Remission

Yesterday was an interesting news day. First, in Michigan, there were a couple of stories (here and here) about kratom and a legislative push to ban leaf-based and synthetic kratom products. Later in the day, I began to see coverage of a UK smoking ban for people born after 2008. I expect that this will … Continue reading Banning substances