Mark Kleiman is making sense: "For every complex problem," H.L. Mencken wrote, "there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong." That is especially true of drug abuse and addiction. Indeed, the problem is so complex that it has produced not just one clear, simple, wrong solution but two: the "drug war" (prohibition plus … Continue reading More than two options
Author: Jason Schwartz
I have been an addiction professional and social worker since 1994. I started blogging in 2005 as the Clinical Director at Dawn Farm. I currently serve as the Director of Social Work and Spiritual Care for a healthcare system. I've also served as the Director of Behavioral Health at another hospital. I'm also a lecturer at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Social Work.
Views expressed here are my own.
Keep in mind that the field, the contexts in which the field operates, and my views have changed over time.
Mindfulness and recovery
The Addiction Recovery blog at PsychCentral has a very good post explaining how mindfulness can help in addiction recovery.
Viral recovery
Malcolm Gladwell and Seth Godin have popularized the concept of viral change. Bill White has talked about it for years in the context of transmitting hope for recovery. Now, he's written a very brief paper on the topic. Here are some quotes from clients that covey how they became "infected" by recovery carriers: “He used … Continue reading Viral recovery
Human rights and coerced treatment
A recent article looks at the ethics and effectiveness of coerced treatment: It has been argued that quasi-compulsory treatment (QCT) may be considered ethical (under some specific conditions) for drug dependent offenders who have committed criminal offences for whom the usual penal sanction would be more restrictive of liberty than the forms of treatment … Continue reading Human rights and coerced treatment
Smoking cessation in treatment
Looks like we still have a lot to learn about helping alcoholics and drug addicts quit smoking, but intensive smoking cessation interventions do not appear to do harm: The intensive smoking cessation intervention yielded a higher short-term smoking quit rate without jeopardizing sobriety.
Group treatment has long term benefits
From the journal, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research: Background: Group psychotherapy (PT) is one of the most common interventions used to treat alcohol dependence (AD), and it is assumed to be effective. Despite its common clinical use, long-term trials that have been conducted to examine the efficacy of group PT in the treatment of outpatients with AD … Continue reading Group treatment has long term benefits
Youth Recovery Contexts
Another study brings good news about adolescents and 12 step recovery: Results The proportion attending 12-step meetings was relatively low across follow-up (24 to 29%), but more frequent attendance was independently associated with greater abstinence in concurrent and, to a lesser extent, lagged models. An 8-item composite measure of 12-step involvement did not enhance outcomes … Continue reading Youth Recovery Contexts
ADHD overdiagnosed
A recent study look at diagnostic reliability of ADHD: RESULTS: Many mental health practitioners seem to proceed heuristically and base their decisions on unclear rules of thumb. The respondents more readily diagnosed ADHD when the case involved a male patient and presented prototypical symptoms, such as impulsiveness, motoric restlessness, and lack of concentration. They were, … Continue reading ADHD overdiagnosed
Racial disparities in antidepressant prescriptions
A study on racial disparities in antidepressant prescribing: A research group at the University of Michigan and Indiana University concluded that physicians were 1.52 times more likely to prescribe antidepressants to Caucasians than to Hispanics for the same major depressive disorders. ... The researchers also found that whites were more likely to be prescribed newer, … Continue reading Racial disparities in antidepressant prescriptions
No. 1 Littered Item in the United States is on Roads and Beaches?
...cigarette butts are the No. 1 littered item every year on U.S. roadways and beaches. It had to be about 19 years ago that I flicked a cigarette butt to the ground and stepped on it outside of a meeting. My sponsor ran over and picked up and threw it out saying, "What's wrong with … Continue reading No. 1 Littered Item in the United States is on Roads and Beaches?
Recovery Review 