Our contributor David McCartney has a post over at the Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems blog. It's worth your time. “Rehab? What’s the point of it? There’s no evidence that it works. I don’t refer anyone to rehab. Do you?”The addiction worker was talking to a colleague – another practitioner working in the field. … Continue reading Residential rehabilitation: powering up in 2021

Austin Brown recently tweeted a link to an editorial from Drug and Alcohol Dependence which is, unfortunately, behind a paywall. The editorial was written by Eric Strain, the outgoing Editor in Chief, reflecting on the research he's observed in his 15 years as an editor. Coincidentally, it articulates the core message of my blogging over … Continue reading Meaning and purpose in the context of opioid overdose deaths

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0UDj8r1qQD9MlbPLfZb3Md?si=GGrfbVF-RT-HtutJiDzn5A This podcast involves three of my favorite people. It's a conversation about recovery in the context of community. It's brief and well worth your time. Enjoy! Derek Wolfe created and hosts Vital Discussions. He's a medical student who will be starting a psychiatry residency soon. The podcast focuses on the medical community. We met … Continue reading Recovery and Community with Anna Byberg and Matt Statman

Keith Humphreys nails an elusive and important truth: https://twitter.com/KeithNHumphreys/status/1343614159997431808

Those harm reduction initiatives are great. I would say ‘keep doing that’. But also give people the opportunity to get well because that mantra of ‘keep them alive, keep them alive’ isn’t good enough. As a person in long-term recovery, I see it as a lack of ambition. It’s disrespectful to assume I am not … Continue reading Cannabis as an “adjunctive treatment” for MAT patients?

Source: Kelly et al. (2020) What's more harmful? Blame or pessimism? Kelly et al. find that 'chronically relapsing brain disease' was associated less stigmatizing blame and more pessimism about their capacity to recover, while 'problem' was associated with more stigmatizing blame and more optimism for their capacity to recover. ...exposure to the ‘chronically relapsing brain … Continue reading Pick your poison — blame or pessimism?

From Annemarie Ward, a formidable advocate for overdose prevention and recovery: Annemarie Ward, founder of Faces and Voices of Recovery UK, says Glasgow spends a total of £47m on addiction services, but only £500,000 of it goes on abstinence-based residential rehab.“What has happened is the system has become so focused on the crime reduction dividend … Continue reading Sentences to ponder

I came across this recently published study finding that exposure to e-cigarette advertising is associated with increases in the numbers of people using e-cigarettes and higher rates of e-cigarette consumption among users. Photo by Skyler Ewing on Pexels.com No surprise there, right? Manufacturers advertise for a reason. It's well established that exposure to advertising and … Continue reading Advertising, consumption, and cultural status of e-cigarettes and cannabis

This BBC story highlights research on dopamine's role in wanting versus liking: ...wanting is more fundamental than liking. Ultimately, it doesn't matter for the preservation of our genes whether we like sex, or like food. Far more important is whether we want to have sex, and whether we seek out food.The single most important implication … Continue reading Addiction and wanting versus liking

This clip of Hunter Biden has garnered a lot of attention in recovery advocacy circles. https://twitter.com/katiedjennings/status/1326874513238274049?s=20 I have mixed feelings. Her characterization of him being "in and out of treatment 7, 8 times" frames his relapses as a personal failure in a way she wouldn't frame relapses in other chronic illnesses, even where behavioral strategies … Continue reading Marred legacies, saying it nicer, and changing hearts