Fortunately, there's been growing concern that advocates, policy makers, and media have to narrowly focused on the opioid crisis. Up to this point, it hasn't reached the level of media coverage. USA Today is one of the first to publish an article that explores the limitations of the nation's focus on opioid treatment and recovery: … Continue reading What we miss when we focus on opioid treatment and recovery

(Nora Feddal) Anyone who knows me would know that crossfit.com is not a typical news source for me. In fact, when this story was sent to me, I started from a place of skepticism. However, this story about opioid manufacturers pouring money into NIH provides all the receipts. The story explains everything clearly and provides … Continue reading NIH takes pharma dollars despite advisory committee recommendations

A new study on initiation of buprenorphine maintenance was just published. The press release describes the intervention as an alternative to "revolving door" detox and relapse cycles: "patients who start long-term buprenorphine treatment at a detox program, instead of going through detox and getting a referral for such treatment at discharge, are less likely to … Continue reading Initiating buprenorphine treatment during short‐term inpatient ‘detoxification’

I see professionals and advocates criticize Narcotics Anonymous (NA) on a near daily basis for their views on opioid agonist medications (methadone and buprenorphine), often referring to them as problematic, backwards, and complicit in the opioid overdose crisis. The published guidance for groups is here and might be summarized as follows: implying that people on … Continue reading NA and “understanding their reality”

I saw some questions about what it means. Here's a little more context. 2002 - Reckitt Benckiser introduced Suboxone. 2010 - Suboxone's patent is expiring and Reckitt Benckiser claimed that Suboxone pills present a safety hazard to children and should be pulled off the market while they introduce a new film version with a new … Continue reading More on that Suboxone settlement

From ABC News: Suboxone maker Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB Group) will pay the U.S. government a record $1.4 billion to end criminal and civil probes into the marketing of its addiction treatment medication, making it the largest settlement related to the opioid crisis in U.S. history, authorities said on Thursday. This would appear to be tied for the … Continue reading Suboxone maker to pay $1.4 billion in largest opioid settlement in US history

https://twitter.com/KeithNHumphreys/status/1146828515221725185

First, we are currently witnessing rapid change / evolution / destabilization of the conceptual boundaries of recovery. How do these changes affect what it means to call a program or system recovery-oriented? What differentiates a recovery-oriented provider from others? Second, Bill White frequently shares his epiphany that the orientation of research and service providers was … Continue reading A couple of questions

Possible selves interventions + improving treatment access + harm reduction = recovery-oriented harm reduction

In recent years there's been a lot of attention and energy devoted to reclassifying addiction from a disease to something else--a "disease" of despair, a lack of social connection, a product of injustice and hardship, a product of deprived environments, a learning disorder, etc. Now, there's a recent study getting attention that suggests teaching clients … Continue reading Is calling addiction a disease harmful?