From the New York Times: It was going to be a study that could change the American diet, a huge clinical trial that might well deliver all the medical evidence needed to recommend a daily alcoholic drink as part of a healthy lifestyle. That was how two prominent scientists and a senior federal health official … Continue reading Buying an evidence-base?

From Stat: . . . a controversial new working paper has raised the question of whether the urgent push to expand naloxone access may be doing more harm than good. The paper, published online last week, aimed to estimate the changes in behavior resulting from expanded naloxone access. Researchers found that after states passed naloxone … Continue reading Naloxone a moral hazard?

From CNN: The CNN/Harvard analysis looked at 2014 and 2015, during which time more than 811,000 doctors wrote prescriptions to Medicare patients. Of those, nearly half wrote at least one prescription for opioids. Fifty-four percent of those doctors -- more than 200,000 physicians -- received a payment from pharmaceutical companies that make opioids. Doctors were … Continue reading “The correlation you found is very powerful”

The Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment just published a study examining outcomes for 12 step groups and Lifering, Women for Sobriety (WFS), and SMART Recovery. The researchers described their findings this way: The present study contributes the first longitudinal, comparative data on 12-step groups and the largest secular, abstinence-based alternatives available in the U.S.: WFS, … Continue reading Mutual aid works, whether it’s 12 step, Lifering, SMART or WFS

I caught a few minutes of the White House opioid summit yesterday and the phrase "alternative endpoints" caught my attention. That's Alex Azar speaking. He's the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Here's what he said [emphasis mine]: At the NGA (National Governors Association) we also highlighted two forthcoming Food and Drug Administration guidances that … Continue reading “alternative endpoints”?

This headline is from the Kaiser Health News Morning Brief. So much better than the last couple of headlines I shared.

Another day, another troubling headline. If you believe that the access to "safer" drugs is the problem, maybe vending machines will "fix Vancouver’s drug crisis." For more than a decade, we've been told that Vancouver is the model the US should emulate. No North American city has been more aggressive in implementing harm reduction practices—safe … Continue reading “You get used to it pretty quickly”

A new Senate report looks at financial relationships between opioid manufacturers and pain advocacy groups: Sen. Claire McCaskill released a report Monday alleging that from 2012 to 2017, leading manufacturers of opioids gave $9 million to pain treatment advocacy groups, an arrangement the report says “may have played a significant role in creating the necessary … Continue reading “played a significant role in creating the necessary conditions for the U.S. opioid epidemic”

Take note of the headline and then ask yourself, whose needs does this serve? what beliefs underlie the plan? what values/priorities underlie the plan?  

Very few articles about addiction have the seriousness and integrity to look past easy answers and simple narratives. Nieman Reports recently published an article by Susan Stellin that is the best I've read in as long as I can remember. The article addresses issues of evidence-based practices, research, journalistic bias toward the drama of addiction … Continue reading It’s a complicated issue with a lot of factors at play