Dirk Hanson recently shared an important post summarizing NEJM article offering counterarguments to common criticisms of the disease model. Dirk graciously allowed me to repost his post here. Please follow him at Addiction Inbox. =========================================== Volkow, Koob, and McLellan on the neurobiology of addiction. The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a review article, “Neurobiologic Advances … Continue reading Addressing Criticisms of the Disease Model

The NY Times has a new post on "Medicines to Keep Addiction Away". The writer makes some pretty strong statements. Here she is on  methadone and buprenorphine: These work. (See here, here and here, just some of many studies). They reduce illicit drug use and keep people in treatment, compared with recovery programs that don’t … Continue reading NY Times on Medicines to Keep Addiction Away . . . “these work”

There were a couple of articles published this week about bad behavior from PHARMA. First, Vox looks into the roots of the overdose epidemic and Purdue Pharma's role in policy changes that set the stage for the explosion in opioid prescribing and addiction. (Of course, Purdue profited from these policy changes.) Andrew Kolodny and other public … Continue reading Recent reporting on the consequences of PHARMA bad behavior

Yesterday, I told you about the new White House budget proposal for $1,100,000,000 for addiction treatment that places very heavy emphasis on medication assisted treatment (MAT). A recently published study in Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), raises questions about the rationale for that budget. That budget and … Continue reading Supporting Research for Psychosocial Treatments + Medication is “sparse”

The White House announced $1.1 for addiction treatment in the 2017 budget proposal it just introduced. Good news, right? Some advocacy groups are pretty excited about it, "They're hearing us!" If approved, here's how the money would be spent: $920 million to support cooperative agreements with States to expand access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid … Continue reading Something to celebrate?

We are concerned about the dangers of addiction as never before. For good reason--the opioid epidemic has become an overdose epidemic. One undercurrent in the coverage of the issue is the implication that abstinence-based treatment contributes to overdose deaths. (There's no question maintenance drugs reduce overdose risk and short term abstinence-based treatment of opioid addiction … Continue reading Dangerous Treatment and the Science of Safety