A study of opioid-related deaths in Ontario was recently published. There were some really stunning findings. First, over 20 years, the opioid-related death rate increased by 242%. During the 20-year study period, we identified 5935 people whose deaths were opioid-related in Ontario. The median age at death was 42 years (interquartile range 34–50 years), 64.4% … Continue reading 1 in 8 deaths among Ontario young adults were attributable to opioids
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.
Radical Recovery
This week's Throwback Sunday is Bill White's description of radical recovery. ================== For MLK day, here's an article by Bill White on "radical recovery." He describes a convergence of social activism and addiction recovery. The article offers a model that goes well beyond the the interests of recovering people themselves and encourages advocacy in larger … Continue reading Radical Recovery
I don’t get it
Yesterday, I read this, "we still don't get addiction" article and was a little bemused. The article presents an argument that addiction is a learning disorder and presents this as a controversial theory. It's not. She also presents it as a theory that undercuts the ideas that addiction is a brain disease and that it's a … Continue reading I don’t get it
Moderation’s hard work for an alcoholic!
AfterPartyChat has a really interesting first person piece from an alcoholic who tried Moderation Management. Every now and then my addiction tries to convince me that I never truly hit bottom with alcohol and could probably drink moderately again one day. When that happens, I remind my disease that I’ve tried that, thanks. Before surrendering to 12-step recovery, … Continue reading Moderation’s hard work for an alcoholic!
chasing significance
An interesting study from journal Addiction--on studies: ABSTRACT Background and Aims The low reproducibility of findings within the scientific literature is a growing concern. This may be due to many findings being false positives which, in turn, can misdirect research effort and waste money. Methods We review factors that may contribute to poor study reproducibility … Continue reading chasing significance
“ceaseless reinvention leading to overlapping solutions”
Read this last night on the brain's "ceaseless reinvention leading to overlapping solutions" and it got me thinking about the long and challenging road ahead of us in developing a really solid understanding of addiction as a brain disease. For centuries, neuroscience attempted to neatly assign labels to the various parts of the brain: this … Continue reading “ceaseless reinvention leading to overlapping solutions”
Asking the right questions in the right way
Recovery Review directs our attention to a presentation by Jim Orford called Time to Ask the Right Questions in the Right Way: A New Direction for Addiction Treatment Research?. He suggests that comparisons between MET, CBT and TSF follow from us asking the wrong questions. Here's one of his suggestions. Stop studying named techniques [CBT/MET/TSF] and focus … Continue reading Asking the right questions in the right way
Patient’s self-ratings? Bah, what do they know?
Three articles that caught my eye. First, a meta-analysis on whether antidepressants improve overall wellness for young people. (One issue was that few studies have looked at overall wellness.) Though limited by a small number of trials, our analyses suggest that antidepressants offer little to no benefit in improving overall well-being among depressed children and adolescents. … Continue reading Patient’s self-ratings? Bah, what do they know?
Dopey, Boozy, Smoky—and Stupid
This week's Throwback Sunday post focuses on a 2007 policy article by Mark Kleiman. In 2013, Kleiman was selected as the project leader to write Washington State's marijuana regulations after the drug was decriminalized through a ballot initiative. =========================== The National Interest has a lengthy article on drug policy by Mark A.R. Kleiman. I disagree … Continue reading Dopey, Boozy, Smoky—and Stupid
The gold standard
Recovery Review has a terrific post reviewing a journal article examining addiction treatment for physicians. He pulled this from the source journal article: Recognizing that SUDs are biological disorders with major behavioral components (just like diabetes and coronary artery disease), the relatively high level of success exhibited by physicians whose care is managed by PHP is … Continue reading The gold standard
Recovery Review 