A recent study on treating depression with exercise encouragement and advice has caused quite a stir. Check out the headlines. But the paper itself says the following: The main implication of our results is that advice and encouragement to increase physical activity is not an effective strategy for reducing symptoms of depression. Although our intervention increased … Continue reading Depression, exercise, research and the media
Category: Controversies
Marijuana penalty reduction proposals in New York
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed big changes in marijuana policy in his state: "There's a blatant inconsistency. If you possess marijuana privately, it's a violation. If you show it in public, it's a crime," Cuomo said. "It's incongruous. It's inconsistent the way it's been enforced. There have been additional complications in relation to the stop-and-frisk … Continue reading Marijuana penalty reduction proposals in New York
Road traffic crashes and prescribed methadone and buprenorphine
Last year, a study questioned whether buprenorphine patients should be allowed to drive because 60% tested positive for other drugs. Now, another study reaches similar findings: Background Opioids have been shown to impair psychomotor and cognitive functioning in healthy volunteers with no history of opioid abuse. Few or no significant effects have been found in opioid-dependant … Continue reading Road traffic crashes and prescribed methadone and buprenorphine
Addiction diagnoses to rise
I've posted before about problems with the proposed approach to addiction in the DSM-5. These changes were intended to clear up language problems, specifically the conflation of dependence and addiction leading to "false positives" for addiction. Looks like the DSM-5 is causing its own language problems before it's even adopted. [emphasis mine] Many scholars believe … Continue reading Addiction diagnoses to rise
Science for spirituality
Whatever one thinks of AA's spirituality, research suggests that thinking about God enhances self-control: “The world is full of people who are fastidious about Biblical rules but can’t say no to fast food,” says Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. “There’s something about rules from God that make them easier to follow.” According to … Continue reading Science for spirituality
“as addictive as cocaine”
Ha! If I read the phrase “as addictive as cocaine” one more time I’m going to hit the bottle. Anything that is either overused, pleasurable or has become vaguely associated with the dopamine system is compared to cocaine. In fact, here is a list of things claimed to be as addictive as the illegal nose … Continue reading “as addictive as cocaine”
Human rights and coerced treatment
A recent article looks at the ethics and effectiveness of coerced treatment: It has been argued that quasi-compulsory treatment (QCT) may be considered ethical (under some specific conditions) for drug dependent offenders who have committed criminal offences for whom the usual penal sanction would be more restrictive of liberty than the forms of treatment … Continue reading Human rights and coerced treatment
Harsh enforcement has failed
This Foreign Policy article provides a concise snapshot of the failure of the "harsh enforcement" approach to drug policy: As a domestic policy, a harsh enforcement approach has done little to control drug use, but has done a lot to lock up a growing portion of the U.S. population. Cocaine and opiate prices are about half … Continue reading Harsh enforcement has failed
Emotional pain without context
Siddhartha Mukherjee provides a brief history of the serotonin hypothesis of depression, its demise and why dismissing serotonin may be an "overcorrection." Part of this story is an emerging theory of depression: A remarkable and novel theory for depression emerges from these studies. Perhaps some forms of depression occur when a stimulus — genetics, environment … Continue reading Emotional pain without context
Evidence-based policy wrong-headed
Keith Humphreys rejects the notion of evidence based policy: ...what we do with scientific evidence is always a political and moral judgment. We don’t provide health care to the sick because the evidence forces us to. We provide health care to the sick because such activity is in keeping with our values. Likewise, we might choose to … Continue reading Evidence-based policy wrong-headed
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