Drugfree.org has a piece advocating more use of buprenorphine with children. Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid dependence is a science-based and proven-effective option for teens and young adults. It should be administered with age appropriate psychosocial therapy and drug testing. Unfortunately, it has been subject to controversy and stigma. Yet the neuroscience of addiction and … Continue reading Pediatric use of buprenorphine
Category: Controversies
Drug Overdose Deaths Are Increasing Pretty Much Everywhere
These images speak for themselves. Here are a couple of important sentences: Between 1999 and 2009, drug poisoning deaths grew by 394 percent in rural areas and 279 percent for large metropolitan areas, according to the CDC’s county-level look at the data. According to the CDC, roughly 60 percent of all OD deaths in 2010 … Continue reading Drug Overdose Deaths Are Increasing Pretty Much Everywhere
Recovery capital and capital
From the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs second report of the recovery committee [emphasis mine]: ...our optimism about recovery should be tempered. Evidence suggests that different groups are more or less likely to achieve recovery outcomes. For some people, with high levels of recovery capital (e.g. good education, secure positive relationships, a job), recovery … Continue reading Recovery capital and capital
…let us work together
"If you have come here to help me, then you are wasting your time… But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together." - Lila Watson Obviously, I've been thinking a lot about the buprenorphine maintenance, the NY Times series and the reactions since it was published. … Continue reading …let us work together
Two more defenses of Suboxone
In the Washington Post, Harold Pollack interviewed Peter Friedmann about buprenorphine and the NY Times series on buprenorphine. We're fortunate that that they share their premises. HP: Buprenorphine provides a “substitution therapy” for people with opiate disorders. PF: Correct. For many years, opiate addiction was considered an incurable illness. It was Dole and Nyswander in New York who proposed … Continue reading Two more defenses of Suboxone
NY Times / Suboxone redux
I thought I was done, but here are a couple more smart takes. Both support maintenance but appreciate the article raising awareness of important problems. From The Institute Blog: And as the articles (and the comment section) demonstrate, the use of buprenorphine to treat addiction and prevent substance use-related harms is messy. Interlacing text and video, … Continue reading NY Times / Suboxone redux
What makes treatment effective?
This will be my post in response to the NY Times' series on Suboxone. This post originally ran on 7/19/13 and addressed a lot of our concerns. * * * I've been catching a lot of heat recently for posts about Suboxone and methadone. (For the sake of this post, lets refer to … Continue reading What makes treatment effective?
no hint of opinion here
To me, the most important line in the NY Times Suboxone series was this one, "[Dr. Sullivan] considered opioid addiction "a hopeless disease'". We believe that maintenance approaches are rooted in the belief that most opiate addicts are not capable of recovering in the same manner that doctors recover. Most of the arguments for maintenance treatments … Continue reading no hint of opinion here
NYT Reax
This blog has a point of view. We're not fans of maintenance. (Though we still think Suboxone can be a very useful detox tool.) If you want to read defenses of Suboxone, you can find a couple here: The Media Needs to Stop Stigmatizing Our Best Weapon Against Heroin Addiction - "tainted, to bourgeois eyes" New York … Continue reading NYT Reax
“a hopeless disease”
The NY Times has another article in its series on Suboxone. Buprenorphine was developed as a safer alternative to methadone for treating heroin and painkiller addiction, a take-home medication that could be prescribed by doctors in offices rather than dispensed daily in clinics. But in some areas a de facto clinic scene, unregulated, … Continue reading “a hopeless disease”
Recovery Review 