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?
Category: Harm Reduction
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”
Addiction and quality of life
David Best recently wrote a piece on addiction and quality of life. On the role of community in recovery: At the heart of the recovery movement is a shift of emphasis away from “treatment” as a model reliant on professionally delivered interventions. Rather, the movement sees the recovery journey an intrinsically social process and … Continue reading Addiction and quality of life
Worth Every Penny?
Preventing HIV is a very good thing. The Atlantic has a post about the role of needle exchanges in preventing HIV. It makes a pretty compelling case that needle exchanges reduce HIV infection rates among injection drug users. I don't doubt this. And, provided it serves as an engagement point for recovery, I have no … Continue reading Worth Every Penny?
Methadone, technology and outcomes
Substance Matters has a post about the use of new technologies in methadone maintenance. Patients who use a web-based intervention (TES) instead of half of their traditional counseling did better than those with traditional counseling as part of their methadone treatment. It provokes important questions about the usefulness of new technologies and how they might … Continue reading Methadone, technology and outcomes
More on choice and addiction
From Kevin McCauley: The argument against calling addiction a disease centers on the nature of free will. This argument, which I will refer to as the Choice Argument, considers addiction to be a choice: the addict had the choice to start using drugs. Real diseases, on the other hand, are not choices: the diabetic did … Continue reading More on choice and addiction
Addressing reality with a health-oriented approach
We know how to crackdown -- but we seem ignorant when it comes to what to do with all those addicted people we've "cracked down" on. You may thwart them with your database at the pharmacy, but they're still addicted. Now what? Abuse-deterrent formulations of drugs and prescription drug take-back days are well and good, but … Continue reading Addressing reality with a health-oriented approach
What makes treatment effective?
I've been catching a lot of heat recently for posts about Suboxone and methadone. (For the sake of this post, lets refer to them as opioid replacement therapy, or ORT, for the rest of this post. One commenter who blogs for an ORT provider challenged my arguments that we should offer everyone the same kind … Continue reading What makes treatment effective?
The surgery was a success, but…
Public health workers are declaring their harm reduction approach a success: Harm reduction — not a war on drugs — has reduced illicit drug use and improved public safety in what was once Ground Zero for an HIV and overdose epidemic that cost many lives, says a 15-year study of drug use in Vancouver's impoverished … Continue reading The surgery was a success, but…
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