I frequently point to health professional recovery programs when discussing the effectiveness of drug-free treatment when it's delivered in the appropriate dose, frequency and duration. They have stellar outcomes. (More details here.) The programs were abstinence-based, requiring physicians to abstain from any use of alcohol or other drugs of abuse as assessed by frequent random … Continue reading Too expensive? (2015)
Category: Research
…let us work together
The last couple of days' posts, a recent conversation and some recent news (I'll let you guess which story.) reminded me of this post. It's from a couple of years ago and has a couple of minor updates. "If you have come here to help me, then you are wasting your time… But if … Continue reading …let us work together
hope is a function of struggle
From On Being, some insight on hope and how people can foster it or inhibit its development: Ms. Brown: You know, one of the most interesting things I've found in doing this work is, you know, something the wholehearted share in common is this real profound sense of hopefulness. And as I got into the literature … Continue reading hope is a function of struggle
2014’s top posts: #2
"He'd still be alive" Much has been said this week about the death of Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I've heard two recurring themes. First, that he might still be alive if he had been "treated with an evidence-based" treatment, like buprenorphine. Second, that he might still be alive if he hadn't been inculcated with the disease … Continue reading 2014’s top posts: #2
Top posts of 2014: #12
Abstinence—The Only Way to Beat Addiction? What killed Philip Seymour Hoffman? According to Anne Fletcher, it wasn't the doctor who prescribed him the pain medication that began his relapse, it wasn't the prescribers of the combination of meds found in his body, it wasn't his discontinuing the behaviors that maintained his recovery for 23 years, … Continue reading Top posts of 2014: #12
Book Review: The Recovering Body
Jennifer Matesa's The Recovering Body: Physical and Spiritual Fitness for Living Clean and Sober seeks to provide "a roadmap to creating our own unique approach to physical recovery" and frames "physical fitness as a living amends to self--a transformative gift analogous to the “spiritual fitness” practices worked on in recovery." She focuses on five areas, … Continue reading Book Review: The Recovering Body
The Emperor of All Maladies
Throwback Sunday - I thought this old post on parallels between cancer, oncology, addiction, addiction treatment and recovery would be a good pairing with yesterday's post on professional attitudes toward difficult to treat illnesses. ================== I've been reading The Emperor of All Maladies and I've been very struck by the parallels between the is philosophical and practical … Continue reading The Emperor of All Maladies
Urban myths exposed
Points blog is back with a great interview with George Vaillant. Here's one of the questions and his response: 2. What do you think a bunch of alcohol and drug historians might find particularly interesting about your book? The value of the Grant study to the history of alcoholism is the number of urban myths that … Continue reading Urban myths exposed
Anti-treatment zombie stats
This 90% statistic has been frequently cited to discredit specialty addiction treatment. Ninety percent of those who enter addiction-treatment programs in the U.S. don’t receive evidence-based treatment I asked David Scheff about it several weeks back. He said it was from RAND and referred me to his book. I looked in his book and couldn't … Continue reading Anti-treatment zombie stats
Recovery Checkups
Bill White on efforts to develop and implement recovery check-up protocols: There is one sentence in the Standards that deserves particular acknowledgement: "Recovery check-ups by addiction specialist physicians, just as those by primary care physicians or other providers, may promote sustained recovery and prevent relapse" (p. 13). . . . The "recovery check-up" language marks … Continue reading Recovery Checkups
Recovery Review 