Detox + discharge = š¦ Detox + sober housing = š Detox + sober housing + treatment = š To find out if opioid-dependent individuals achieve higher abstinence rates given access to recovery housing and day treatment, researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine followed 243 patients -- primarily heroin users -- after their … Continue reading Sober housing helps! Who knew?
Category: Treatment
More on the DSM-V
The Fix has a good opinionĀ pieceĀ on the DSM-V, praising its movement away from dependence and abuse. The focus on dependence also implied that cocaineāwhich does not produce physical dependenceāisnāt āreallyā addictive. That lulled many people in the '80sāincluding yours trulyāto think that cocaine wasnāt likely to be hard to kick. We all know better now. … Continue reading More on the DSM-V
Treating depression and substance use: no significant difference from control
Another study finds treatment as usual to be just as effective as specialized CBT: Few integrated substance use and depression treatments have been developed for delivery in outpatient substance abuse treatment settings. To meet the call for more ātransportableā interventions, we conducted a pilot study to test a group cognitiveābehavioral therapy (CBT) for depression and … Continue reading Treating depression and substance use: no significant difference from control
A New Paradigm for Substance Use Disorder Treatment
From Robert DuPont, MD: Substance abuse treatment is committed to abstinence from nonmedical drug use. Yet, continued nonmedical drug and alcohol use and relapse are so common that they are often defined as part of the disease itself. A ānew paradigmā for care management has been pioneered over the past four decades by the state … Continue reading A New Paradigm for Substance Use Disorder Treatment
Primary care is good for recovery
Primary care visits are associated with better recovery outcomes: A yearly primary care visit was also positively associated with remission (OR, 1.39), as was continuing care (OR, 2.34), defined as: having at least 1 yearly primary care visit, completing substance abuse treatment or receiving further treatment, receiving alcohol or drug treatment when the alcohol or … Continue reading Primary care is good for recovery
effective…as long as it is maintained
This summarythat recent buprenorphine study suggests that the muddy waters are settling [emphasis mine]: This study shows, yet again, that buprenorphine / naloxone is an effective treatment for opioid dependence as long as it is maintained, and that a tapering detoxification strategy, regardless of duration, fails the majority of patients. The summary then goes on … Continue reading effective…as long as it is maintained
PROMETA ineffective…duh
PROMETA as been demonstrated to be the sham we all knew it was. Keith Humphreys offers a brief history of the "treatment" and some lessons: ...when the next wonder drug for addiction comes along (and it will), we must not yield to our powerful collective desire to believe before we have hard evidence of effectiveness … Continue reading PROMETA ineffective…duh
Missing the point
The American Journal of Public Heath (behind a paywall) has a new study looking at 2 year trajectories of residents in a "wet shelter". Ā The found that the residents reduced their drinking by 40%. Reducing drinking in these cases is a very good thing. To me, there are several important questions but the first might … Continue reading Missing the point
Less effective and focused on only one problem
Some friends shared this video about the benefits of exercise: At about 7:00, he says: So a German researcher named Rainer Hambrecht looked at this with about 100 cardiac patients He got the group to exercise, and by that I mean 20 minutes a day in an exercise bicycle and once a week a 60 … Continue reading Less effective and focused on only one problem
a thousand pasts and no future
"Choose [your memories] carefully.Ā Memories are all we end up with ... You'll have a thousand pasts and no future." --The Secret Behind Their Eyes (film) A friend shared this On Point episode with me and made a connection between it and resentments. This matter of appropriate, helpful, deliberate forgetting is very fascinating. We've talked before … Continue reading a thousand pasts and no future
Recovery Review 