Popular Science has a chart with US overdose deaths by drug: ...the rate of reported overdoses the U.S. more than doubled between 1999 and 2010. About half of those additional deaths are in the pharmaceuticals category, which the CDC has written about before. Nearly three-quarters of the pharmaceuticals deaths are opioid analgesics—prescription painkillers like OxyContin and … Continue reading Prescription drug overdose statistics visually
Tag: Substance abuse
Ten Percent in Recovery – NOT
Here's the headline at Partnership for a Drug-Free America: Survey: Ten Percent of American Adults Report Being in Recovery from Substance Abuse or Addiction Very interesting news, right? How did they arrive at that number? With a poll that asks, "Did you once have a problem with drugs or alcohol, but no longer do?" Does that measure … Continue reading Ten Percent in Recovery – NOT
Addiction Inbox
I've been too busy to post very much, but wanted to put out a quick note about Dirk Hanson's new printed collection of his blog posts from his blog of the same name, Addiction Inbox. For some reason, I find that his writing lends itself to the printed format. There's so much bad information out … Continue reading Addiction Inbox
24 month outcomes
Another study supports the effects of twelve step participation over 24 months. (I know the abstract says "self help", but the pay-walled article makes it clear that they were looking at twelve step participation.) Abstract The goal was to identify factors that predicted sustained cocaine abstinence and transitions from cocaine use to abstinence over … Continue reading 24 month outcomes
Seeking Safety + 12 Step Facilitation = good outcomes
The Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment looks at Seeking Safety plus twelve step facilitation. Good news: Objective The Recovery Management paradigm provides a conceptual framework for the examination of joint impact of a focal treatment and post-treatment service utilization on substance abuse treatment outcomes. We test this framework by examining the interactive effects of a treatment for … Continue reading Seeking Safety + 12 Step Facilitation = good outcomes
Heroin Shortages Drive Deadly Alternatives
Though the federal government is participating in marketing buprenorphine as having low addiction potential, buprenorphine is being identified as a growing problem overseas: Responses to the drought varied by country, with drug users in each developing their own preferences for heroin alternatives, according to reports from the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and … Continue reading Heroin Shortages Drive Deadly Alternatives
$2.2 billion invested in addiction treatment and behavioral health companies
Businessweek has a damning investigation of for-profit methadone treatment. And, who knew that Bain Capital is such a player? Since Jan. 1, 2009, CRC’s clinics haven’t met staffing standards more than 50 times, regulatory records from 15 states show. Clinics were cited 80 times for failing to document that they gave patients enough counseling. … Continue reading $2.2 billion invested in addiction treatment and behavioral health companies
Methadonia
When Methadonia was first released, there was quite a bit of hand wringing over whether the film inaccurately presented methadone maintenance treatment in a negative light. Cassie Rodenberg, at The White Noise, who has been spending time with and blogging about homeless addicts in the Bronx says [emphasis mine]: Some on the streets find methadone worse than an original heroin addiction, while … Continue reading Methadonia
The spirituality of addiction treatment
I was listening to On Being this morning and was struck by this one quote. I think this could be paraphrased into something that fits perfectly with why we have such great staff who put so much ourselves into our work here: For me, thinking about living in a city like Chicago where you just … Continue reading The spirituality of addiction treatment
What what?
A new study looking at the comparative effectiveness of various coping skills for dealing with urges to drink in preventing relapse reports some counter-intuitive findings [emphasis mine]: ...relying on going to a meeting or talking to a sponsor or counselor when experiencing an urge was not correlated with improved drinking outcomes. and Ineffective skills in this population … Continue reading What what?
Recovery Review 