Substance Use Disorders – The epidemiological mess more than a decade in the making

Yesterday, I posted about the epidemiological crisis being reported regarding an explosion in substance use disorders resulting in increases in untreated SUDs and low rates of problem recognition. (There's been a parallel explosion in recovery prevalence.) All of this was predictable. In fact, we were writing about it here 13 years ago. Despite the foreseeability … Continue reading Substance Use Disorders – The epidemiological mess more than a decade in the making

Addiction diagnoses to rise

I've posted before about problems with the proposed approach to addiction in the DSM-5. These changes were intended to clear up language problems, specifically the conflation of dependence and addiction leading to "false positives" for addiction. Looks like the DSM-5 is causing its own language problems before it's even adopted. [emphasis mine] Many scholars believe … Continue reading Addiction diagnoses to rise

A Matter of Interpretation

Stuart Gitlow is underwhelmed by a Cochrane review of naltrexone for alcohol dependence. In the process of dismantling Cochrane's conclusion (Naltrexone appears to be an effective and safe strategy in alcoholism treatment), he questions the value of drink counting. The authors reviewed 50 studies with nearly 7,800 participants. The review summary indicates that more patients … Continue reading A Matter of Interpretation