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About Addiction: food, treatment, babies and teens
Our weekly About Addiction summaries are back! Make sure to tune in for the latest in research and news coverage of the drug abuse and drug addiction landscape. This time we’re talking about the food and drug addiction connection, drug using baby boomers, accidents, addicted babies, and drug using teens during summer breaks. If you…
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DARE – Drug Abuse Prevention that doesn’t work
DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) is the largest school-based drug abuse prevention program in the United States. 80% of school districts across the country teach the DARE curriculum, reaching an estimated 26 million children (1). Every year, over $1 billion goes into keeping the program running. A billion dollars may be a small price to…
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Saving lives made easy – Treating opiate overdose with intranasal naloxone
Contributing co-author: Andrew Chen Imagine that you and your friend have been using heroin (or another opiate). A few hours go by and you notice your friend is progressively becoming more and more unresponsive. You check on him and find that his breathing is shallow, his skin is cold, and his pupils are constricted. You…
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Loss, but not absence, of control – How choice and addiction are related
In a recent post the notion that “loss of control” is an addiction myth was raised by our contributing author, Christopher Russell, a thoughtful graduate student studying substance abuse in the U.K. Though I obviously personally believe in control- and choice-relevant neurological mechanisms playing a part in addiction, this conversation is a common one both…
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Conversation with an addiction expert – Jeanne Obert
Following up our successful and informative short interview with Chris Evans, we now turn our attention to Jeanne Obert, a founder and the Executive Director of the Matrix Institute. Matrix is an outpatient treatment center that is associated with the UCLA’s Integrated Substance Abuse Programs (ISAP). Jeanne is a developer of the Matrix Model of…
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The forest and trees of addiction
It’s unfortunate that some people look at substance abuse problems from their vantage point only – Everyone seems like them whether normal users, light abusers, abstainers, or hard-core alcoholics (recovered, recovering, or not). The world is full of individuals arranged in loosely associated groups. Unless one can acknowledge that real, important, and consequential differences exist,…
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ADHD and neurocognition – Knowing what to remember
Kate Humphreys ADHD In children and adults – Symptoms and tests Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, formerly known also as ADD) are classically seen as the kids in class who have trouble staying in their seats and paying attention during long lessons. Underlying these problematic behaviors is a confluence of factors, with evidence…
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A new candidate for ADHD medication: Amantadine and the rise of non-stimulants
It is well known that ADHD diagnoses and substance abuse problems are closely associated. It is estimated that substance abuse problems including dependence are up to twice as common among individuals with ADHD, which is not surprising given the impulsivity factor involved in ADHD. The problem is that until recently, most medications for ADHD have belonged…