If a woman is pregnant and has opioid use disorder, it is important that treatment and services are available to her, as withdrawal from opioids is dangerous to the...

In the United States there are vast numbers of people suffering and sometimes dying from substance use disorder, often from Opioids, Alcohol, and Methamphetamine. That is the three-headed monster...

Last week we began talking about the changes that were happening around alcohol use disorder treatment, starting during the Covid-19 pandemic, which is still ongoing. One especially important point...

In the past month, a number of incredibly important studies have been published about what the treatment prognosis looks like in the United States for the average alcoholic or...

Anybody that reads this blog will be familiar with the information that people with substance use disorders (SUD) have been particularly vulnerable during the Covid-19 pandemic. I have also...

It would not surprise most people to learn that our broad societal structure, including healthcare infrastructure and the social safety net, were not prepared to deal with Covid-19. For...

In recent years there has been more and more evidence that people with substance use disorder, including people with severe addiction and alcoholism problems, experience substance-related triggers differently than...

As a person who writes about substance use disorder, I consider myself especially lucky because I get to speak with clinicians in the field that I write about. Something...

When people who work around those with substance use disorder think about the justice system and the involvement of law enforcement in addiction medicine, it can be frustrating. It...

The IACP is the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and this group is most active in North America. In 2015, the IACP had a major symposium where efforts...

For many people drug and alcohol treatment, and the beginning of the recovery process, can be the beginning of a whole new chapter and a better life. Those of...

Something that I have been wanting to talk about for a long time on this blog is the prevalence of childhood trauma in the histories of people with substance...

Substance use disorder was a huge problem in 2020, just like the preceding decades had been. Experts believe that more people overdosed than ever before, and the trauma of...

The simple answer to this question is no, not exactly. Although a relapse is a setback during a person’s recovery, relapse does not necessarily send a person all the...

A study released recently suggests that people with substance use disorder are at much more risk of death from Covid-19 than those without substance use disorder. I have talked...

During 2020 we saw a lot of evidence that there has been an increase in alcohol sales during Covid-19. Unfortunately, it is hard not to connect that fact to...

“Things do not change; we change” (Henry D. Thoreau). For the final article of this year, I want to start with a conclusion that many experts in the field...

Although understanding compulsion and compulsive behavior is key to understanding addiction, compulsive behavior is not present in all patients who suffer from substance use disorder. Addiction is sometimes defined...

Obviously, nurses, and the work they do, plays a role in the treatment of substance use disorder of varying types, which is also called addiction. Addiction should be treated...

In this article series, we will investigate many theories of what addiction is and why it affects certain people. For our purposes, addiction is substance use disorder, and I...

Christmas and other holidays, from Thanksgiving to New Year, can be challenging for people with addiction and substance use disorders. I put together a list of some of the...

SublocadeTM, the long-acting, once a month injection of buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder, is still very difficult to obtain for patients who could benefit from it. There are...

Earlier today D. Michael Hancock, a former administrator at the Department of Labor, released a scathing editorial about the widening practice of substance abuse treatment facilities engaging their own...

Long before the Covid-19 pandemic had reached its current proportions, we talked about the major problems that existed in the outpatient methadone rehab industry, including problems with outpatient methadone...

We have recently talked a lot about access to addiction treatment in rural areas and working to shift attitudes about addiction treatment in those communities. We have discussed community-based...

Five days ago, on Thanksgiving here in the United States, the Journal of Rural Health released a report on a remarkable study. The Journal of Rural Health is the...