Category: Diagnosis
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The “Addictive Personality” Misnomer
I’m often asked if there’s an addictive personality…as though people with substance use disorders (SUDs) can be identified through that one trait, but there’s not. There are, however, common personality traits that those with SUDs tend to have. See if you recognize anyone in these traits: impulsivity, disinhibition, manipulative tendencies, a lack of accountability, a…
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Testing for Truth
A recent edition of the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse reports that of the 1,300+ children, aged 9 to 13, surveyed, 9% more tested positive using hair testing for substance use than the 10% who self-reported use. Wait, now… The report indicates that 5% of 8th graders — children aged 13-14 — are reporting cannabis use…
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Where’s the Rx?
Over the last few days I’ve been confronted – again – with the realization that far too many people don’t believe addiction is a disease, no matter what they actually say about it. First, the municipality where I live, one where no cannabis use is legal, decided to drop the first possession ticket to a…
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Our Next New Drug Crisis
Ketamine has a long and storied history. Developed in the early 1960s as an anesthesia, it was deemed too dangerous for people due to its “intense, prolonged emergence delirium that ultimately made it undesirable for human use.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5126726/ More studies; more testing; and the end result — well, maybe not the END result, but the…
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The Truth About Cannabis
My sister K. and I used to think that guys from our days in high school could attribute any significant hair loss they’d suffered over the years to their use of THC while in high school and beyond. There’s not yet a strong correlation or body of evidence, but who knows…maybe we’re on to something.…
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Death by Degrees?
“Harm reduction” has been defined myriad ways. The “Godfather of Harm Reduction,” Dan Bigg, referred to it as “the principle of reducing the negative consequences associated with drug use.” The organization he co-founded, the Chicago Recovery Alliance (CRA), uses the phrase “any positive change.” (https://www.thechicagoschool.edu/insight/news/any-positive-change/) The National Harm Reduction Coalition says that “harm reduction is a…
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We Can’t Treat It If We Don’t Test For It
The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), is designed to “address the needs of infants born with and identified as being affected by substance abuse or withdrawal symptoms resulting from prenatal drug exposure, or a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.” The Act is an effort to, in part, address the health and substance use…
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Weed in the NBA
Big news before 4/20 was that the new NBA collective-bargaining contract will not require testing for THC. This new contract comes on the heels of the NBA having temporarily suspended testing of THC over the last three seasons, in part as a response to the COVID pandemic. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has gone on record…
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My Friend Michael Is Dying
To be honest, I’m not even sure what he’s dying from, which makes helping him that much more difficult. It may be cancer, or it may be that his disease of addiction has finally sped up his demise…from cirrhosis or whatever else a body does when it’s had enough. And, given the fragmented systems of…
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Helping the Tiniest Victims
The tiniest victims of the opioid crisis are the babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), and, specifically, neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS). Overall in the US, the number of babies born with NAS is considered to be 6.7 per 1,000. However, those numbers increase based on different factors: American Indian/Alaska Natives have babies with…
Guided by Guida 