Author: Alex Thompson

Alcohol use also potentiates the risk of fatal overdose from opioids (alcohol was involved in nearly 15% of opioid overdoses in 2017; [Tori et al., 2020]). Responsible physicians will never prescribe oxycodone to patients who are known to abuse alcohol. However, oxycodone is so widely abused that it is even stolen from pharmacies for resale […]

Though known today mainly as a recreational drug, ecstasy has been used off-label in medical contexts. Ecstasy was explored as a therapeutic drug in the 1970s, as some psychotherapists believed it opened people up and enhanced their potential for empathy and understanding of one another. Unlike other recreational drugs such as cocaine and nicotine, which […]

These feelings, called withdrawal, can last from several days to a few weeks. When people take meth frequently or in high doses, it can eventually lead to a substance use disorder. Meth addiction can induce symptoms of withdrawal, a set of health problems that can linger for days. Work with a medical professional to diagnose […]

Across recovery stages, individuals were 4.1 to 8.6 times more likely to achieve sustained abstinence by continuous 12-Step meeting attendance and involvement. Eden Ministries director the Rev. James Cliffe recalled that for a couple of months, Earle adhered to the facility’s rules, abstaining from alcohol and drugs, and attending frequent 12-step meetings. AA has helped […]

Once tolerance develops, people need to take higher doses of the drug to achieve the desired effects. They may start smoking or injecting meth to experience a stronger, more immediate high. The purpose of therapy is to help the person with the addiction determine the underlying causes of the addiction. It also teaches the person […]

An important future direction will be to expand the evidence-base for the treatment of older adults. This could include new clinical trials with less restrictive inclusion criteria, use of electronic medical records and observational studies, and simulations, as well as a combination of all these approaches (Blanco et al., 2017). Societal norms tend to reinforce […]

A 2018 meta-analysis looked at the results of 62 studies and found that grandiose narcissism has a moderate association with increased social network use. It found that individuals with grandiose narcissism have more friends and followers, post more often, and spend more time on social media than other people. The cycle of addiction and narcissism […]

The same 2011 study found that participants slept a lot in the first few days of not using meth and reported higher post-sleep refreshment. Yet the overall quality of sleep, measured by the length of time it takes you to fall asleep and the number of times you wake up, remained low even after 3 […]

These trends suggest that much of the historical difference in the prevalence of both substance use and SUDs may have been attributable to social and cultural factors and not biological sex differences. Nonetheless, a wide array of differences have been identified that suggest that sexual dimorphisms–including, but not exclusively related to gonadal hormones–can impact the […]

If someone you care about has a drinking problem, A.A. Has helped more than two million alcoholics stop drinking. Recovery works through one alcoholic sharing their experience with another. At 4-, 6-, and 8-year follow-up, girls (40% of the sample) had more abstinent days than boys. This search will pull up the closest 250 meetings […]