Humiliating People With Addiction Is Not Treatment
My experiences at a "therapeutic community" in Florida where degrading practices were routine will always inform my continuing work as a therapist.
Treatment
Never Before Has Our Approach to Drugs Improved So Much, So Fast
We're winning: More progress has been made toward enlightened drug policies and treatment in the past five years than in the previous 25. Here's an advocacy agenda to take us even closer to the future we need.
A New Cure for Depression?
The standard treatment—SSRIs—doesn’t work for an estimated 20 to 40 percent of the millions who suffer from depression. Luckily, researchers have been exploring new alternatives that might just do the trick.
Big Pharma Is Keeping Us From Developing Low-Cost Cancer Treatments
Big Pharma’s focus on blockbuster cancer drugs squeezes out research into potential treatments that are more affordable. Says one researcher: "What is scientific and sexy is driven by what can be monetized."
Why Good Doctors Prescribe Off-Label Treatments
Medicine does not always have the luxury of waiting until the mountains of needed research on any given problem are completed centuries from now. Physicians are tasked with treating real-world suffering today.
Drug Courts Are the Answer: Save Money and Reduce Prison Populations
Eric Holder’s plan to reduce mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders is met with praise, and supported by the facts.
The Power of the Creative Arts
A recent analysis of past studies highlights the health benefits of music, dance, and art therapy, which are now being used to ease cancer-related anxiety and pain.
Feds Poke Hole in Needle Exchange Funding
Despite evidence that needle exchange programs for drug users slow the spread of AIDS, the new U.S. government spending bill once again defunds such programs.
Beyond PTSD: Soldiers Have Injured Souls
Now that modern militaries accept that war creates psychological trauma, therapists wonder about its toll on the spirit.
A Brief History of Combat Trauma
Despite its martial traditions, Germany has lagged in coming to grips with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Standard Medical Approaches Need Comparative Effectiveness Research, Too
The president of the Center for Advancing Health argues we need a more complete public discussion about comparative effectiveness research, not only for innovative therapies but for the standard ones, too.
The AIDS Funding Dilemma
In the "AIDS exceptionalism" debate, emotions run high, and the options are difficult: Shift some AIDS funding to other care, or find billions in new support.
Rational Arguments -- Evidence Is Only Part of the Story
When it comes to new treatment guidelines for breast cancer, back pain and other maladies, it's the narrative presentation that matters.
(Wheel) Running Addictions Away
Here's a thought for the New Year: Binge-drinking mice could help pave the way for exercise-oriented alcohol addiction treatments for humans.
Special K is Tough on Pain
A promising but unproven treatment for people in chronic pain highlights obstacles of using mature drugs in off-label ways.
Addiction Advances Haven't Made AA Obsolete — Yet
Although they approach the challenge of addiction differently from scientists, 12-step programs still have a therapeutic role in helping human beings.
A New Weapon Against Staph Infections
A new sheriff in town is gunning for drug-resistant staph infections, but this sheriff is very, very small.
Study in Contrepreneurship
In its first four years, Catherine Rohr's Prison Entrepreneurship Program shows some success in turning drug dealers and other convicts into legit businessmen.
A Better Way to Anesthetize?
Researchers have created a new system of slow-release delivery for anesthetic drugs, producing long-lasting local anesthesia in rats without signs of toxicity in their nerve or muscle cells.
Virtual Reality as an Addiction Recovery Tool
The virtual reality world is usually thought of as escapist entertainment. But a University of Houston researcher has found computer-generated environments can serve as an effective tool to help recovering addicts.