Each year our government spends approximately: $95 billion dollars on research to develop new treatments (medical, behavioral, psychiatric, addiction) $1.3 trillion dollars a year on actual services to patients Yet sadly, less than $1 billion dollars a year is spent on understanding how to take what we learn from science and research – the new… [Continue Reading]
Addiction in Society? Let Me Count the Ways
In the book Rapt Attention and the Focused Life Winifred Gallagher makes a case that life ultimately adds up to what you choose to pay attention to. This got me thinking about how addiction has evolved to our changing world, and the ways in which we are all more vulnerable to excessive behaviors – or at least exposed to far… [Continue Reading]
War on Drugs = War on Ourselves
Addiction is among our most significant public health problems, which is why I am so excited that the Obama/Biden Administration has named A. Thomas McLellan to the post of Deputy Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Tom brings tremendous talent and experience as an addiction researcher to the position, and from my experience and… [Continue Reading]
Abuse Diagnosis in DSM Soon to be Gone
This past week I attended the 71st Annual Scientific Meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence in Reno, Nevada. As usual, many of the world’s leading addiction scientists attended the conference to bat around the latest ideas in the field. One of the most memorable sessions for me was focused on the work… [Continue Reading]