One of the more articulate voices in the realm of addiction experts today is Carl Hart, who delivered a rousing TED Talk challenging our beliefs that drugs primarily cause addiction. In the talk he passionately offered evidence that poverty and crime are independent of drug problems, and that drugs including cocaine are far less addictive… [Continue Reading]
College on Problems of Drug Dependence
For the past half-dozen years, I have been attending The College on Problems of Drug Dependence, better known as CPDD. The conference has been in existence since 1929 and this year is celebrating 75 years! It is the longest running conference on drug addiction problems in the US and is attended by the brightest minds in the… [Continue Reading]
Root Causes of Addiction: Part 2
In my previous post on the roots of addiction, I discussed how adverse childhood experiences (ACE’s) to a large extent play an important role in development of addictive behavior. Given that over 80% of those who develop addictions begin adaptive behaviors to cope with ACE’s prior to the age of 15, we as a society need to place a greater… [Continue Reading]
The Gap Between Research & Practice
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]
3 Critical Lessons From Neuropsych Testing
Years ago I worked as an assistant for two neuropsychologists, essentially doing all the face-to-face testing. Usually, this meant 4 to 6 hours crammed into a small stuffy office conducting various cognitive, memory, and intelligence assessments. 3 Important Lessons I Learned: Although watching patients attempt to stick square objects in round holes had its moments, the lessons… [Continue Reading]