AA is Faith-Based, Not Evidence-Based Alcoholics Anonymous is the most widely used treatment for alcoholism. It is mandated by the courts, accepted by mainstream medicine, and required by insurance companies. AA is generally assumed to be the most effective treatment for alcoholism, or at least “an” effective treatment. That assumption is wrong. We hear about [...]
Alcohol rehab numbers outstrip hard drugs While alcohol was the major sole factor, Mr Pitts said 70 per cent of admissions also listed it as “among their reasons for seeking treatment” and this demonstrated how pervasive alcohol dependence had become across society. It was also viewed as an “easily accessible, socially acceptable and relatively inexpensive [...]
Photo of United States Representative Patrick J. Kennedy (son of Senator Ted Kennedy) at the ADA rally at the Capitol, 17 September 2008. Rep. Kennedy returns to Congress after month in rehab After a four-week course of addiction treatment, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy returned to Congress Wednesday with what he called “excellent” prospects for long-term [...]
New research on the brain and behavior clarifies the mysteries of addiction by Craig Lambert, Harvard Magazine, March 2000. Early experiences with drugs, whether in the womb or as an adult, have ineradicable effects. Drug users often describe a wish to recapture the bliss of their first high. But this goal proves elusive because once [...]
New combination of treatments is effective for alcohol dependence McLean Hospital researchers, along with colleagues from 11 other study sites nationwide, report that the medication naltrexone and up to 20 sessions of alcohol counseling delivered by a behavioral specialist are equally effective treatments for alcohol dependence when delivered with structured medical management in the Journal [...]
Alcohol major cause of drug rehab admissions, again Alcohol has again topped harder drugs like ice and heroin as the addiction which drives the most Australians into crisis rehab. Seventy per cent of people admitted to the major not-for-profit rehab centre Odyssey House, based in Sydney, in the past financial year listed alcohol as among [...]
It’s the Holidays. How About Just One? by Jim Atkinson I had my last drink nearly 16 years ago, so you’d think I would have assimilated pretty much every bit of unpleasantness associated with clean and sober life in a society that remains thoroughly sodden with alcohol. But I still can’t quite handle the holidays. [...]
The Discovering Alcoholic is the blog of a “recovering alcoholic clean and sober without relapse since the fall of 94″
September is National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. Voices of recovery…
Quitters: U.S. alcohol consumption declining Overall alcohol use—particularly consumption of beer—is declining in the US, according to a new study published in the August 2008 issue of The American Journal of Medicine. Researchers examined 50 years of data and found several changes in alcohol intake but no change in alcohol use disorders. Americans are drinking [...]