Addiction Rehab: Is Food Addiction a Valid and Useful Concept?
Is food addiction a valid and useful concept?
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
Obes Rev. 2012 Oct 12;
Ziauddeen H, Fletcher PC
In this paper, we considered the concept of food addiction from a clinical and neuroscientific perspective. Food addiction has an established and growing currency in the context of models of overeating and obesity, and its acceptance shapes debate and research. However, we argued that the evidence for its existence in humans was actually rather limited and, in addition, there were fundamental theoretical difficulties that required consideration. We therefore reviewed food addiction as a phenotypic description, one that was based on overlap between certain eating behaviours and substance dependence. To begin, we considered limitations in the general application of this concept to obesity. We shared the widely held view that such a broad perspective was not sustainable and considered a more focused view: that it underlies particular eating patterns, notably binge eating. However, even with this more specific focus[,] there were still problems. Validation of food addiction at the neurobiological level is absolutely critical, but there are inconsistencies in the evidence from humans suggesting that caution should be exercised in accepting food addiction as a valid concept. We argue the current evidence is preliminary and suggest directions for future work that may provide more useful tests of the concept.
HubMed – addiction
Limited to no responsibility: addiction, alcoholism and the law in modern Germany.
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
Hist Psychiatry. 2012 Jun; 23(90 Pt 2): 169-81
Lewy J
In Germany, a perpetrator had to be of sound mind to be convicted of a crime throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The criminal code was clear, but reality was not. From the moment that physicians accepted alcoholism and drug addiction as diseases of mind and body, the question of what to do with alcoholic and addicted criminals troubled legal theorists. How were judges to maintain the balance of justice if, on the one hand, a potential perpetrator chose to be of unsound mind by drinking or using drugs, but on the other, he was sick, unable to control his actions? As this article demonstrates, the legal system was lenient towards inebriated perpetrators as a by-product of the insistence of German doctors that alcoholism and addiction were diseases.
HubMed – addiction
Disparity between heroin addicts enrolled in maintenance treatment and detoxification treatment and its implication.
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
Asian J Psychiatr. 2010 Sep; 3(3): 138-41
Chang KC, Loh el-W, Tang HP, Chen CM, Huang CJ, Lan TH, Chiang MT, Kuo SW, Chiu HJ
Fundamentally, detoxification treatment aims to stop substance use behavior among the opioid addicts, while maintenance treatment aims to promote a healthier addiction behavior among the subjects by providing safer chemical substitutes. In this study, we evaluated the differences of social-demographics and clinical features between heroin addicts enrolled in detoxification and maintenance treatment. Data of 748 heroin addicts admitted for maintenance treatment or detoxification treatment between January 2004 and October 2007 were retrieved. Statistical analyses showed that older mean age, school dropout, drug offence, property offence, HCV and HIV infections, and older age of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine co-use, were significantly associated with maintenance treatment. Only a small number of patients chose detoxification treatment to treat their problems. The preference of maintenance treatment rather than detoxification treatment can be partially explained by financial concerns, either because the maintenance treatment is free or cheaper. Overall speaking, patients in detoxification treatment were relatively healthier in the aspects of social-demographics and clinical features compared to patients in maintenance treatment. Finding of this study should be concerned when designing treatment profiles, modifying of original treatment profiles or identifying target problems of a treatment profile.
HubMed – addiction
Importance of metabolic syndrome for South Asians.
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
Asian J Psychiatr. 2009 Oct; 2(3): 93-4
Ganguli R
Betty Ford Center: Addiction the Disease – Part 9 – Dr. Harry Haroutunian, Betty Ford Center Physician Director, defines the disease of addiction in this informative video.
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