Addiction Rehab: The Experience of Addiction as Told by the Addicted: Incorporating Biological Understandings Into Self-Story.
The Experience of Addiction as Told by the Addicted: Incorporating Biological Understandings into Self-Story.
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
Cult Med Psychiatry. 2012 Oct 19;
Hammer RR, Dingel MJ, Ostergren JE, Nowakowski KE, Koenig BA
How do the addicted view addiction against the framework of formal theories that attempt to explain the condition? In this empirical paper, we report on the lived experience of addiction based on 63 semi-structured, open-ended interviews with individuals in treatment for alcohol and nicotine abuse at five sites in Minnesota. Using qualitative analysis, we identified four themes that provide insights into understanding how people who are addicted view their addiction, with particular emphasis on the biological model. More than half of our sample articulated a biological understanding of addiction as a disease. Themes did not cluster by addictive substance used; however, biological understandings of addiction did cluster by treatment center. Biological understandings have the potential to become dominant narratives of addiction in the current era. Though the desire for a “unified theory” of addiction seems curiously seductive to scholars, it lacks utility. Conceptual “disarray” may actually reflect a more accurate representation of the illness as told by those who live with it. For practitioners in the field of addiction, we suggest the practice of narrative medicine with its ethic of negative capability as a useful approach for interpreting and relating to diverse experiences of disease and illness.
HubMed – addiction
Compulsive drug use and its neural substrates.
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
Rev Neurosci. 2012 Oct 18; 1-15
Lesscher HM, Vanderschuren LJ
Abstract Drug addiction is a chronic relapsing brain disease, characterized by compulsive drug use. Despite the fact that drug addiction affects millions of people worldwide, treatments for this disorder are limited in number and efficacy. In our opinion, understanding the neural underpinnings of drug addiction would open new avenues for the development of innovative treatments for this disorder. Based on an awareness that drug use and drug reward do not equal drug addiction, there has been increasing interest in developing animal models of addiction that mimick the loss of control over drug use more closely than existing models aimed at studying drug reward. The present review provides an overview of animal studies of compulsive drug use and the neural mechanisms involved. First, the employed models are summarized, with a particular emphasis on models of escalation of drug use and resistance to punishment. Next, we discuss mechanisms within the (ventral and dorsal) striatum and (central) amygdala that have recently been implicated in the compulsive seeking and taking of alcohol and cocaine. The studies discussed here provide a promising line of research that will advance our knowledge of the neural circuits involved in the self-destructive behavior that characterizes drug addiction.
HubMed – addiction
Integration of Parenting Skills Education and Interventions in Addiction Treatment.
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
J Addict Med. 2012 Oct 17;
Arria AM, Mericle AA, Rallo D, Moe J, White WL, Winters KC, O?connor G
OBJECTIVES:: Children of parents with substance use disorders are at risk for various adverse outcomes, and maladaptive parenting behaviors seem to be an important mediator of this risk. Although numerous research studies have highlighted the promise of parenting interventions in modifying parenting behavior, very little is known about the integration of parenting skills education and interventions into addiction treatment programs. METHODS:: In this study, a convenience sample of 125 addiction treatment programs in the United States was drawn. A key staff member was interviewed to gather basic information about the extent and nature of parenting skills education and interventions offered at their program. In addition, respondents were asked to rate the importance of parenting skills relative to other addiction treatment priorities. RESULTS:: Descriptive analyses revealed that 43% reported some form of parenting classes, but few used a structured curriculum. CONCLUSIONS:: Given the known beneficial influence of effective parenting practices on reducing adverse childhood outcomes, it is surprising that relatively few substance abuse treatment programs have adopted structured parenting skills interventions as part of their standard service offerings. More research is warranted on the extent to which parenting skills interventions are integrated into the continuum of services available to parents with a substance use disorder.
HubMed – addiction
Integration of substance use treatment and medical care: A special issue of JSAT.
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
J Subst Abuse Treat. 2012 Oct 15;
Walley AY, Tetrault JM, Friedmann PD
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