Category: From Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

TWELVE STEPS ARE WAITING – 

April 21, 2021 – Even before the pandemic began, some Americans were drinking significantly more alcohol than they had in decades past — with damaging consequences. In 2020, researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (N.I.A.A.A.) found that from 1999 through 2017, per capita consumption increased by 8 percent and the number of alcohol-related deaths doubled, many caused by liver disease. The trends are particularly concerning for women: Whereas the number of men who reported any drinking stayed mostly the same, the proportion of women who did so increased 10 percent, and the number of women who reported binge drinking, or consuming roughly four or more drinks in about two hours, increased by 23 percent. (For men, binge drinking is about five or more drinks in that period.) Current dietary guidelines consider moderate drinking to be at most one drink a day for women and two for men.

So researchers were understandably apprehensive when, early in the pandemic, alcohol sales spiked. They were especially concerned about women, because similar quantities of alcohol affect them more adversely than men, making them more likely to suffer injuries from accidents and to develop chronic illnesses like liver and heart disease and cancer. But it was unclear whether increased sales would translate into increased consumption. Perhaps Americans were hoarding alcohol as they were toilet paper.

more@NYTimes

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – VIDEO WORTH WATCHING – 

April 27, 2021 – “It’s called the CAGE test – C is for cut-down meaning if you think that you need to start cutting down on your intake,” Dr. Garcia said. “The A is for annoyance- if you become annoyed by somebody asking you to cut down – and that’s point 2. The G is for guilt – there’s guilt surrounding your alcohol consumption and finally, E is for eye-opener. You wake up in the morning and the only way to function is by cracking that beer or having that shot then if you score 4 out of 4 that’s a definitive problem.”

According to experts, the most commonly abused drug in Texas is alcohol. At any given moment, there are roughly 10,000 Texans in addiction treatment centers for alcohol alone.

“Alcoholism is typically what the most talked about because it’s what is most acceptable,” said Dr. Garcia. “The reality is that it is not necessarily the most common issue that we have.”

But Dr. Garcia says prescription opioids are a big problem as well. 

The Texas Department of State Health Services data on treatment admissions showed that 12% of all treatment admissions involved the non-medical use of prescription drugs.

more@ABC7

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WHO CAN WE TRUST? – 

April 29, 2021 – What his family didn’t know was that Addiction Specialists Inc., often known as ASI, had a history of violating state rules. In a later federal investigation into the facility’s billing and drug distribution practices, a grand jury concluded that a litany of problems occurred at the business many months before and after Adam’s arrival.  In the wrongful death suit, a lawyer for the Kalinowski family alleged Adam wasn’t evaluated by a physician when he arrived at ASI, didn’t receive the medication or treatment he needed, became increasingly uneasy and anxious throughout the night, and killed himself. An Allegheny County judge in December 2019 said the business, two of its owners — Rosalind and Sean Sugarmann — and an ASI physician were negligent in caring for Adam. The judge ordered them to pay over $1.6 million in damages, although Ian doubts they ever will.

ASI eventually shut down, two years after Adam died. In recent interviews with Spotlight PA/KHN, the Sugarmanns denied responsibility for Adam’s death and maintained that ASI was a good facility. Rosalind said it helped a lot of people in a rural area with a high drug-overdose rate.  At the time of Adam’s death in 2014, the department had taken few disciplinary actions against ASI. It had issued citations and required the company to submit plans to correct them. But the Sugarmanns told Spotlight PA/KHN that, at the time, they didn’t fear the state would shut them down.  The department has no standard criteria for when it should force facilities to serve fewer patients and, as of early April, had revoked just one treatment provider’s license in nearly a decade. It doesn’t, as a regular practice, compare facilities to see if any stand out for an unusual number of violations or the most client deaths. And since state inspections focus heavily on records, they can be tricked with fraudulent paperwork, former employees in the treatment field said.

more@Inquirer

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

MAKES OPIATES LOOK LIKE CANDY

APRIL 29, 2021 – According to a team of researchers led by Leonardo Trasande, organophosphate pesticides, of which chlorpyrifos is the most widely used, accounted for an estimated $594 billion in societal costs, including added health care and education, between 2001 and 2016.

The EPA was poised to ban chlorpyrifos in 2016, but the Trump EPA changed course the next year without providing any scientific justification for its decision. The reversal, made under EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, has been tied to a $1 million contribution to President Donald Trump’s inaugural fund from Dow Chemical Company, now known as Corteva, which was the primary producer of chlorpyrifos.

But the EPA had come close to, and retreated from, banning chlorpyrifos well before the Trump administration. After concerns began to mount in the late 1980s about the harms chlorpyrifos posed to children, environmental groups pushed to get chlorpyrifos banned. Dow and agricultural groups fought back aggressively against the EPA’s regulatory scrutiny, arguing that its removal would lead to shortages of fruits and vegetables. Ultimately, instead of forcing the pesticide off the market, the agency struck a deal in 2000 in which Dow voluntarily withdrew a product containing chlorpyrifos that was used to kill cockroaches and other insects in the home, while the company’s agricultural product, Lorsban, remained on the market.

more@TheIntercept

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

KIDS NEED A DRINK? – 

April 28, 2021 – The study comparing millennials with Generation Z  found rates of depression among adolescents had surged from fewer than one in ten (nine per cent) to more than one in seven (16 per cent) in the 10 years between the two generations. By contrast the proportion who had smoked in adolescence had almost halved from nine per cent to five per cent, while the number trying alcohol before the age of 14 dropped from 52 per cent to 48 per cent.  

Generation Z were, however, more likely to be worried about their body image, and more likely to be overweight, according to the research by UCL’s Centre for Longitudinal Studies and Liverpool University. Lower self-worth and body confidence has been linked to increased social media use.  Dr Praveetha Patalay, co-author of the research, said the study showed that while there was “good news” that Generation Z were spurning drink and cigarettes, those that did were more prone to depression than the earlier cohort of teenagers.  She said such a link was “concerning” and required urgent action by public health and clinical care planners.  Yvonne Kelly, Professor Lifecourse Epidemiology at UCL, said increased social media use among Generation Z could be linked to the rise in depression.  

“That generation is spending more time engaging with social media and consuming information via those platforms. It could be to do with the content and context of that use,” she said.   

more@MSN

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

A WORTHY INVESTMENT – 

April 28, 2021 – The Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage is getting set to launch its most significant expansion since opening almost four decades ago, it was announced Tuesday.

The four-year, $30 million project — to include construction of three new buildings and updates to the grounds — will break ground May 4 and is slated to transform the treatment center founded by former First Lady Betty Ford and former U.S. Ambassador Leonard Firestone in 1982. The center is the nation’s largest nonprofit system for addiction treatment and co-occurring mental health care, recovery and related prevention and education services, according to Betty Ford officials.  “The impact of substance use and mental health disorders is growing due to a number of factors including the tremendous stress and strain of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mishek added. “Amid record-high overdoses, and the daily pain experienced by millions of families struggling through the chaos of addiction, it is imperative that we build capacity to help more people … .”

Mishek and incoming President and CEO Joseph Lee, MD, will be among those at the groundbreaking event, along with Hazelden Betty Ford Trustee Susan Ford Bales — daughter of President and Mrs. Ford — and special guests.

more@Patch

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

MUSICAL INTERLUDE –

Randy Travis, is an American country music and gospel music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor.

more@YouTube

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

SO MUCH WORK TO DO – 

April 2021 – Some people fail to respond to treatments because they have an untreated dual diagnosis. A dual diagnosis is a situation in which a patient has to deal with an untreated problem like depression or anxiety along with drug addiction.

People who suffer from this can have a lot of problems, especially mental problems, which do not get proper treatment because of their substance abuse problems. This results in creating other problems which force patients to lose focus on their treatment for drug addiction, and consequently, the treatments fail to produce any good results.

Mental turmoil

A lot of people who suffer from mental health issues alongside a drug addiction problem will find it difficult to cure their addiction. Such people tend to use a lot of self-medications which causes them to refuse to give up drugs and alcohol.

A lot of patients understand that drug addiction and mental turmoil are related, and this causes their addiction to exacerbate. It would be prudent for such people to take medication for both their mental issues and drug addiction problems. Ignoring one problem for the other will be bad for them.

Ambivalence towards recovery

A lot of people do not put in the necessary effort required to stop their addiction. There are several individuals who do not have adequate determination to address their problems. This is a lack of mental strength, and it stops people from stopping their drug addiction.

Hope for future use

more@Influencive

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN – 

April 23, 2021 – At the four-and-a-half year follow-up, 71 to 100 percent of participants credited improvements in levels of anxiety and depression to the single-dose psilocybin and therapy combination of the study. The participants further “rated it among the most personally meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives.”

Though further research needs to be done, it’s thought that because psilocybin can affect mood and perception to “regulate arousal and panic responses,” the drug interacts with the networks of the brain to shape it into being more amenable to entertaining new thought patterns.

Researchers believe that psilocybin can be beneficial to patients by strengthening the effects of psychotherapy and aiding in a larger-spanning reduction in symptoms.

more@TheHill

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

HYPOCRITICAL SOCIETY – 

April 24, 2021 – A man who prosecutors say ran an extensive network selling psychedelic and party drugs around the Santa Cruz area, including at UC Santa Cruz, was sentenced to a decade in federal prison, court records show.

Matthew Wilcox Hutchings, 26, was sentenced April 20 to 10 years in federal prison, followed by five years supervised release, by U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman. At an earlier hearing, Hutchings pleaded guilty to selling LSD, psilocybin mushrooms and MDMA, court records show. On top of this, prosecutors said that when Hutchings was in jail, he was recorded telling his mom on the phone that selling drugs made him feel “on top of the (expletive) world.”

“Hutchings said that he regretted nothing, and if he had the chance to do it again, he would,” assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Griswold wrote in a sentencing memo. “His mother laughed and told him not to repeat that sentiment to the judge.”

more@MercuryNews

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