Is addiction a disease or a bad habit? The effect of genetics and family history. The importance of twin studies. Children of alcoholics and addicts.
Understanding the root causes of addiction can help us to better treat it.
Like asthma or diabetes, opioid addiction is a chronic condition. Could treatment that begins when people show up in the ER get them on the right road faster?
The pain intensity scale is often used to monitor a person's pain. But focusing too much on pain intensity could be contributing to the opioid epidemic.
The idea that addiction is typically a chronic, progressive disease that requires treatment is false, the evidence shows. Yet the "aging out" experience of the majority is ignored by treatment providers and journalists.
“When you have this kind of addiction . . . people will do just about anything to obtain these drugs, and they usually do,” a DEA official said.
A young man’s suicide highlights issues in the treatment of A.D.H.D., as youths fake symptoms to feed their addictions to potentially dangerous stimulants.
Roughly 2.5 million Americans are addicted to heroin and opioids like Oxycontin. Researchers say addiction takes over the brain's limbic reward system, impairing decision making, judgment and memory.
Rates of alcoholism and painkiller addiction are growing among older adults, and the negative effects can be worse in later life. Are you at risk?
In a nation where one American dies every 19 minutes from opioid or heroin overdose, addiction doctors are incensed that insurance companies are making patients wait for medication that can save them.
This article discusses the biology of addiction, how genetics, gender and other factors play a role in likelihood of becoming addicted, and the three phases of addiction.
Many people who become addicted to drugs, tobacco or alcohol start using as teenagers. So more effort is being put into helping teenagers stop before they get in too deep.
For some young sports stars, a pain-pill prescription can be the worst medicine.
Teenage brains are more susceptible to drug abuse, but it's often hard to find treatment. It's even harder to find evidence-based treatment designed for youth. But that's starting to change.
Most inmates lose access to medication-assisted treatment for addiction once they're incarcerated. Among prisons and jails that do offer such treatment, it's often restricted to pregnant women.
What really causes addiction -- to everything from cocaine to smart-phones? And how can we overcome it? Johann Hari has seen our current methods fail firsthand, as he has watched loved ones struggle to manage their addictions. He started to wonder why we treat addicts the way we do -- and if there might be a better way. As he shares in this deeply personal talk, his questions took him around the world, and unearthed some surprising and hopeful ways of thinking about…
How can someone be addicted when there is no substance to be addicted to? Why do some people get addicted when so many others don’t?
Alcoholism can be passed down from parent to child, but not in the same way as Alzheimer's or cancer. How exactly is it passed on?