A. Tom Horvath, Ph.D., ABPP There are several significant differences between men and women concerning alcohol problems.  For instance, the same amount of alcohol (adjusted for weight) will have a bigger effect on a woman (because her stomach does not detoxify alcohol as effectively as a man’s stomach does), women may experience more medical complications (and these complications may be difficult to diagnose and therefore ignored longer), alcohol problems appear to develop (progress) faster in women, the effects of alcohol problems may be greater and more complex for women who have substantial responsibilities both at work and with their families, and the changing roles of women in society may create complications for women receiving adequate support for recovery (e.g., women seek tr...

How do I choose: Individual or group sessions for addiction treatment?  A. Tom Horvath, Ph.D., ABPP Are you searching for the “right” treatment center for you or a loved one?  This article is written to suggest that pre-established “programs” (individual or group sessions for addiction treatment) of treatment are not the best approach.  Rather, there are as many roads to recovery as there are individuals.  Treatment centers need to support you on your own path to recovery, not push you into a generalized recovery path that may be slightly helpful to many people, but not exactly helpful to anyone. Things to Consider When Considering Individual or Group Sessions If you were looking for the “right” center, there are many factors you would need to consider.  Are all of the substan...

What are the advantages of group sessions for addiction recovery?  A. Tom Horvath, Ph.D. There is no single correct or best way to recover from addiction.  No element of the recovery process must be completed by all individuals.  Although group sessions are often described as essential to recovery, they are not.  In fact, most people who recover do not attend groups of any kind!  However, these non-group-attending individuals are often ignored by treatment professionals, who are sometimes so focused on how they approach recovery that they fail to recognize other approaches. Nevertheless, group sessions can be valuable.  This article will describe some of the advantages of attending groups.  By groups we are referring to a) free, mutual-aid, self-help or support meetings (let’s ...

Let the buyer beware about addiction treatment A. Tom Horvath, Ph.D., ABPP The Latin phrase caveat emptor (“let the buyer beware”) suggests that sellers may not inform buyers of everything buyers might want to know about the purchase they are considering.  Caveat emptor certainly applies when considering services from the highly competitive addiction treatment industry.  This multi-billion dollar industry divides into two primary parts: government-funded treatment (about 75% of treatment) and private pay treatment.  Private insurance may pay a portion of private treatment, but typically only a small portion.  Government-funded treatment centers do not compete so much for clients as for contracts.  If you attend one of these centers you may simply feel fortunate that you have the o...

Habitual drug users may find it beneficial to seek addiction treatment sooner rather than later because the long term effects of drugs can lead to long-term depression (LTD). LTD affects memory formation and learning and continued drug use over time will lead to a loss of control where drug users lose many defenses against drug-seeking behavior.   Understanding Synaptic Plasticity Why is it that some regular users of drugs or alcohol develop addictions while others don't? The beginning of addiction appears to be related to a loss of synaptic plasticity in the brain, according to research carried out by a team of researchers at the University of Bordeaux in France (Kasanetz et. al., 2010). Understanding synaptic plasticity may be the key to developing more effective methods of ...

Antismoking campaigns and prevention programs in middle schools may be beneficial in teaching adolescents about the harms of smoking and drinking. Students who have been smoking and drinking in middle school may continue to smoke and drink throughout high school and even be at a higher risk for alcohol abuse in their lifetime. Thus, using evidence-based approaches to inform adolescents about addiction treatment and prevention in middle school may help reduce the number of students who try drinking and smoking. Parenting style is another key indicator of drinking and smoking by adolescents where subprime parenting may lead to an increased risk of tobacco use by middle school students. Individualized drug and alcohol treatment programs can help to reduce the risk of substance abuse in ...

According to previous research, MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine), popularly known as Ecstasy, may negatively affect cognition among heavy users. Golding et. al. set out to investigate whether light users and ex-users of MDMA in drug recovery also exhibit deficits in cognitive performance (2007).   The History of MDMA MDMA has an interesting history. It was first synthesized by a Merck chemist in 1912 and largely forgotten for the next 60 years. MDMA appeared as a street drug in the 1970s after its analogue MDA (3,4-Methylenedioxyamphetamine), known as “the love drug” or “the hug drug” in the 1960s, was criminalized. Andrew Shulgin, a researcher at the University of California, become interested in MDMA after hearing about its unusual effects on students. Shulgin develo...

What are the effects of cannabis on alcohol recovery? Many alcohol dependent individuals relapse after a period of abstinence in alcohol recovery. Researchers have used the reinstatement paradigm as an animal model of relapse. Animals are exposed to certain stimuli to test whether they reinstate previously extinguished responses, such as alcohol-seeking behavior. Lab rats, for example, will drink beer to the point of having withdrawal symptoms upon termination. Recent studies have found that synthetic cannabinoids (but not delta-9-THC, the main psychoactive constituent in marijuana) can reinstate previously extinguished drug-seeking behavior in lab rats (for cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine). Since cannabis is often used with alcohol in social settings, a team of researchers in Aust...

Daidzin, a compound found in the kudzu vine, interferes with the metabolization of alcohol and produces effects similar to those of the anti-drinking drug Antabuse. Dr. Ting-Kai Li of Duke University and Dr. Ivan Diamond of the University of California in San Francisco believe that they have discovered a synthetic version of daidzin that reduces alcohol cravings by preventing alcohol from increasing dopamine levels in the brain. Daidzin and synthetic daidzin (known as CVT-1-216) may prove useful in alcohol treatment. You may also be interested in: Herbal Remedies and Acupuncture for Addiction Recovery Harvard researchers first discovered the anti-drinking effects of the kudzu extract in 2005. Previous studies had shown that kudzu extracts reduced alcohol drinking in rats and hamsters....

Individualized interventions for alcohol treatment plans enable people in alcohol recovery to focus on their physical health as it relates to their alcohol consumption. Individuals who practice unhealthy drinking habits often end up as patients in hospitals – for drinking-related accidents and health problems, among other reasons. This time in the hospital may serve as an eye-opener or “teachable moment” for convincing patients to decrease unhealthy drinking behavior. However, studies of brief hospital-based interventions have shown that such interventions are not always successful. A team of researchers based at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System hypothesized that hospital-based interventions for alcohol treatment might be more successful if they were based on the associations be...