Tag: News

Does Empathy Play A Role In Relapse?

Scientists examined whether empathy can push a person in recovery to relapse for a new study.

Having empathy — being able to relate to other people’s emotions — is generally considered a positive trait, but new research suggests that empathy could lead to relapse for people who are in recovery.

Dr. Jonathan Gewirtz, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, led a team of researchers who found that mice who witnessed another mouse in a scary situation were more likely to seek out drugs afterwards. The findings were presented during the 57th Annual Meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, being held this week in Florida.

Gewirtz says his lab studies the biology of fearful memories and drug dependence, “since negative affective states are a prominent feature of drug withdrawal and likely play a critical role in the persistence of drug addiction.”

To set up the empathy experiment, mice were placed in a two-sided container, where they got a dose of saline solution on one side, or morphine on the other, according to EurekaAlert and a press release by the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Over several days, the mice associated a specific side with the drug. Then, two weeks later the mice received only saline on either side. This was meant to mimic a period of sobriety after addiction.

Next, the mice were exposed to seeing another mouse in a frightening situation. Following that, they were put back in the two-sided compartment.

“Consistently, the sober mice preferentially selected the compartment that was associated with morphine, demonstrating drug-seeking behavior in response to witnessing a traumatic event,” according to the press release.

During the experiment, the researchers measured the mice’s fear response.

To strengthen the connection between empathy and drug-seeking behavior, scientists then treated some of the mice with oxytocin, a chemical that is associated with social bonding and thus empathy. They found that these mice had a greater fear response than mice that were not treated with oxytocin.

“[Researchers] conclude that mice, and potentially people, that witness a stressful event are negatively emotionally affected, which may lead them to seek drugs, even after a period of sobriety,” according to the press release. “Oxytocin treatment exacerbates this response, indicating that social bonding (and empathy, by extension) is a driving force in this behavior. The researchers say these findings are the first to demonstrate the direct link between empathy and drug relapse, as well as to suggest oxytocin may play a role in enhancing this response.”

View the original article at thefix.com

14 December 2018
Timothée Chalamet Discusses The Message Of "Beautiful Boy"

“The movie shows how devastating it can be to everyone around the addict,” Timothée Chalamet explained during a recent panel on Beautiful Boy.

Timothée Chalamet knows that Beautiful Boy, based on the memoir Tweak written by Nic Sheff (played by Chalamet) and Beautiful Boy written by Nic’s father David Sheff (played by Steve Carell), is obviously about drug addiction.

However, he says the real message lies in the relationships at the heart of the movie.

“The ‘don’t do drugs because they will ruin your life’ narrative, which is very true and very important to know, is out there as effectively as it should be, so this movie tried to address things around it and not that direct message,” People reported Chalamet saying to a crowd of teens at a New York screening of the movie.

In a separate interview, Nic Scheff agreed with Chalamet’s interpretation, saying, “You have to realize that there have been so many movies about addiction that show the downward spiral of a person as the drugs overtake their life. Many of these films show these people hitting bottom, then end with them dying or getting into rehab and ending on a hopeful note. Although there have been some great movies like that, our idea was to do something different. We wanted to show the effect the addiction has on the family because my dad had written about it so amazingly in Beautiful Boy. We wanted to combine the family narrative with the addiction narrative.”

Chalamet had recently joined Sheff in a screening of the film for New York City high school students. On a panel Sheff and Chalamet answered questions, and one student asked if there was any lesson Chalamet thought the movie got across outside of not to “get too mixed up in drugs.”

Chalamet responded thoughtfully. “It’s supposed to portray David and Nic’s story as a firsthand warning of how addiction can ruin one’s life in the personal context, but perhaps more eye-opening, the movie shows how devastating it can be to everyone around the addict.”

The parents of those addicted to a substance often undergo extreme and ongoing trauma. Many times the parents of those with addiction end up struggling with PTSD from the effects of the path of addiction and their child’s numerous close calls with death and prison.

After the Q&A session Chalamet told People, “Our hope is that it’s not a glorification of drugs or a warning against the glorification of drugs because that’s not what the movie’s about.”

View the original article at thefix.com

14 December 2018
Charlie Sheen Is One Year Sober

Charlie Sheen announced his sober milestone on Twitter this week.

After one of the most well-publicized relapses in history, actor Charlie Sheen revealed this week that he has been sober for one year.

Sheen, 53, posted a picture of his one-year AA chip on Twitter, writing, “so, THIS happened yesterday! a fabulous moment, in my renewed journey. #TotallyFocused.”

It’s an important step for Sheen, who has a long and complicated history with both substance abuse and recovery. In 2016, Sheen spoke with Dr. Mehmet Oz, who asked how many times the actor has tried to stop drinking.

“About 2,000,” Sheen said, according to People. “There was a stretch where I didn’t drink for 11 years. No cocaine, no booze for 11 years. So I know that I have that in me.”

Sheen said he initially relapsed after receiving an HIV diagnosis in 2012.

“It was to suffocate the anxiety and what my life was going to become with this condition and getting so numb I didn’t think about it,” Sheen said. “It was the only tool I had at the time, so I believed that would quell a lot of that angst. A lot of that fear. And it only made it worse.”

Sheen told Oz then that he is committed to helping find a cure for HIV and wants his children to see that he inspired others, despite his demons.

“They’re going to see that dad is a true hero. That he helped a lot of people and continues to help people who can’t help themselves,” Sheen said.

He added that when he was using he was “hammered, fractured, crazy,” but in recovery he is “focused, sober, hopeful.”

Sheen’s father, Martin Sheen, who is in long-term recovery himself, has spoken about supporting his son through the tough times but also knowing when there is nothing left to do.

“What he was going through, we were powerless to do much, except to pray for him and lift him up,” Martin said in 2015.

However, once Sheen was ready for help, his father was able to draw on his recovery and AA experience to help his son.

“The best way to heal is to help healing someone else, and it takes one to know one, so you can appreciate what someone’s going through if you’ve gone there yourself,” Martin said in September of this year.

He added that getting sober in the spotlight adds another challenge to an already fraught situation.

“The bigger your celebrity, the more difficult it is to lead an honest life, because your past is always present,” Martin said. “I think today makes it that much harder for people because there’s no privacy. I think that the idea of anonymity is very important to the [recovery] program, and it has an energy all its own.”

View the original article at thefix.com

14 December 2018
New Website Helps People Find Addiction Treatment Services

The live, online resource helps connect individuals and family members seeking addiction treatment options and related services throughout Pennsylvania.

A series of simple questions may be a crucial link for Pennsylvania residents struggling with drug dependency.

The Drug and Alcohol Referral Tool (DART) is a live, online resource that can connect individuals and family members seeking addiction treatment options and related services in their area. Visitors answer 9 yes-or-no questions on age, county, history of dependency on drugs or alcohol, military service and other criteria. Their answers then generate contacts for county-specific treatment or support, which has been an ongoing goal of Governor Tom Wolf’s administration.

As The Daily Item noted, DART is an extension of Pennsylvania’s Get Help Now Hotline (800-662-HELP), which connects individuals in need with trained professionals. Though the hotline received 35,000 calls over the last two years, Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs Secretary Jen Smith said, “What we’ve heard was the hotline wasn’t really enough.”

To accommodate the need for resources, the department, working in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, launched DART on December 6, 2018. The online questionnaire, which is anonymous and can be translated into more than 100 languages, asks visitors if they are inquiring for themselves or a loved one.

From there, they are asked to click yes or no to answer nine questions, two of which – age and county – are mandatory. The rest, which cover the individual’s military service, history of drug, alcohol or gambling abuse, and need for legal and/or transportation services, are optional.

Upon completing the questions, respondents are then provided with a list of resources in their area, based on their answers. These include substance dependency and mental health office phone numbers, links to health and human services programs through the state’s COMPASS network based on income and a map of Drug Take Back boxes, among other options. Eligibility for programs is not assessed by DART, but users can be directed to additional information on qualifications.

Income, transportation and living situation are included on the questionnaire because the problems are often hand-in-hand. “Substance use disorders often occur when a person experiences other medical and behavioral health concerns, and they may need additional resources to live stable, healthy life in recovery,” said Human Services Secretary Teresa Miller. “Connecting people seeking treatment to comprehensive services that can help meet all of their needs from the start is critical as they work towards recovery.”

Inclusive tools like DART are a crucial part of Wolf’s plan to aid his state, which as of 2017 had the highest rate of drug overdose mortalities in the United States. DART is just one of several initiatives being rolled out to promote Stop Overdoses in PA: Get Help Now Week, which takes place December 10 through 14, 2018.

“A common concern that we have heard throughout the commonwealth is that individuals aren’t aware of the services and supports available to them,” said Smith. “[DART] will allow individuals to have critical information on where to go and how to access the services they need.”

View the original article at thefix.com

14 December 2018
Inadequate Mental Health Treatment Hinders Massachusetts Residents

Only about 50% of Massachusetts mental health providers accept payment from the state and federal Medicaid program. Private insurance isn’t much better.

Patients in Massachusetts are struggling to receive adequate mental health care but not because of lack of insurance coverage.

The Boston Globe reports that based on a new Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation survey of 2,201 residents, more than half recently sought mental health or substance use disorder treatment but had difficulty receiving such treatment.

Of those surveyed, 39% went without treatment altogether and about 13% resorted to an emergency room visit even though about half of those admitted that their care was not an emergency.

Though insured, the majority of patients struggled to find care because certain providers did not take their insurance or because practices were not accepting new clients at the time.

In October, the Globe reported that Massachusetts was home to more mental health care providers per capita than any other US state. It also has more psychiatrists than any other state, with the exception of Washington, DC, and more child psychiatrists than all states but Rhode Island and DC.

Even so, residents of the state are struggling. According to The Globe, only about 50% of Massachusetts providers accept payment from the state and federal Medicaid program. And private insurance isn’t much better, as only about half the psychiatrists in the Northeast accept it.

Audrey Shelto, president of the foundation that conducted the survey, told The Globe that this was the first time since the survey began a decade ago that it asked about mental health and substance use disorder treatment access.

“If change is going to happen at the magnitude that’s needed, it’s going to be necessary that we start building a more solid evidence base,” Shelto said.

According to Shelto and others in the field, one possible solution would be paying psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers more, because private insurers and Medicaid currently do not pay them enough. Those in the practice also spend a great deal of time on applications for insurance networks as well as paperwork for patient treatment.

According to The Globe, Health and Human Services has stated that between 2016 and 2020, Medicaid is increasing fees to mental health providers by $100 million.

But Vic DiGravio, president of the Association for Behavioral Healthcare in Natick, told The Globe this isn’t enough to convince more providers to join the program.

DiGravio adds that access to prescribers such as psychiatrists are one of the biggest battles being faced currently.

“For a clinic to have a doctor on staff to see patients on a regular basis, the rates don’t cover their time,” he said.

View the original article at thefix.com

13 December 2018
Does James Bond Have A Drinking Problem?

A new study did a breakdown of James Bond’s drinking behavior to determine if the secret agent has a “severe” and “chronic” relationship with alcohol.

Over the course of two-dozen films over the past 60 years, James Bond was seen drinking alcohol 109 times—and often engaging in risky behavior when doing so—The Washington Post reports.

These numbers come from a recent study conducted by public health experts from the University of Otago in New Zealand, which concluded that Bond had a “severe” and “chronic” relationship with alcohol and met more than half the criteria for alcohol use disorder. Bond also, according to the researchers, engaged in risky behavior during or after drinking.

“Chronic risks include frequently drinking prior to fights, driving vehicles (including in chases), high-stakes gambling, operating complex machinery or devices, contact with dangerous animals, extreme athletic performance and sex with enemies, sometimes with guns or knives in the bed,” lead author Nick Wilson said in a statement.

In Quantum of Solace, researchers noted that Bond drank six Vespers (gin, vodka and a mix of wines), which would have put his blood alcohol level at about .36 grams per deciliter. This, according to researchers, is nearly enough to lead to come, heart failure and death.

But Bond topped that in one of the Bond books, in which he had 50 units of alcohol in just one day. According to Wilson, that’s “a level of consumption which would kill nearly everyone.”

In an email to The Post, Wilson wrote that the films are “very good for studying trends in behaviors such as smoking and drinking” and that “it was also a fun study to do— and the ridiculousness of some of Bond’s actions after drinking helped give the work some scope for a laugh.”

A 2013 study also examined Bond’s relationship with alcohol in the books, stating that it had him “at high risk of multiple alcohol-related diseases and an early death.’” Researchers also added that his level of funtion “is inconsistent with the physical, mental, and indeed sexual functioning expected from someone drinking this much alcohol.”

According to authors of the most recent study, Bond’s place of employment should have stepped in.

“Bond’s workplace (MI6) should be a more responsible employer by referring him to work-funded counseling or psychiatric support services for managing his alcohol use disorder,” authors wrote. “These services should also determine whether he has any post-traumatic stress after killing so many people and having been tortured so often.”

View the original article at thefix.com

13 December 2018
Miley Cyrus Talks About Using Marijuana Again After Quitting

Miley Cyrus says her mom, who “smokes a lot of weed,” got her to begin smoking it again.

A year after she spoke publicly about quitting marijuana, Miley Cyrus says she’s back to smoking pot, although not while she’s working.

Cyrus, 26, said that her mom Tish, who “smokes a lot of weed,” got her using again.

“My mom got me back on it,” Cyrus said, according to USA Today. “When I’m just working I don’t think I function at my highest, most intelligent, most being-able-to-be-as-aware-and-as-present, so I don’t smoke when I work.”

Tish even threatened to quit as Cyrus’ manager to start growing cannabis, but Cyrus laughed off the idea.

“My dad’s got a farm and she’s like ‘I’m just going to quit everything and grow.’ She’s my manager. So if my mom quits everything, that’s quitting me to go home and, like, grow weed,” she said. “Which doesn’t sound like the best idea. … My mom could barely keep us alive. She’s not going to grow pot.”

In May 2017, Cyrus told Billboard why she stopped smoking weed, despite thinking it’s “the best drug on earth.”

“I like to surround myself with people that make me want to get better, more evolved, open. And I was noticing, it’s not the people that are stoned,” she said. “I want to be super clear and sharp, because I know exactly where I want to be.”

Later that summer, Cyrus appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, joking about how high she had been during past performances on the show.

“I’ve always been very stoned on your shows. I don’t know if you know this, everybody,” she said. “‘Member the last time I was here? I was dressed as a bunny rabbit and then like a cat. There’s a reason for that: I was high.”

Cyrus said she quit because she wanted to focus on the quality of her work.

“I’m actually the most passionate about what I’m doing with this record than I’ve been—I say this every time, but I loved making this record so, so much. And this record at this moment is the most important album that I’ve ever made,” she said. “So I wanted to make sure that I was super clear in the way I’m talking.”

Cyrus said that before that appearance she had a dream she was so stoned on the show she just dropped dead. It was so realistic that she researched whether it was possible, only to find she was very unlikely to die from smoking weed.

“It’s like no one’s ever died from weed, but no one’s ever smoked as much as I did,” she said.

View the original article at thefix.com

13 December 2018
Cannabis Industry Searches for Consistent High

“No one ever knows what they’re getting, and it’s a huge problem. It’s making it so the [cannabis] industry doesn’t work very well,” said one scientific expert about the lack of consistency.

The cannabis industry is expanding rapidly, but scientists and investors are still chasing an elusive goal: a cannabis plant that can provide a predictable high when it is smoked.

Although tinctures, edibles and other products made with cannabis extracts can offer more exact amounts of cannabinoids that make the effects more consistent, industry leaders say that consumers want a bud that can offer the same type of reliable experience. Right now, that doesn’t exist.

“No one ever knows what they’re getting, and it’s a huge problem,” Mowgli Holmes, chief scientific officer of Phylos Bioscience in Portland, Oregon, told NBC News. “It’s making it so the industry doesn’t work very well. Often it’s way too strong. It’s Russian roulette. New customers get burned and don’t come back.”

Jon Vaught, CEO of agricultural technology firm Front Range Biosciences, said that people who want to know what effects they’ll experience when using cannabis often opt for manufactured products because they better understand what they’re getting. Still, there is a demand for a marijuana flower that offers the same consistency.

“Folks are using it in new forms, low-dose, edibles, tinctures, capsules, and what they care about is the effect,” he said. “But there are consumers who want to consume cannabis the way they have for years. They like the things they know.”

Growers have been chasing the goal for years but now there are more financial incentives than ever to get a product to market, with marijuana flower sales expected to reach $8.5 billion annually by 2022.

“That’s been the goal forever,” said Greg Zuckert, vice president of cultivation for cannabis producer Harvest Health & Recreation.

Some growers and researchers are analyzing the DNA of marijuana plants to better understand the effects they’ll have when smoked.

“I’m working on genetic markers and looking at taking DNA from different species, trying to create genetics to fit neurochemical profiles to treat different ailments,” Zukert said. “These are exciting things.”

Growers who use specific genetic traits may be able to patent their plants, leading to an industry full of brand-name marijuana varieties that are much more tightly controlled than the strains pot aficionados are familiar with today.

“In the future, those strains will all be irrelevant,” said Marcus Walker, founder of Cult Classics Seeds in Colorado.

Attorney Gary Hiller of California’s Napro Research, a California seed-to-sale producer, said that various cannabis plants will likely become proprietary.

“It doesn’t matter what it’s called once it’s correctly characterized and a good breeder can replicate it,” he said.

View the original article at thefix.com

13 December 2018
Dennis Rodman Pushing To Get Sober Again After Recent Relapse

Despite relapsing, Dennis Rodman said he’s still focused on his recovery and doesn’t think he’s undone the progress he’s made over the past year.

Dennis Rodman says he’s in contact with his sponsor and attending AA meetings again after letting his sobriety slip two weeks ago.

According to TMZ, the star was out in the Newport Beach bar scene and had stopped going to 12-step meetings because they got boring. However, Rodman said he realized drinking again was a mistake and he reached out to his sponsor and his agent, Darren Prince, who has been sober himself for 10 years, for help.

“Dennis is the king of rebounds and he’ll rebound from this too,” said Prince.

Rodman entered rehab in January after getting a DUI. At the time, Prince said that was the culmination of years of substance abuse for the former NBA star.

“It’s no secret Dennis has been struggling on and off with alcoholism the past 17 years,” Prince said. “He’s been dealing with some very personal issues the past month and we’re going to get him the help he needs now.”

More recently, Rodman told TMZ that the DUI got his attention.

“It was a wake-up call. . . . I’ve been doing pretty good man, considering the fact that before that it was up and down up and down being Dennis Rodman the party guy,” he said.

Despite his relapse, he said he’s still focused on his recovery and he doesn’t think he’s undone the progress he’s made over the past year.

“Now I got a clear view of what’s going on in life so that’s a good process,” he said. “It’s a long process and it’s gonna take time to get over the hump.”.

Early this year, when he was just 30 days sober, Rodman acknowledged that keeping clean was going to be tough.

“I feel great, man. It’s kinda weird not to have a cocktail on a beautiful day in California but like I said, it’s just one day at a time,” he said in February. “I’m hoping that I can continue on my journey to be sober. That’s a long road.”

Rodman has been in treatment before, including in 2014 after he returned from a much-publicized trip to North Korea. During that trip he appeared drunk and insinuated that an American in a North Korean prison deserved his treatment.

“What was potentially a historical and monumental event turned into a nightmare for everyone concerned. Dennis Rodman came back from North Korea in rough shape emotionally,” Prince said at the time. “The pressure that was put on him to be a combination ‘super human’ political figure and ‘fixer’ got the better of him. He is embarrassed, saddened and remorseful for the anger and hurt his words have caused.”

View the original article at thefix.com

13 December 2018
Small Town Brings In Big-Thinking Addiction Specialist And Changes Everything

Nearly 82% of rural Americans live in counties that do not have detoxification services and the town of Ashland, Wisconsin sought to change that reality.

In a little town in Wisconsin, where the death rate from drug and alcohol abuse is almost twice as high as the state average, Dr. Mark Lim has changed the lives of those addicted and their families.

A certified addiction specialist since 2016 (when it became a subspecialty of certification), Dr. Lim arrived in the town of Ashland as the newly hired recovery program medical director at NorthLakes Community Clinic.

Rural communities typically lack basic resources to treat substance abuse.

Nearly 82% of rural Americans live in counties that do not have detoxification services, a staggering number. This means anyone struggling with drug addiction has two choices – they can try to endure detox on their own (often medically unsafe), with the support of a local doctor (often hard to find in such areas) or they can relocate to begin treatment.

A recent poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health named opioid and other drug abuse as the top health concern for rural Americans.

The town of Ashland wanted to change this scenario. To fund an addiction treatment service program, NorthLakes applied for and won a grant from the state of Wisconsin, in addition to obtaining other federal grants intended for mental health and addiction.

The next step was to hire a doctor to prescribe buprenorphine, known by the trade name Suboxone. Only doctors with special training are legally allowed to dole out Suboxone. Another staggering statistic on rural reality: a 2015 study found that more than 80% of US rural counties do not have even one physician able to prescribe it.

Dr. Lim was hired and flew into Ashland with one request: He wanted to head a comprehensive program to treat addiction and not just treat it from one angle. Dr. Lim told NPR, “Opioids are big right now, but you have to work with alcohol too. You have to work with marijuana too. You have to work with methamphetamine, cocaine.”

The addiction recovery program was built with community partners including educators, law enforcement and tribal leadership. The Ashland program includes a combination of counseling, group therapy for addiction and underlying mental health issues, as well as case management. Staff help patients with things like transportation to the clinic, daycare during therapy sessions and employment.

John Gale of the Maine Rural Health Research Center supports this program structure, telling NPR, “That’s exactly the way it should be done. Because most people with a substance use disorder have co-occurring mental health and substance use problems. If we take care of [a patient’s] heroin problems and we don’t treat the underlying mental health and substance abuse problems, they’re going to go to go to [sic] alcohol, they’re going to do something else.”

View the original article at thefix.com

13 December 2018