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Heth Ledger's death raises questions about prescription drugs. Today's meds are safer but far from benign. People have a false sense of security, says Michael Negretr, a chief executive of the Pharmacy Foundation of California. "They think." I see on Tv all the time, All my friends are taking it. People need to understand that no matter how may times they ...

The approach to irritability or anxiety depends on whether your patient is a light, moderate, or heavy cannabis user. Marina Goldman, MD; Dimitri Markov, MD; Elisabeth J.S. Kunkel, MD; Ron Ehrman, PhD Dr. Goldman is an addiction fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Markov is assistant professor of psychiatry and Dr. Kunkel is professor of psychiatry at Thomas Jefferson ...

Vol. 4, No. 12 / December 2005 Hope for ‘meth’ addiction? “ ‘No energy, no hope,’ and no clear diagnosis ,” by Drs. Jaesu Han and Mary Ann Barnovitz ( Current Psychiatry , October 2005) offers an interesting and relevant description of one patient’s struggle with chronic amphetamine use. Dr. Han mentioned that no specific, well-established treatments exist for methamphetamine dependence. ...

Vol. 6, No. 3 / March 2007 How dopamine drives cocaine craving • Dopamine and dope • Caving into cravings Edmund S. Higgins, MD Clinical associate professor of family medicine and psychiatry Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston Fighting cravings’ intense desire and obsessive thinking may be an addict’s most formidable challenge.1 Patients in recovery—desperate to stop abusing the substance—cannot control ...

Vol. 6, No. 10 / October 2007 Opiates calm addicts’ anger I have treated several opiate addicts whose family members have reported them as being “angry” without opiates (“A life of drugs and ‘downtime’”, Current Psychiatry, August 2007). When these individuals are asked if they feel angry without opiates, their response has been “yes, how did you know?” These patients also ...

h4. Thirty Plus Years Ago In the 1960s, the most popular form of treatment for heroin addiction was “Civil Commitment,” which essentially placed heroin addicts in prison camps. After use of heroin (and other drugs) skyrocketed, methadone was tested and found to be an effective treatment for opiate addiction. In the early 1970s, public concern over veterans returning from Vietnam with ...

h4. Introduction Substance abuse and addiction comprise a public health problem with wide-ranging social, economic, and physical consequences. Drug-related deaths have more than doubled since the early 1980s. Although substance abuse costs American society more than $135 billion a year, there is no real way to put a price on the overall costs to society. Increased crime, disease, devastation of families, ...