KEEP OUT OF THE REACH OF CHILDREN – June 19, 2022 – The study focused on children under the age of 19 from January 1, 2012, through December 31, 2021, and found 260,435 pediatric melatonin ingestions that were reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers National Poison Data System. These overdoses accounted for 2.25% of all pediatric ingestions reported during this period. Of the children included in the study, five required medical ventilation and two died. Researchers determined the majority of ingestions were unintentional (94.3%), were mostly males under the age of five years old, and 99%…
Author: Leonard Buschel
HE SAID, SHE PROVED – June 6, 2022 – Adriane Fugh-Berman defended the proposition, “America’s overdose crisis is the result of doctors over‐treating patients with opioids.” She’s a medical doctor and a professor of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University. She argued that the overdose crisis traces back to pharmaceutical companies convincing doctors that opioids were safe and effective, causing rising rates of addiction. Jeffrey Singer, a surgeon and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, took the negative. He argued that the rate of overdoses and the rate at which doctors prescribe opioids aren’t correlated. The real culprit, he said,…
LEAF BLOWERS? – June 10, 2022 – Some types of dog anxiety are fairly easy to understand: When your dog cowers under the table during a thunderstorm, you know it’s not crazy about loud noises. Other reactions aren’t so easy to figure out. After all, dogs can’t exactly verbalize what is going on when they are stressed. That leaves pet parents with plenty of questions about dog behavior. Can dogs cry when you leave them alone? Is it possible for them to have dog depression? We spoke to top veterinarians and asked them to explain why our precious pups…
IT’S NOT THE LOOK OF HER FACE, IT’S THE LOOK ON HER FACE – June 9, 2022 – Beloved actress Emma Thompson has opened up about facing her body image struggles through her latest role in the upcoming film, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. The veteran actress, 63, plays widower Nancy, who after years of marriage to the same man, meets a male escort on her journey looking for connection, fun and self-discovery. “When I’m looking in the mirror, I’m always trying to make myself look ‘better’ – turning this way or that, checking out my a**e, pulling something…
RELIVING THE FIRE WITHIN – June 11, 2022 – The 43-year-old entrepreneur opens up about how his personal life fell apart shortly before Walmart’s $310 million acquisition of Bonobos in 2017 came together. He shares some of the lowest points, including his stay in a psychiatric ward in Bellevue Hospital in New York City and assault charges from a severe manic episode when he struck his then girlfriend and her mother. The charges were later dismissed as Dunn sought treatment and repaired the relationship with his girlfriend, Manuela, who he later married. Dunn joined Walmart after telling the retailer about…
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL GET HEALED – May 26, 2022 – RecoverWell offers a cyber-secure, HIPAA-compliant technology platform to improve patient outcomes by bridging the gap directly between crisis centers and treatment providers. RecoverWell matches patients to the best treatment options based on their unique clinical, financial, and preferential needs. Amee Gray, CEO and founder of RecoverWell, said the platform serves a critical purpose for hospital’s social workers and case managers—who are most equipped to connect patients to life-saving treatment during moments of crisis. “RecoverWell shares many core values with Southern California Hospital at Culver City, which…
DIAL WHAT? – June 10, 2022 – The RAND report confirms what many mental health experts already know — there’s more work to be done to create a comprehensive mental health crisis system that can serve everyone’s needs, said Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. In 2020, Congress enacted the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act, which established the 988 phone number as a national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline. Proponents of the law also hoped its creation would reduce stigma around mental health emergencies — and make it as accessible to reach…
AUDIO – WHO FIGHTS FOR THOSE WHO FOUGHT FOR US? – June 10, 2022 – The Drug Enforcement Administration is investigating a suspected fentanyl overdose death on the campus. And people who work with other institutions, including the San Diego VA and the county’s Veterans Treatment Court, have expressed concerns about the quality of care provided at the rehab program. Veterans Village of San Diego has provided counseling, employment, housing and other services for more than 40 years, and it has been lauded by dignitaries and presidents for its approach to tackling addiction and homelessness. In 1988, it founded Stand…
LEADING THE WAY TO SOLVE ADDICTION – June 7, 2022 – David Whitesock is the Founder and CEO of Commonly Well. Through the Recovery Capital Index he is working with organizations to improve their care experiences, processes, and methods for measuring outcomes. David believes we will solve addiction when we don’t solve for addiction. David’s path to his current work has been unconventional. Yet, each moment along that path contributed to a way of thinking and seeing the world around him. David grew up in a military family in North Dakota. Unlike many military families, he did not move around…
VIDEO – WITH A SONG IN HER HEART – June 7, 2022 – For Wade, 27, hearing personal stories about the ways in which her fans have connected to her music is inspiring. “I think that’s a beautiful thing,” she says. “It makes me happy that that song gets people talking and they don’t feel so alone. I think as a songwriter, from the exterior, I look really tough, the tattoos and everything like that. And then, even my music is vulnerable. It’s good not to pretend like everything’s so great. I think that’s how we start talking about things,…
ANOTHER PATHWAY – June 8, 2022 – “I have memory of being outside a bar in England in blackout, lying in the gutter covered in my own vomit,” Veronica Valli recalls vividly of a night she thought was fun more than 20 years ago, but after realizing alcohol was becoming a problem, she gave it up. “I reluctantly accepted that I was never going to have fun again,” Valli said. But within a year into sobriety, Valli began to see things differently, “I began to see things differently. I was going out. I was having fun. I was dancing,”…
EVERYBODY’S DOING IT – June 7, 2022 – The undercover operation “took another strong tackle to one of the most important groups of Colombian narcos,” anti-mafia investigators said in a statement in English. Last month, the Gulf Clan’s alleged boss was extradited from Colombia to the United States. Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, better known by the alias Otoniel, faces U.S. indictments in three federal courts. Colombian President Iván Duque at the time of the extradition compared him to Pablo Escobar, the late former head of the Medellin drug cartel, calling him “the most dangerous drug trafficker in the world.”…
THE SANEST PLACE ON EARTH – June 1, 2022 – “The shocking number of lives lost to the overdose crisis requires bold actions and significant policy change. I have thoroughly reviewed and carefully considered both the public health and public safety impacts of this request,” Carolyn Bennett, federal minister of mental health and addictions and associate minister of health, said in a press release. “Eliminating criminal penalties for those carrying small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use will reduce stigma and harm and provide another tool for British Columbia to end the overdose crisis.” BC has consistently reported…
AT LEAST IT’S IN NETWORK – June 7, 2022 – It would surprise many people who are hostile to psychiatry’s chemical and electrical “treatments” to discover that they too may embrace a medical model if their approach accepts inattention, depressed mood, anxiety, substance abuse, and hearing voices as “illness symptoms.” Whether the treatment be antidepressants, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), vitamins, or cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), these are not departures from the medical model as long as the goal is the eradication of the “symptoms” of “illness”/“disease”/“disorder”/“pathology” (or some other such term connoting defect). This is not to say that all “treatments” have…
JUST EARNING A LIVING – June 7, 2022 – Mickelson told Harig that he isn’t formally resigning from the PGA Tour and that he’s “looking forward to playing the U.S. Open” next week. The U.S. Open is organized by the USGA, which announced on Tuesday that it’s not barring players who participate in LIV Golf from its field. Mickelson also said that he hasn’t spoken with Monahan about his decision, apparently leaving the ball in the commissioner’s court on what “disciplinary action” to take. In addition to downplaying Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and the killing of Washington Post…
BS? – June 7, 2022 – Point #7: Alongside the therapy you’ll be getting in rehab and outpatient, be open to medications that can also help you stay sober. This final point is so key. Because SUD affects brain chemistry and other systems in the body, it makes sense that certain medications can help as part of your overall treatment plan. This super-successful, therapy-plus-medication strategy is known as medication-assisted treatment or MAT. Again, MAT includes behavioral or “talk” therapy as well as medication. A mountain of research has shown that MAT may give you the best chance for long-term recovery.…
WHO’S MORE CRAZY? – June 5, 2022 – In March, Killingly’s board members rejected the plan by a vote of 6 to 3. After that, dozens of supporters of the clinic filed a complaint with Connecticut’s Board of Education, asking the state to “investigate and take corrective action.”Since then, Killingly’s school board meetings have become a battleground for competing views on mental health, exposing divisions that are both partisan and generational. Teenagers have picketed on the well-manicured town common, where petunias grow around a memorial to the Civil War dead, with signs reading “14.7 PERCENT HAVE MADE A SUICIDE PLAN”…
VIDEO – SOBER DRIVERS DON’T LOSE THEIR VOWELS – June 7, 2022 – Troopers arrested 213 people and investigated 808 crashes. more@WNYT
PROFIT GENIUSES AT WORK – June 8, 2022 – In the study published on May 11th, 2022 in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers examined the mechanisms of pain in both humans and mice. They found that neutrophils – a type of white blood cell that helps the body fight infection – play a key role in resolving pain. “In analyzing the genes of people suffering from lower back pain, we observed active changes in genes over time in people whose pain went away. Changes in the blood cells and their activity seemed to be the most important factor, especially in…
VIDEO – PEOPLE’S POLLUTED MINDS – May 29, 2022 – Who is Gabor Maté? A renowned speaker, and bestselling author, Dr. Gabor Maté is highly sought after for his expertise on a range of topics including addiction, stress and childhood development. Get Gabor Maté’s book: In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts more@YouTube
“Never date someone with a TV bigger than their bookshelf.” – Anonymous
HISTORY LESSON – June 3, 2022 – Sure enough, once the officers found a fresh needle mark on Banks’s arm, they promptly arrested him. Robinson and the others were ordered out of the car and up against a nearby building. By this point, Robinson was in a full‑on flop sweat. The officers made him take off his coat and roll up his sleeves, finding an unmistakable constellation of scabs and splotchy bruises up and down the crooks of both his elbows. He was arrested and taken to the police station, where an LAPD narcotics expert grilled him further and took…
NO ONE WINS – June 3, 2022 – “Kelly was a beautiful, beautiful girl,” her father, William Beitz, said in an interview. “There wasn’t a day that went by that I wasn’t terrified about something happening to her.” Before Anthony Moaf, 25, was found dead last month in an Alexandria jail cell of what authorities said was “an apparent medical emergency,” he ran a veritable pill factory in his parents’ basement, making counterfeit oxycodone tablets using metonitazene, a synthetic opioid “shown to be 100-fold more potent than morphine,” according to a criminal complaint filed against him. “Kelly was a…
CONSCIOUS CURIOUS – May 31, 2022 – Researchers from La Trobe University’s Centre for Alcohol Policy Research in Australia also shared their findings in a study about alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 lockdown. They revealed that while people were still drinking during isolation, they weren’t drinking as much per sitting. This was especially true of the young, who tend to drink more in social settings than at home. [4] Dr. Witkiewitz also reported that some heavy drinkers do stop without seeking formal treatment, and the amount of these “self-changers” has increased in the past decade. [5] This may be another…
OH GEE, THANKS A LOT – May 28, 2022 – The law goes into effect July 1, and cities, counties, recovery organizations, hospitals, schools, homeless service providers, jails, shelters, community groups and many other organizations will be free to prescribe and distribute naloxone and other drug rescue medications. Tennessee experienced a major overdose crisis during the chaos of the 2020 pandemic. Fatal drug overdoses increased by 45% between 2019 and 2020, according to Tennessee Department of Health statistics. Roughly 80% involved synthetic and prescribed opioids. Roughly two thirds involved fentanyl, which can be especially lethal. “We see fentanyl more…
IT AIN’T BEEN EASY – May 28, 2022 – Colton Haynes’ most raw role to date is that of author. The actor, whose blue eyes and sharp jawline you might know from series “Teen Wolf” and “Arrow,” bares his soul in “Miss Memory Lane: A Memoir” (Atria, 256 pp., out Tuesday). “I’m all good with talking about real stuff, but I’m so bad at small talk. I’m like, ‘Can we get to trauma, please?’” he says playfully over a Zoom chat … His mother was an alcoholic. His father was absent. Haynes recounts first being sexually abused by his…
HE SEES WHAT COUNTS – May 31, 2022 – Porter-Henderson’s parents divorced when she was young, and her mom moved with her and her little sister from Chicago to Mississippi. But she was always a daddy’s girl, and missed having him around for special moments while growing up. “It’s great to have my dad back,” said Porter-Henderson, after recounting the circumstances that brought restoration. In 2018, Porter, living in a Chicago homeless shelter, called his daughter, now living in Atlanta, and said he was ready for a change and asked for her help. Porter had been struggling with substance…
DESIRE AND DILIGENCE – May 31, 2022 – When dealing with any sort of mental health issue or neurodivergent diagnosis, developing a set of coping mechanisms and skills to deal with the negative side of these attributes is essential to coping with the resulting problems in a healthy way. When it comes to substance abuse, this is especially true. Creating a set of skills as a “mental tool box” as a way to help persevere through active addiction is key to recovery. With this tool box, skills like de-escalation, coping with triggers, mindfulness activities, and general methods of mitigating any…
IMPORTANT INFORMATION – May 31, 2022 – Alcoholic Neuropathy Diagnosis Since symptoms of alcoholic neuropathy can vary greatly, diagnosis may take time. It usually involves a combination of the following: Medical history: Your healthcare provider will collect data involving past medical history and all current symptoms. Physical exam: This exam aims to uncover other medical conditions contributing to symptoms, like diabetes or high blood pressure. Neurological exam: This is a noninvasive exam to determine the location and extent of neurological damage. Your healthcare provider may ask you to complete a series of small movements and ask several questions to…
NEVER HOPELESS – March 24, 2022 – The argument against SUD licensure has been, “Why should SUD licensure be granted to individuals who did not obtain a master’s degree specific to addiction or at least in a related field?” It is a strong argument and one that I sympathize with. However, I think people forget that the scope of practice is limited for SUDs and would not require a long graduate program. The argument is valid and one of professional equality. We, as the addiction profession, cannot educate the public about the complexity and potentially life-threatening nature of SUD…