When people go online and search for information about drugs – whether they’re looking for information on a prescription medication, an over-the-counter-medication, or something else – one common question they type in the search bar is “How long do/does [insert names of drugs] stay in my body?” It’s an important question for a variety of reasons. From a patient perspective, knowing how long drugs stay in their body helps them understand more about the drug they’re taking and why they’re on the dosage schedule they’re on. It also helps them avoid any dangerous interactions with other medication ..read more

If you’re in recovery from an alcohol or substance use disorder (AUD/SUD), then you know exactly what a trigger is, and that every holiday season is filled with triggers of all sorts. Your definition probably aligns almost perfectly with this definition from the American Psychological Association (APA): “A stimulus that elicits a reaction. For example, an event could be a trigger for a memory of a past experience and an accompanying state of emotional arousal.” For people in recovery, the accompanying state may refer to an emotional state or a pattern of behavior that leads to relapse to alcoh ..read more

It’s here! The most wonderful time of the year. From November through New Year’s Day, people around the U.S. go all -in, and celebrate the holiday season. There are plenty of holidays for everyone to celebrate: Diwali This holiday kicks everything off with a festival of light – and fireworks – early in the month of November. Diwali is a five-day event, and the most important holiday for people of the Hindu faith. Thanksgiving Thanksgiving occurs on the third Thursday in November. This is our best excuse all year to eat way too much good food, spend quality time with friends and family, and ..read more

If you’re familiar with treatment for addiction – which we now call substance use disorder (SUD) – you’ve probably heard of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder (OUD), but you may not know that there’s also another type of MAT: medication for alcohol use disorder. We published an article on the topic in July 2023: Medication-Assisted Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder (MAT for AUD) In that article, we identified three medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for AUD treatment. Those medications include: Naltrexone Acamprosate Disulfiram All three ..read more

Four and a half years ago, we published an article on this blog called “Addiction Vaccines: Fact or Fiction?,” in which we discussed the potential of creating a vaccine for opioids like heroin, fentanyl, and other opioid-based drugs. It’s time to revisit that topic, because what looked merely speculative close to five years ago now looks quite possible. Based on new evidence published this year, a vaccine for heroin, fentanyl, and other opioids may be closer to fact than fiction. An addiction vaccine could be a very good thing. Why? Let’s take a look at the benefits of an effective vaccine. Th ..read more

Like mocktails? Okay, maybe we should define that word:                                                              Mocktails are cocktails without alcohol. Not everyone in recovery from alcohol use disorder (AUD) likes mocktails, for the same reason they don’t like non-alcoholic beer. It’s just al ..read more

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reports that steady work/employment – a.k.a. having a job – is a primary indicator that a person in recovery from an alcohol or substance use disorder (AUD/SUD) will complete treatment and achieve stable, long-term recovery. If you’re in recovery, or just completed a formal treatment program, we understand you’re on a mission: you want to improve your life. You most likely want stability and consistency. You want to live in a manner that’s nothing like the time you spent in active addiction, which may have been chaotic, pai ..read more

On September 29th, 2023, the New York Time published an article about the use of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) among Medicaid recipients. The article includes a set of disturbing facts: MAT and Medicaid: Lifesaving Medication Underused  500,000 Medicaid recipients with opioid use disorder (OUD) did not receive the best available treatment for OUD, which is medication-assisted treatment (MAT) with medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD). MOUDs include methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone. That makes up around 33% of people on Medicaid with OUD. MAT participation varies by stat ..read more

If you know what methadone is, then you may ask yourself what families have to do with methadone treatment. The answer is relatively simple. In some cases, families have everything to do with methadone treatment. The primary way families are involved in methadone treatment is by participating in family therapy, which is an important part of treatment and recovery from substance use disorder (SUD), including opioid use disorder (OUD). Let’s back up and define methadone and methadone treatment for anyone unfamiliar with either. We’ll elaborate below, but for now, simply understand that methadone ..read more

The United States has been in a serious public health crisis for well over twenty years, and one way we can help address this crisis is by expanding the implementation of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for people with opioid use disorder (OUD) in prisons and jails. The crisis: the opioid overdose epidemic. In recent years, media attention to the opioid crisis faded because of another public health crisis: the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that we’ve discovered a new normal with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic, with boosters addressing new variants and an increasing understanding of long COVID ..read more