Publications - Substance Abuse and Addictions

The untold cost of the opiate epidemic: elder abuse, by Kay Lazar, Boston Globe, May 14 2016.

“"As those drugs tighten their grip on Massachusetts, more adult children addicted to opioids are moving back in with their elderly parents, Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan said. Retired parents, with their monthly Social Security and pension checks, become easy targets for financial, physical, and emotional abuse." ”

Tighter Alcohol Curbs For All Help Reduce Teen Motor Vehicle Deaths, by Katherine Du, NPR, Apr 30 2016.

“Motor vehicle crashes are the leading causes of death for teenagers in the United States, and alcohol is involved in 1 out of 4 of those crashes. The stronger a state's restrictions on alcohol overall, the lower the teen death toll, a study finds. ”

The neuroscience of impulse and addiction, by Tim Newman, Medical News Today, Apr 6 2016.

“"Impulsivity, sensation-seeking and substance abuse have long been linked. Although individuals who abuse drugs are known to act impulsively and have subtly different neuroanatomy, it is not clear whether these changes are the cause or the effect of the abuse. A new study investigates these links further." ”

Everything You Need to Know About the New Massachusetts Opioid Law, by Garrett Quinn , Boston Daily, Mar 14 2016.

“"The bill will not end the opioid epidemic, but it does create some public tools to help make inroads in the fight against heroin and prescription drug addiction. The bill addresses all stages of the crisis: education, prevention, intervention, and recovery. " ”

More Overdose Deaths From Anxiety Drugs, by Roni Caryn Rabin , The New York Times, Feb 25 2016.

“Fatal prescription-drug overdoses in the United States have increased sharply in recent years. But while most of the deaths have involved opioid painkillers like oxycodone, a new study suggests that anti-anxiety medications now are playing an outsize role in overdose deaths. The number of Americans filling prescriptions for anti-anxiety drugs — benzodiazepines like Valium and Xanax that are used to treat anxiety, panic disorders and insomnia — increased 67 percent between 1996 and 2013, the study found. But the rate of overdose deaths involving these drugs increased more than fourfold. ”

Critters Cry Too: Explaining Addiction to Children, by Anthony Curcio , Feb 12 2016.

Massachusetts Chief’s Tack in Drug War: Steer Addicts to Rehab, Not Jail, by Katharine Q. Seelye, The New York Times, Jan 24 2016.

“"A casually profane man with a philosophical bent, Chief Campanello, 48, first drew national attention last spring when he wrote on Facebook that the old war on drugs was lost and over. Convinced that addiction is a disease, not a crime or moral failing, he became the unusual law enforcement officer offering heroin users an alternative to prison." ”

Drug Cocktails Fuel Massachusetts' Overdose Crisis, by Martha Bebinger, NPR, Dec 9 2015.

“Among 501 overdose deaths assessed by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Massachusetts in the first six months of 2014, and analyzed by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the vast majority were caused by heroin or a prescription opioid taken in combination with some other drug or alcohol. Fentanyl, a synthetic opiate that's many times more powerful than heroin, was present in about 37 percent of the deaths, the researchers found. Klonopin, Xanax and other anti-anxiety benzodiazepines showed up in 13 percent of the Massachusetts overdose deaths. ”

What Shopping Addiction Really Looks Like — and How to Quit, by Molly Triffin, TIME, Dec 3 2015.

“Maybe you have a lust for shoes or overdid itbuying for your newborn. Many of us have had the occasional shopaholic episode — and gnarly credit card hangover. But for some people, the impulse to whip out the plastic crosses the line from a moment of weakness to a full-fledged addiction. Shopping addiction may sound a bit far-fetched, but researchers say it’s a legitimate issue. “It’s when someone spends so much time, energy, and money buying — or even thinking about buying — that it seriously impairs their life,” April Benson, PhD, author of To Buy or Not to Buy, says. ”

Boston Health Care for the Homeless Will Open a Safe Room for Heroin Highs, by Dana Guth, Boston Magazine, Nov 23 2015.

“The Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) has a new strategy to combat the opiate epidemic: a supervised safe room for heroin highs. The small, unassuming space, located at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Albany Street, an area nicknamed “Methadone Mile,” is slated to open in January. It will be staffed 24/7 by a nurse and an outreach worker, there to check users’ vital signs. The room will offer a refuge for up to 10 people at a time. ”

To Prevent Addiction In Adults, Help Teens Learn How To Cope, by Elaine Korry, NPR, Nov 12 2015.

“Addiction is a pediatric disease," says Dr. John Knight, founder and director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research at Boston Children's Hospital. "When adults entering addiction treatment are asked when they first began drinking or using drugs, the answer is almost always the same: They started when they were young — teenagers," said Knight. ”

More U.S. high school students smoke only pot, not cigarettes, by Lisa Rapaport, Reuters , Oct 28 2015.

“As fewer U.S. high school students exclusively smoke cigarettes and cigars, more of them are using marijuana, a recent study suggests. Overall, the proportion of teens in grades 9 through 12 who only smoked traditional tobacco products declined to 7.4 percent of students in 2013 from 20.5 percent of students in 1997, the study found. However, exclusive use of marijuana more than doubled from 4.2 percent of students to 10.2 percent over the study period. ”

Police say they want to aid, not arrest, addicts, by Felice J. Freyer, Boston Globe, Oct 13 2015.

“"'There has been a growing movement for many years in policing to recognize drug addiction as a health problem rather than a criminal problem,' said Jim Bueermann, president of the Police Foundation, a national nonprofit that promotes innovation in policing. Helping people into treatment, he said, becomes a means of crime prevention." ”

Watchful parents help early-maturing girls avoid alcohol abuse, by Anne Harding, Reuters, Sep 21 2015.

“Girls who hit puberty early are at sharply higher risk of abusing alcohol as teens if their parents don't keep tabs on them, new research shows. 'Early-maturing girls whose parents gave them free rein at age 13 showed a dramatic increase in alcohol abuse over the next four years compared to early-maturing peers who were supervised more closely', Dr. Brett Laursen of Florida Atlantic University in Fort Lauderdale and colleagues found. ”

In 'hidden epidemic,' senior citizens getting hooked on painkillers, by Laila Al-Arian, Aljazeera America, Aug 30 2015.

“More than 16,000 Americans die each year after overdosing on opioid painkillers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-a number that exceeds those who die from cocaine and heroin overdoses combined. While the image of the typical opioid addict is still that of a young or middle-aged drug abuser, that perception is slowly changing. When you look at the groups that have had the greatest increase in problems associated with prescription opioids-for example, visits to hospital emergency rooms because of opioid misuse-it’s Americans over 65,aid Andrew Kolodny, the executive director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing. ”