Dirkh

LATEST ARTICLES ( 312 )

• The Saga of Phen-Fen

  

  How a blockbuster diet pill died. It took many years to bring depression and its treatment into the rational light of day. Addiction in the mid-1990s was in... Read more

  Posted on 20 September 2011 DIET & WEIGHT, HEALTH

• What Do We Mean When We Talk About Craving?

  

  An essay on drug addiction and need. For years, craving was represented by the tortured tremors and sweaty nightmares of extreme heroin and alcohol withdrawal... Read more

  Posted on 15 September 2011 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Strange and Secret Keeley Cure for Addiction

  

  “Drunkenness is a disease and I can cure it.” In America in the late 1800s, curing alcoholism was a serious business—and for Dr. Leslie Keeley, a very lucrativ... Read more

  Posted on 12 September 2011 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• On Chemical Imbalances in the Brain

  

  Maybe it’s not such a bad a theory after all. The brain, as always, bats last. It compensates, reregulates, and adjusts. One of the major ways it accomplishes... Read more

  Posted on 07 September 2011 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Addiction Specialist Kicks off A3 Academy in L.A.

  

  Filling the void between “doing nothing and formal treatment.” Good news for recovering addicts and addiction experts in Los Angeles: Dr. Read more

  Posted on 05 September 2011 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Is Shoplifting the Opiate of the Masses?

  

  Another look at "behavioral addictions" and the DSM-V. The DSM-V, when it debuts it 2012, is set to replace the category of “Substance-Related Disorders” with ... Read more

  Posted on 01 September 2011 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• 7 Myths the Alcohol Industry Wants You to Believe

  

  Staying on message in the liquor biz. “Our national drug is alcohol,” wrote William S. Burroughs. “We tend to regard the use any other drug with special... Read more

  Posted on 21 August 2011 HEALTH

• What Does Harm Reduction Mean?

  

  A rift in the addiction treatment community over abstinence. What is harm reduction? How does it differ from the approaches traditionally associated with drug... Read more

  Posted on 15 August 2011 HEALTH, MEDICINE, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Common Field Test for Marijuana is Unreliable, Critics Say

  

  A 75-year old pot assay is due for an update. We’ve all seen it on cop shows: The little plastic bag, the officer breaking the seal on a small pipette and... Read more

  Posted on 10 August 2011 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Original Magic Bus: A Preview

  

  Ken Kesey and His Merry Band of Pranksters Search for a Cool Place "In 1964, Ken Kesey, the famed author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," set off on a... Read more

  Posted on 06 August 2011 HEALTH, MOVIES, PSYCHOLOGY

• The Truth About Smoking

  

  The chemistry of sorrow during nicotine withdrawal. When you smoke a cigarette, nicotine pops into acetylcholine receptors in the brain, the adrenal glands,... Read more

  Posted on 04 August 2011 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Is Addiction Deductible?

  

  You're free to write off the cost of addiction treatment—if you can afford to. The cost of addiction treatment is a legitimate medical expense, as long as... Read more

  Posted on 01 August 2011 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• FROM THE ARCHIVES: Sex, Drugs, And… Sex

  

  Pharmaceuticals and sexual performance. [Originally posted 9/5/10] The search for aphrodisiacs is an ancient, if not always venerable, human pursuit. Named... Read more

  Posted on 28 July 2011 HEALTH, LOVE & SEX, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE, SEXUALITY

• On Harm Reduction and Metabolic Chauvinism

  

  My WebTalk Radio interview for the podcast, “Addicted to Addicts.” Listen to the podcast at WebTalkRadio HERE. (Addiction Inbox is now on vacation. Hot fun in... Read more

  Posted on 25 July 2011 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Essay: The Genuine Drug War is in Biomedicine

  

  Knowledge, not firepower, is the key to the future. In modern American society, heart disease, cancer, HIV\AIDS, diabetes, alcoholism, and cigarette addiction... Read more

  Posted on 23 July 2011 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Drug Links, Various

  

  It’s summer vacation. Did I turn off the stove? Some recent posts I wrote before ending my run as editor of TheFix.com News Blog: Drugging the Elderly Why... Read more

  Posted on 22 July 2011 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY

• An Interview With Research Psychologist Vaughan Bell

  

  An expert on abnormal brain function talks about drugs, hallucinations, and addiction. Vaughan Bell gets around. The multifaceted clinical and research... Read more

  Posted on 19 July 2011 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• There’s No Agreement on DUIC: Driving Under the Influence of Cannabis

  

  The ACLU squares off against law enforcement over how to measure marijuana impairment. What’s your blood cannabis content? You don’t know, and neither does... Read more

  Posted on 15 July 2011 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Alcoholic Deception

  

  Big Alcohol Wants a Piece of the Health Market For a long time now, snack food companies have been spending billions to convince shoppers that their fattening... Read more

  Posted on 13 July 2011 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Connection Found Between Child Surgery and Quitting Smoking

  

  Child surgery makes smoking parents more likely to quit Read more

  Posted on 09 July 2011 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE