Comments for AddictionDoctor.Org

Comment on A Pending Step Backwards by Eben

Eben — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 10:16:44 +0000

thank-you, Doctor, for the guidance…

Comment on This Gene’s a MTHFR by Eben

Eben — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:54:41 +0000

thanks…folic acid has helped me for seven (7) years…

Comment on The Difference Between a Drug and a Medication by AddictionDoctor

AddictionDoctor — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:24:00 +0000

Sean,
Baclofen is the only specific GABAb agonist approved in humans and is a wonderful medication when needed. Understanding the biology though, it doesn’t raise dopamine tone. What it does is constrain the range of the high/crash that lead to compulsive use. Further, it’s not unique. All the anti-seizure meds will work as well.
Long before Suboxone came out I was treating people with addiction using the medications available. In fact, Suboxone wasn’t the first “wonder drug” for addiction, Wellbutrin was. Only about half of my patients come into our treatment program opioid dependent. There is no single medication that is a treatment for addiction, nor are the medications reliably split into those for addiction by drug. For instance baclofen is mentioned as a treatment for alcohol dependence. I’ve used it in cocaine dependence, opioid dependence, nicotine dependence, etc. It’s not the medication used that is most important but how and in which sequence.
I also find that most people who get into a good recovery program can get off their meds. Medication is not aimed at keeping people ill, but in helping those that would otherwise not get into recovery get there.

Comment on If Addiction was a Disease…We’d Treat It. by Eben Jones

Eben Jones — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:24:11 +0000

Dr Wetsman

I have lived your comment, that one must have the medication treatment in order to want to recovery. I am reading your book, after reading many on the brain, emotional brain, synaptic self, the future of the brain, etc. Your poignant knowledge and writing should/does make you the penultimate expert. I have dysthymia, MD and historic-two suicide- episodes, …alive today by grace.

I had the fortune of finding you through a nurse who worked with you, Jennifer Perssons Guillroy, my second cousin.

I tried AA seventeen years before being treated with Celexa, and now am sober for two. My mission is to help in the DUI arena and to persuade AA they need to change their ‘education’ of sponsors…too many have died because they have not over the past decade with all the new knowledge.

God bless you and please continue your good work…Eben

Comment on The Difference Between a Drug and a Medication by sean

sean — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:53:09 +0000

not a peep about baclofen….suboxone isn’t prescribed by many physicians, not because they are afraid of being prosecuted, but because it works less than half the time. why bother…unless you can keep the guy coming back to have his scrip filled. search this site and it seems like it’s one of the drugs you specialize in prescribing. do no harm though keep them sick.

take as needed

ps. you say on this blog you have very good evidence that if someone starts using one drug to stop using another, or even continues using one drug while trying to stop another, it doesn’t work very well. what is your very good evidence?

Comment on The Difference Between a Drug and a Medication by Una Antos

Una Antos — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:08:29 +0000

Well-written. Thanks. As someone who has struggled with an addiction myself, I really appreciate this web site.

Comment on Definitions by Peg

Peg — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:23:41 +0000

“ADDICTION: A permanent dysfunction of the midbrain reward system and resulting hypofrontality with characteristic symptoms relieved by the use of at least one rewarding substance or behavior and resulting in the compulsive use of that behavior.”

I agree with the colleague that thinks a new word is necessary….if there is ‘an underlying illness’….then what is wrong with us…is wrong BEFORE we begin ‘compulsively using’ or become ‘dependent’ upon something.

How could we call someone an ‘addict’ if they aren’t yet exhibiting the behaviors that define us?

yet…the underlying illness is there.

Comment on What Makes an Addict an Addict by Collette

Collette — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:14:01 +0000

Your insights are probably the most intelligent and valuable that I have seen on this topic. It is really refreshing to know that someone is “on the case” and hopefully your knowledge and intuition will be assimilated by the medical professionals who are doing harm in their misunderstanding of this disease.

Comment on What is Addiction Treatment? by "Angelique LaCour

"Angelique LaCour — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:47:45 +0000

This is exactly the problem with the way addiction is perceived, understood and treated by addicts’ families, the judicial system and medical professionals (who should no better): ONE SIZE FITS ALL be it treatment or “how to” get into and stay in recovery. But in the place where the one size fits all theory should apply, to the disease/disorder itself, it’s very individualized, i.e. smoking and alcohol use are legal so those addictions aren’t as “serious” as say heroin or crack cocaine. Even the 12 step groups have to be separated — AA and NA. AA is the more stable, older and more consistent of the two, but you can’t say “I’m so and so and I’m an addict,” you must say you are an alcoholic and an addict. There are those who have do not have a problem with alcohol (yet, maybe), but are chronic relapsers with heroin who really only see themselves as drug addicts. Yet, because they find the AA meetings better they are willing to thine own selves be false and say, “I’m so and so and I’m an Alcoholic and an Addict.” And this while clutching a coffee cup and getting antsy about going outside to smoke as soon as the meeting is over. This, more than anything else shows that society is indeed more comfortable with caffeine, nicotine and alcohol addiction than, god forbid, those awful illegal drugs. Alas, some drug addicts feel shamed at AA meetings so they turn to NA where at any given meeting more than 50% are there with “drug court papers” and typically the chair of the meeting has less than 1 year being clean. In some communities there are no NA meetings and drug addicts have no choice but to attend AA and lie when introducing themselves. Hope the day comes when no matter whether you are an alcohol, drug, food, sex, gambling, shopping addict or co-dependent with one, you can go to any meeting and just say, “Hi, I’m Angelique, and I want recovery in my life.”

Comment on What Should We Measure? by AddictionDoctor

AddictionDoctor — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 23:39:48 +0000

Mike,

I usually edit out commercials but since you brought up the subject of these receptors “restoring themselves” I want to use your comment to bring to light a very common fallacy. Most people, I imagine you included, think that most addicts are normal and only break their brains with drugs, so that once the drug use is stopped the brain can be “restored” to its normal, predrug state. Well, it’s pretty to think so.

However, in reality the world is a much messier place than you imagine and addiction is a much deeper problem. Any acutre treatments whether they are detox, nutritional supplimentation, amino acid therapy, or other propriatary treatments are ineffective if not given within the contex of chronic medical treatment. Would you treat a diabetic with a few days of insulin and then give them an IOP?

You may, through acute treatments, fix some of the drug induced states or even some of the reversable sequelae of drug use, but you will not get receptors to be “restored.” Neurotransmitter receptors last only a few days on the cell surface and then are metabolized off and replaced by new receptors. These new receptors will be created by the same gene that created the old ones. Any pre-existing problem will still be there.

I really don’t mind that you say the treatment of minerals, vitamins and amino acids is all natural. Are you really injecting squeezed fruit, or are you, like the rest of us, using pharmaceutical grade materials to treat patients. I really don’t mind that you say that injecting a proprietary blend of chemicals that the patient can’t know is somehow less invasive than taking a medication by mouth that’s fully disclosed to the patient. I really don’t mind that you say it’s quick when you take 10 days and modern medicine has been able to do better than that for years.

But the thing I mind is your ignoring the chronic nature of the illness. I really wouldn’t mind so much that you and others are touting acute treatments for chronic illness except that you aren’t really telling anyone how well it works in the long run. And I don’t mean for those that “follow your program” either. I mean, how well does it work for every person that calls for help, even the ones that say they don’t want it because they can’t afford it. What percentage of people have improved quality of life 6 months after your acute treatment? What percentage of people have stopped all drug and compulsive behavior use? When you stop blaming the patient for giving himself the illness and then failing the treatment because he didn’t do the right thing, then you can compare yourself to any other treatment for chronic disease.

Mike, reading your website I see you’re a busines man who got sober using this method. That’s great. However, it’s a common problem in our field that we want everyone to get sober the way we did when, in fact, there are many types of people out there who need many types of treatment. The real key is acurate diagnosis and assessment of the patient to determine the right treatment. Not everybody has a dopamine receptor problem; even those with dopamine tone problems could have overactive enzymes or an over active transporter. They may not make enough dopamine or release too little. They may not make enough dopamine because of a problem with the enkephalin system or it may be because of a dopamine production problem. Addiction isn’t simple and the knowledge need to successfully treat it is not simple. I’m glad the method worked for you and you’re still sober, but when you’re using someone else’s blog to advertise your treatment would you give some more data?