When there is alcohol or substance abuse in a home, there is one other thing that you will almost certainly find in the household: Codependency. It’s a family dynamic that occurs when the people who live with an addict feel a need to excuse the addict’s behavior and even cover it up. Yet nobody likes living with the negative behaviors that result from addiction. When someone you love is seeking alcohol treatment, you might want to ask yourself if you are a codependent. Just what is it, and what can you do about it?
Researchers have tried many approaches to alcohol treatment programs including drug, group and individual psychological therapies with addiction specialists, but one treatment may take the cake for the most far-out option to date: LSD treatment.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, more than six independent trials were conducted to determine if the illicit drug LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) could be used to treat alcoholism. Each of these studies were small in nature, and the trials stopped for a variety of unknown reasons. Researchers now speculate that the size of each trial, troubles with trial methodology, unrealistic hopes for progress and social stigmas about the illicit drug may have influenced the heads of each trial to end the research after only a few years. Additionally, although the use as a research drug was never banned, regulatory agency red tape may have been difficult to overcome when researchers obtained the LSD for their research use.
Doctors may be in a prime position to combat the recent rise in young adult overdose rates due to combined drug and alcohol overdose, according to a new study. The study finds that doctors can take a proactive approach to educating patients about the inexorable dangers that exist when alcohol is combined with prescription drugs.
The Rutgers University study was completed by Aaron M. White, Ralph W. Hingson, I-Jen Pan, and Hsiao-Ye Yi, and the co-authors found that hospitalizations for drug and alcohol abuse rose dramatically between the years 1999 to 2008 for young adults aged 18- to 24-years old.
Binge drinking and alcohol addiction may be triggered by some very unusual influences, studies have found. Not only can alcohol affect the brain to the point that it becomes a trigger, but even more unusual influences may increase the likelihood of binge drinking. Loud music, commercialization and our economy have all been linked to increases in the numbers of binge drinking. All four triggers are outlined below.
Researchers have known for a long time that some people are more prone to alcoholism than others due to the structures of their brain activity, but scientists have recently discovered an unusual link. Alcoholism actually changes the brain’s structure over time, making it easier to derive pleasure from drinking alcohol.
Despite longstanding ideas that allowing homeless people to drink in their subsidized housing would encourage alcohol abuse, a study has found that allowing drinking has decreased the reliance on alcohol in homeless individuals by 35%.
The study, completed at the University of Washington, focused its efforts on 95 participants in the Seattle area, all of whom were housed at the 1811 Eastlake Downtown Emergency Service Center. Of the 95 homeless in the study, 94% were men, and 67% of the participants were white or of Native descent.
