Addiction & Substance Use

The main goal in treating addiction is to help the patient achieve and improve functioning. When that patient is also an adolescent, there are special considerations. Here's a quick primer.

Appropriate use of benzodiazepines in patients with a substance use disorder is an important skill. Here are some important considerations.

The authors present a clinically focused introduction to treatment principles for adolescent substance abuse disorders and reviews evidence-based approaches.

In psychiatry, hot debates abound if you just look around-and if this Special Report collection is any indication, the result is a balance of opinion and civility made richer by virtue of opposing views.

Access to illicit drugs is now as easy as a few swipes on a smartphone. Here's a primer for clinicians who aren't well acquainted with this trend and who aren’t familiar with the many substances themselves.

Marijuana-related problems fall well within the scope of psychiatric practice: many patients use marijuana, which is likely to affect their psychiatric symptoms and response to treatment.

A psychiatrist realizes he is completely powerless against his patient's opiate addiction.

To understand and to feel understood is a powerful antidote to relieve human psychological suffering. Therein lies the heart of the self-medication hypothesis of addiction.

Vivek Murthy, MD presented for the first time a report by a Surgeon General focused solely on addiction and its consequences.

The overprescription of opioid analgesics has resulted in the growing use of heroin. Right?

It's not about the specifics of preliminary studies about psilocybin. It's about the validation of research using psychedelic drugs in modern psychiatry.

A patient is brought to the emergency department by her daughter for bizarre behavior and symptoms of mania after gambling from the casino for 48 continuous hours.

Two recent clinical trials of opioid medication for depression and suicidality highlight the role of brain opioid systems in depression.

New research over the past decade has suggested that links between media violence and child aggression are less clear than previously thought. How has our understanding of media violence effects changed?

“Election addiction disorder, undifferentiated, DSM-5A-177.6x” is characterized by an overwhelming need to watch anything and everything related to the current race for the White House, no matter how microscopic. Clinical details and prognosis are examined here.

A growing body of scientific literature associates psychiatric symptoms with man-made toxic substances and environmental exposure. Practical implications for psychiatrists are discussed in this Special Report collection.

John Hinckley's release after a 35-year stint in a psychiatric facility, legalized heroin, older patients facing depression alone. These stories and more in this month's roundup.

Here: devastating short- and long-term behavioral and physiological effects of methamphetamine neurotoxicity and the implications for treatment.

The abuse of this dangerous designer drug that can be purchased online is rapidly on the rise in the US.

What do we know about the health and drug consumption habits of the Nazi leader of the German people from 1933 to 1945?

Here are a few things that make me glad I'm a psychiatrist.

Do you know the 7 criteria that can help identify those at risk for unhealthy online gaming?

Clinical traditions are important, but they can become ossified as the “right way to treat addiction.” So, we need to turn a sharp, skeptical eye on treatment models.

Editors' choices of noteworthy psychiatry stories from around the Web: genetics of schizophrenia, Alzheimer disease, the perils of mixing prescription and over-the-counter medications, new guidelines for treating pain with opioids, and other topics.

The involvement of a psychiatrist early in the care of patients addicted to opioids may prevent further abuse. Here's why.

A review of a compelling documentary on the spectacular rise and catastrophic fall of British singer Amy Winehouse, a star with an old voice in a young body.

What are some of the most commonly abused drugs among college students?

Many college students who engage in binge drinking, experiment with illicit drugs, and/or misuse pharmaceuticals will go through this rite of passage relatively unscathed. However, others will not.

For all its popular appeal, the science that has emerged on cannabis use does not look good--especially for the teenage brain.

Acute intoxication is the most likely culprit for an increased risk of violence or agitation, but personality, psychosis, and cognitive problems can all play a role. A skilled clinician can glean a great deal of information in a short period of time.