Day 1 - Mind & Life XXVII - Craving, Desire and Addiction

Dr Marc Lewis

Dr Richard Davidson

You can view the videos on HERE.

The point of this summary is not to replace the complete video and nor is it fully comprehensive, but rather the intention is to give a brief overview of proceedings so as to assist the reader in determining which sessions they would like to watch in full.

I would also strongly recommend visiting Marc's blog where he will be offering his first-hand insights into the experience.

The first day of the XXVII Mind & Life gathering includes an introduction and establishment of context by Arthur Zajonic, Diana Chapman Walsh and Richard Davidson. In the afternoon session Dr Marc Lewis, author of Memoirs of an Addicted Brain, spoke about Craving, Dopamine and the Cycle of Addictive behaviour.

Famous for Being Homeless

I went viral. I wrote a seemingly innocuous anonymous letter to the press about being homeless and it received over 60 000 views and 700 shares from one facebook page alone. It was suggested that I did not exist and that the journalist who read out my letter on air had made me up, so I decided to "out" myself. Since then I have been sought for interviews in the press and on radio. I am not necessarily comfortable with all this media exposure, but if it can help give the marginalised a voice, I will use it. Hopefully this will help me bring the issues that are on my heart regarding addictive disorders and mental health into the public consciousness and promote debate. Here is the story:

A Christian and an addict walk into a meeting...

Recently Richard Wilmot(PhD), author of “American Euphoria: Saying 'Know' to Drugs”, posted this provocative statement on a LinkedIn discussion group:

“Today one of the main criteria for a diagnosis of drug addiction/alcoholism is: continuing to consume alcohol or another drug “despite unpleasant or adverse consequences” (DSM). For the Christian martyrs the same criteria would apply. People of that time and place—Rome, 2nd century A.D.—could also say that this new Christianity was like a drug that endangered lives and that being a Christian had all the adverse financial, social, psychological and physical consequences that we now see in the lives of drug addicts and alcoholics. And yet Christians, of all ages, in spite of the consequences, continued to profess their faith… and continued to be eaten by lions.

Obviously there was something to Christianity that prevented the Christian from being abstinent from Christianity. It was something internal… an internal euphoria. It was something that could not be seen but nevertheless was something that was felt… and felt as something awesomely significant. It was something that made all the pain and suffering worthwhile: it was a religious experience.

Opioid Substitution Therapy: Treatment vs. Recovery

Introduction

Opioid Substitution Therapy has been a controversial topic. Somehow it is easier for the addiction recovery industry to accept medications such as Disulfiram with its aversive effect or acamprosate which does not carry the risk of approximating the state of alcohol intoxication and because studies have suggested that it is only effective in conjunction with psycho-social interventions. OST, on the other hand, uses opioid agonists or partial agonists that act in similar ways to the drugs of dependence, albeit without the same quality of high, and this, some have suggested, shifts the addiction from opioid dependence to another dependence and may be of more harm than good to the addict.

Addiction Information March 2013 Newsletter

This month we celebrated Human Rights Day in South Africa. I was given the opportunity to share my opinion on why those suffering from addiction are seldom afforded the same rights as others. A copy of my speech can be found here: Human Rights Day: Addicts are also Human. This month saw the first International Conference on Behavioral Addictions taking place in Budapest and so it is fitting to talk a bit about gambling addiction. Also in this issue: 

The DeltaFOSB Feedforward Loop, Drug Court, The Portuguese Drug Policy, Russel Brand on Addiction, Discontinuation of Sublingual Buprenorphine and Possible Approval for Buprenorphine Implants

Addiction Information February 2013 Newsletter

This is Newsletter Number 2, which is a little late due to a crashed hard-drive. The only two documents I had not backed up were the talk I was due to present "Sex, Drugs and No Control", and this newsletter, so it was back to the keypad! But we've made it, although in a slightly shorter version. I hope you find this summary of addiction news from around the world useful. Your suggestions are again most welcome, and articles for the website or that you would like to have linked to this newsletter can be directly submitted to me by e-mailing shaun.shelly@yahoo.com.

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In this issue: 
Inside Rehab, Celebrity Rehab, Recovery or Treatment?, Dr Mark Willenbring, OST, Naloxone, NMDA  Modulators, Epigenetics, Frankenstien Drugs, Local Research, Ibudilast for Meth addiction?, Policy in NZ, Columbia and Africa, Banker or Dealer?

CBT Doesn't Work for Heroin Addiction?

Study Suggests Buprenorphine is enough. I Disagree.

In the January 2013 edition of The American Journal of Medicine there is a clinical research study conducted by members of the Yale University of the School of Medicine entitled: A Randomized Trial of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy in Primary Care-based Buprenorphine. (Fiellin, et al., 2013). In the abstract for the study, the stated objective was “To determine the impact of cognitive behavioral therapy on outcomes in primary care, office-based buprenorphine/naloxone treatment of opioid dependence.” The abstract concludes: “Among patients receiving buprenorphine/naloxone in primary care for opioid dependence, the effectiveness of physician management did not differ significantly from that of physician management plus cognitive behavioural therapy.”

In the Press.....

   

PRISON NO CURE FOR ADDICTION: EXPERT
By simone.williams
2013-01-15 09:00   
HARSH penalties for drug-related crimes do more harm than good.

This is according to Shaun Shelly, Addictions Programme Manager of Hope House Counselling Centre in Military Road, Retreat. In his opinion, the Drug Watch campaign by LeadSA, and editorial comments and letters in the local press seem to all be praising criminal sanctions for drug addicts encouraging harsher penalties. He complains his letters to the press have been ignored by editors.

Medication in Recovery

IMPORTANT: This article deals with treating post-detoxification addicts who have been weaned from their drug of choice under medical supervision and those who don’t have a co-morbidity that presents an immediate danger to themselves or others. I am also not talking about those who are on a supervised substitution or aversion program. We must also accept that there is a minority amongst us for whom a life free of medication is an unrealistic goal. We should recognise this and not exclude these people from the recovery process.

PDF Version
Many have come to accept addiction as a disease, and one of the down-sides of this belief is that addiction can be easily treated via pharmacological interventions. Accordingly, many recovering addicts are dealing with their symptoms via medical intervention. I think this is a mistake. Here’s why:

Treatment not Time:

Addiction is health issue, not a criminal one.

The recent Drug Watch campaign, editorial comments and letters in the local press seem to all be prescribing harsher criminal sanctions for drug addicts. Even the recent special remissions of sentences, granted by the State President, have excluded those convicted of drug related crimes. Even so, I would like to suggest that this approach is both ill-informed and not helpful if we are to make in-roads in dealing with the drug problem that undoubtedly affects our community. We need to base our approach on sound research and not on popular sentiment.