Addiction Related Content

A team from McLean Hospital won this year’s Partners Connected Health Innovation Challenge (CHIC) for a proposal to create a digital platform that brings integrated group therapy (IGT) to individuals with co-occurring mood disorders and addiction to drugs or alcohol . The team, which competed...

Bertha K. Madras, PhD , of McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School has been named to the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis. Created through an Executive Order signed by President Donald J. Trump on March 29, the Commission will identify current strengths and...

An estimated 20% of all patients presenting with non-cancer related pain at a physician’s office are prescribed opioids, but which of these patients, especially those who use the medicine long-term to control chronic pain, are likely to become addicted? Understanding the characteristics of such...

By 5pm, Kathy Stafford’s busy day with the kids was winding down and she would reach for a glass of wine. But as time went on, one glass in the early evening wasn’t enough. “I found myself wanting and having a glass of wine well before 5pm,” says the mother of two whose battle with alcohol lasted...

Recent studies show more American adults are filling prescriptions for benzodiazepines and are receiving increasing quantities of medication throughout their course of treatment. At the same time, 31% of the nearly 23,000 prescription overdose deaths in 2013 involved this class of drug. “While...

More than 400 clinicians from around the world converged on Cambridge, Massachusetts in early May for the McLean Hospital Addictions 2016 conference. Those in attendance included addiction specialists, mental health professionals, and practitioners representing family and internal medicine...

When Marisa M. Silveri, PhD , director of McLean Hospital’s Neurodevelopmental Laboratory on Addictions and Mental Health, gives community presentations on the effects of alcohol and drug use on the adolescent brain, she refers to herself as a “neuroscience interpreter.” Speaking to hundreds of...

The LEADER (Law Enforcement, Active Duty, Emergency Responder) program has grown substantially in volume and scope since it was launched in 2013 following the Boston Marathon bombing, according to McLean’s Chief Medical Officer Joseph Gold, MD , who oversees LEADER across multiple clinical divisions...

Former Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy was presented with McLean Hospital’s highest honor, the McLean Award , on October 23 at the Hospital’s Annual Dinner at the InterContinental Hotel in Boston. Kennedy was recognized for his work as the nation’s leading political voice on mental health and...

The misuse of alcohol, prescription medications, and illegal drugs is one of the most serious health problems in the United States. Substance use disorders have devastating effects on families and communities and their cost to society is immeasurable. McLean’s Division of Alcohol, Drugs, and...

People who experience psychiatric illnesses often struggle with substance use disorders as well. For example, those with bipolar disorder experience addiction at six times the rate of people in the general population, while those with depression and anxiety disorders struggle at twice the rate. Now...

Borden Cottage, scheduled to open in early 2015 in Camden, Maine, is the hospital’s newest residential treatment program for drug and alcohol addiction and the first McLean program to open outside of Massachusetts. Set on nearly 14 acres of lawns and gardens and overlooking Penobscot Bay, Borden...

First responders are always quick to assist others, but are among the last to seek help themselves. In 2014, McLean Hospital launched a program with the goal of changing that trend. Following the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon and the subsequent manhunt that turned the city from a bustling...

Despite distance, cultural differences, and occasional language barriers, McLean Hospital clinicians and their colleagues from the National Rehabilitation Center (NRC) in Abu Dhabi have found a common goal—to expand substance addiction treatment programs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Long known...

Chief of the Division of Alcohol, Drugs, and Addiction, Roger D. Weiss, MD , has long been a leader in the field of substance addiction treatment, research, and education. It was no surprise when he was tapped by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) to lead the first large-scale study to...

Psychiatrist Andrew Gill, MD, sometimes begins his group therapy sessions by modifying the traditional Alcoholics Anonymous-style introduction. He instructs his patients to say: “My name is Joe, and I’m a human being—with a substance abuse problem,” instead of the traditional: “My name is Joe and I...