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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by pseudoname on June 25, 2006, at 10:10:13
There's a long article on the search for drugs to *cure* addiction in the New York Times Magazine today (Sunday 6/25/06).
• Complete article available free for a week at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/magazine/25addiction.html?pagewanted=print
"In 5 or 10 years, we will be treating addiction very differently," predicts Nora Volkow, a psychiatrist and the director of the institute on drug abuse. … What Volkow means is that in a decade or so, we may actually start treating addiction effectively.
* * *
[Recent] changes could lead to addiction vaccines. Several are already in development. … The vaccines, which the institute on drug abuse and others are testing, work by producing antibodies to a specific drug, binding to the drug when it enters the bloodstream and keeping it from entering the brain. An effective vaccine won't stop craving or treat any underlying pathology (making it an inadequate solution, some say), but it will make it nearly impossible for an addict to get high on that particular substance. And if it is combined with medications that could blunt craving, some addiction specialists believe that we'll stop using the word "treat" and start using the word "cure."
* * *
Science, it seems, has always been just about to save us from addiction. "But it has never lived up to its promise," says Bruce Alexander, emeritus professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, "and I don't believe the science will live up to its promise now, either. Addiction doesn't demand a scientific solution."
* * *
What do addicts think about all this focus on their brains? William C. Moyers, a recovery advocate (and the son of the journalist Bill Moyers) who for 12 years has been free of crack and alcohol, [said] "I was born with what I like to call a hole in my soul. … For us addicts," he continued, "recovery is more than just taking a pill or maybe getting a shot. Recovery is also about the spirit, about dealing with that hole in the soul."
Posted by Declan on June 25, 2006, at 19:00:42
In reply to future anti-addiction pills? (NY Times), posted by pseudoname on June 25, 2006, at 10:10:13
I was wondering if it was Hole in the sole, but anyway...
From when I was very young I was always finding something to mourn over. A woman died a long slow death after a shark attack and I kept a very mournful vigil. On some Good Friday's I must have been a real pain. Then when a big tree got cut down I did it again. Then after doing drugs I got onto history, novels, films. Eastern Europe was good for this, C20 history, memoirs of survivors, Ingmar Bergman, gulags, holocausts, Kolyma, and of course Hitler and Stalin
Not surprising that there's a grab for a bit of pain relef in there. I don't know if I've been very happy being unhappy; it's certainly easier as you laugh your way to the looney bin, hating every moment.
On a psychological note, my T said I had a problem with ambivalence.
Declan
Posted by Declan on June 25, 2006, at 19:02:15
In reply to Hole in the Soul » pseudoname, posted by Declan on June 25, 2006, at 19:00:42
Posted by pseudoname on June 25, 2006, at 19:58:56
In reply to Hole in the Soul » pseudoname, posted by Declan on June 25, 2006, at 19:00:42
What a child you must have been to know, Declan.
The older I get, the more I think that nearly all of the interesting part of a person is fully present at about age 4.
Posted by curtm on June 26, 2006, at 23:52:22
In reply to Hole in the Soul » pseudoname, posted by Declan on June 25, 2006, at 19:00:42
def.
the emergency vehicle they take you in, but you don't agree with where it's taking you.
example:
"Somebody call an ambivalence!"
This is the end of the thread.
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