SURVEY – CEP needs your contribution for BMA review into prescribed drugs

April 8, 2014 by

UnknownI really like The Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry website and they have just asked for submissions for a potentially important study. Please participate if the study is relevant to you.

‘The Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry (cepuk.org) has been invited to contribute evidence to a project at the BMA (British Medical Association) which will review the issues associated with dependence upon prescribed drugs, including benzodiazepines, sleeping pills, pain relievers and antidepressants.

If you or a family member has experienced negative effects with one or more of these drugs, or has had difficulties withdrawing or following withdrawal, then you are invited to submit your experiences to CEP. We will then collate these and include a summary and/or individual responses in our submission to the BMA.

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‘Recovery for the Health of It’ by Bill White

September 30, 2013 by

rsz_heatlh_imageThe threats to health that occur during active addiction have been widely communicated in the popular media and in the scientific literature, but the health profile of  people in long-term recovery from substance use disorders remains something of a mystery. 

While one might assume that physical and emotional health rapidly improves following recovery initiation and stabilization, a health survey of Philadelphia and surrounding counties just published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs reveals a more complex and ominous picture.

In 2010, the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services contracted with the Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) to incorporate recovery-focused items into PHMC’s 2010 Southeastern Pennsylvania (SEPA) Household Health Survey of Philadelphia and four surrounding counties. 

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‘Building the science of recovery – what I have learned goes far beyond our studies (Part 1)’ by Alexandre Laudet

June 11, 2013 by

IMG_3049Hi, I’m Alexandre. I’m an addiction recovery scientist. I’m not in recovery.

Seeking to do science on recovery, rather than addiction, has been a liability with the National Institute of Health (NIH), American scientists’ primary source of research funding. Not being in recovery has cost me points in many sectors of the recovery community.

Most often, I feel professionally ignored at best, by colleagues who do so-called ‘real’ research – on treatment, medication or vaccine development, or (the pinnacle of research stardom), the brain …

Yet, I can’t seem to want to do anything else. I am hooked on trying to build a science of recovery. Why am I doing this?

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