Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and its 12-step cousins are the oldest, best known, and most widely available recovery support groups. In recent decades, however, a number of alternatives have appeared that may be better suited for some people in recovery.

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) occupies such a prominent place in popular culture and addiction treatment that it seems a little odd to question its effectiveness. But odd, counterintuitive questions about AA have been accumulating for years, and we finally have a book that collects them all in one place.

Philosopher Clancy Martin, PhD, shares his own experience with addiction and the role AA played in his recovery.

There’s been a big push in the past decade for screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT), and evidence seems to support its effectiveness.

After reading these articles, you should be able to…

Informed consent—whether it be for psychotherapy, prescribing a medication, or performing a surgical procedure—is an ethical principle firmly established in law and medicine. While there has been no formal research on this subject, my experience suggests that many addiction treatment programs fail to obtain valid informed consent.

Naltrexone first hit the US market as an oral medication (ReVia) way back in 1984. Over the years, it developed a solid reputation for treating alcoholism and remains a first-line therapy today. Naltrexone was a bust, however, when it came to treating opioid addiction.

Get insight into the differences between methadone and buprenorphine when used to treat opioid addiction, in an interview with Gavin Bart, MD, PhD, FACP, FASAM, director of the division of addiction medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minnesota.

More than 100,000 Americans undergo surgery each year, about a 10-fold increase compared to the 1990s (Nguyen NT et al, J Am Coll Surg 2011;213(2):261–266). Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery (RYGB) is the most common procedure performed. As surgical volumes increased, reports started to emerge about addiction following surgery.

As deaths from heroin and other opioids continue to skyrocket nationwide, the FDA recently fast-tracked approval of a lifesaving device to reverse opioid overdoses.