It's common these days to hear people assert that addiction is an illness, but what exactly does that mean? The implications are primarily social and psychological. People will view an addict differently if the...
Category: Science
Are Video Game Addictions Real?
Video game and gaming addictions are issues that have had profound effects on our youth. Since technology and recreational gaming became normal features in our daily lives, there have always been those concerne...
How Do Meth and Other Drugs Affect Your Teeth?
Bad teeth are a pervasive stereotype for many people who struggle with or have struggled with substance use disorder. Unfortunately, the truth is that drugs do have an extraordinarily negative impact on teeth. ...
How are Substance Abuse and Self-Harm Related?
Warning: The content in this article discusses distressing themes including self-harm and suicide, which some may find triggering. If you’re struggling or need support, call 1-800-273-TALK or dial 988 for the...
Love Addiction: The Love Drug
In case you didn’t already know, Valentine’s Day is well on its way. For some people, Valentine’s Day is one of the most wonderful days of the year. For others, it can be the day that reminds them of thei...
A Look At Addiction and Codependency
When Prince penned his iconic love song “I Would Die for You,” it’s safe to assume that he was exaggerating. For many people, however, these sentiments and possibilities are far too real, as are their str...
What Happens When You Mix Lunesta and Alcohol?
Across the United States, about 60 million people struggle with chronic sleeplessness, or insomnia – and many of them use Lunesta. A sedative-hypnotic medicine, Lunesta was designed to help people fall as...
The Dangers of Mixing Librium and Alcohol
A powerful prescription benzodiazepine medication, Librium helps manage anxiety. The brand-name for chlordiazepoxide, Librium can, in some cases, help individuals manage alcohol withdrawals. However, the scary ...
AI Deconstructs Relationship between Music and Emotions
We all knew this day would come….robots are taking over in the best possible way. Researchers at USC claim that AI (yep…robots) can map what qualities of our favorite songs give us the warm-and-fuzzies…an...
A Look at Addiction and Mental Illness
Recovery Unplugged wanted to take the opportunity to discuss the clear and undeniable correlation between addiction and mental illness, and the increasing importance of dual-diagnosis treatment. We want to prom...
West Virginia Daycare for Babies with NAS is Making a Difference
The opioid epidemic has impacted millions of lives, affecting everyone from our nation’s senior citizens to its millions of children that have been displaced and subsequently put into foster care or the care ...
Children: Invisible Victims of the Opioid Epidemic
Children often bear the brunt of their parents’ mistakes, and we’re learning that the opioid addiction crisis is no exception to this reality. According to recent data from the Children Services Association...
Addressing High Rates of Mental Illness in Musicians
A just-released study from Swedish digital music distributor Record Union suggests that about three-quarters of independent musicians suffer from symptoms of mental illness, such as anxiety or depression. Furth...
CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta Explores the Healing Benefits of Music
This Saturday CNN’s Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta reiterated what Recovery Unplugged has been saying for years: music saves lives, heals pain and improves health. The segment featured Dr. Gupta traveling...
Examining Specific Workplace Issues Faced by Addiction Care Nurses
Nurses in every area of medical care face unique and extraordinary professional and personal challenges, many of which are due entirely to the nature of their field of specialization. These challenges can be es...
Maintaining Balanced Mental Health in the Nursing Profession
Few, if any, professions faces as many challenges as nursing and its adjacent career fields. The nature of nursing involves navigating difficult life events and engaging in critical decision-making on a daily b...
Re-Examining Suboxone: Benefits and Risks of Buprenorphine
Buprenorphine has been in the news more than usual as of late. On one side of the spectrum, we’ve learned that the Justice Department has issued a 28-count indictment against Suboxone® maker Invidor, that in...
The Disconnect: Can Better Cooperation between ERs and Treatment Centers Improve Odds for Drug Overdose Survivors?
So many have us have been there: it’s 3:30 in the morning and we get a frantic call or text telling us our loved one is in the hospital due to drug overdose. Maybe we even saw it happen right in front of us, ...
Johns Hopkins Study Finds Music Increases Dopamine Release
Ever wonder why you drive down the interstate blasting your favorite song and screaming along at the top of your lungs? Have you considered the reason why a key change or certain chord progression literally aff...
Testing Strips to Prevent Fentanyl Overdose: Getting Smart or Giving Up?
Fentanyl overdose has been one of the primary contributors to the alarming and tragic uptick in overall drug-related deaths in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports tha...
What Are The Most Addictive Drugs?
This time of year, everyone loves a countdown, from the best songs of the year to the most commonly used (and most ridiculous) phrases, and everything in between. Recovery Unplugged is starting your new year of...
The Role of Stigma in Addiction and Relapse
Imagine you’re in dire need of serious medical treatment— you’re in an incredible amount of pain, you have infected wounds, you can barely walk— and you know that your medical care provider isn’t goin...
Is Vaping Addiction a Threat to Teens?
Over the past few years, the advent of the vape pen and e-cigarette has changed the way that society approaches nicotine consumption. Unfortunately, however, what was initially created to help provide cigarette...
Examining the Role of Kratom in the Opioid Crisis
The opioid overdose crisis has reached such epic proportions that it’s been declared a nationwide epidemic, with overdose and addiction rates ravaging the country. Due to the intensity of the deadliest drug c...
WHO Study Reveals Grave New Realities of Alcohol-Related Death
We all know excessive drinking is bad, even those who continue to practice it on a daily basis; however, a recent, comprehensive study conducted and published by the World Health Organization has managed to ill...
Occupational Hazard: Career Choices with the Highest Rates of Substance Abuse
When an individual embarks on a career path, they’re likely considering such pros and cons as salary, contribution to their fellow man, personal fulfillment, etc. It’s doubtful they’re considering the lik...
Examining the Role of Doctors in Painkiller Abuse
In a move that is being hailed as a win in the battle against painkiller abuse, a federal grand jury in Brooklyn convicted Manhattan Dr. Martin Tesher of 10 counts of unlawful distribution of oxycodone without ...
Common Signs of Opiate Addiction
Opiate addiction has been sweeping the nation in the past twenty years and has officially been declared a public health epidemic. The latest data from the National Health Interview Survey reported that in 2017 ...
FDA Holds Meetings on Prescription Opioids for Chronic Pain
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Scott Gottlieb issued a statement this morning reaffirming the agency’s endorsement of prescription opioids for chronic pain treatment. Gottlieb was careful to ...
Researchers Identify Area of Brain Responsible for Alcohol Addiction
In a new discovery that can be critical in helping clinicians diagnose, understand and treat alcohol addiction, scientists claim they have pinpointed the region of the brain that may be the center of the diseas...
Children’s Exposure to Buprenorphine Rises over 200 Percent
Just as the FDA has approved the first-ever generic form of Suboxone® (buprenorphine and naloxone), a new study has revealed that an often-unconsidered population is already at dangerous risk of exposure to th...
FDA Approves First Generic Versions of Suboxone® for Opioid Addiction Treatment
In a move that many are speculating will increase access to quality opioid addiction treatment, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first generic form of sublingual (under-the-tongue) bupren...
Examining the Link between Addiction and Suicide
On the heels of the apparent suicides of fashion designer Kate Spade and chef, author and television host Anthony Bourdain, the United States has become engaged in an immediate dialogue about this increasingly ...
What Does Approval of Lucemyra™ Mean for Future Opioid Withdrawal Treatment?
Last week the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first non-opioid drug to help patients manage severe opioid withdrawal syndrome. The move marks a significant step forward in helping patients overc...
Choosing the Right Drug Addiction Treatment Center
The news has been rife lately with stories of opportunistic and lesser-quality treatment facilities putting their own financial interests ahead of patient care and, in some cases, actively threatening patients...
SAMHSA Publishes Best Practices on Medication-Assisted Treatment
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has codified and published a set of guidelines and best practices for dealing with medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction. Desi...
Dealing with Health Issues from Opioid Addiction
By the time opioid addiction takes of us or the people we love, there is a five-alarm urgency to get into treatment and immediately start reversing the course of this deadly and debilitating illness. All we can...
Stimulant Abuse: The Unsung Addiction Epidemic in the United States
When we think of addiction in the current American landscape, our thoughts naturally drift to the over 60,000 United States citizens that succumbed to opioid overdose just last year. There remains, however, a s...
Could Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Be an Alternative to Opioids for Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain is a condition that has confounded physicians and the medical community at large for years. It was instrumental in the hastened approval and subsequent over-prescription of powerful prescription op...
The Treatment Gap: A Look at Why So Many People Aren’t Getting Help for Opioid Addiction in the US
Last year marked another landmark year for opioid fatalities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that over 50,000 people died from opioid addiction in the US in 2016, accounting for an overw...
What One International Study Can Mean for Vivitrol Treatment in Texas
In a study believed to be the first that directly compares the two medications, researchers found that once-a-month Vivitrol treatment is just as effective as daily buprenorphine treatment. The Norwegian study,...
Is an Anti-Opioid Abuse Vaccine on the Horizon?
It may sound like science fiction; however, as opioid abuse continues to ravage the United States, clinicians and stakeholders are working harder than ever to come up with solutions to the problem. To that end,...
Popular Energy Drinks Linked to Drug and Alcohol Addiction in New Study
The next time you think about chugging a Red Bull to get through the second half of the work day or taking down a Monster before going to the gym, consider these new findings from the University of Maryland. Re...
CDC Reports Opioid Prescribing Rates Down Consistently Since 2010…Really?
There is a strange new conversation to be had among addiction treatment professionals, lawmakers, prevention advocates and anyone else with a stake in the opioid epidemic currently consuming the United States. ...
New Study Reveals Shocking Data on References to Drugs in Music
Rock and roll and hip-hop have been closely linked to counterculture over the past few decades. They have developed an association with sex, substance abuse and violence, as have genres like heavy metal, jazz a...
Make It Count: What Happens after Narcan Deployment?
Narcan saves lives and that’s really all there is too it…or is it? It’s true that the widely used anti-overdose drug has saved thousands of lives since its introduction into the opioid and heroin treatmen...
Will Fentanyl Dealers Start Seeing More Accountability for Overdose Deaths?
A Rhode Island woman was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison for second-degree murder after she sold another woman fentanyl causing her to overdose almost immediately after the transaction. The woman who d...
How Music-Based Therapy Promotes Positive Mental Health
Recovery Unplugged has established its entire treatment philosophy based on the inherent healing properties of music-based therapy. We have seen first-hand how our patients are able to pull themselves out of a ...
New Study Indicates Music May Be A Healthier High
A recent study published by researchers at Canada’s McGill University set out to examine the commonality between music, sex, food and recreational drug use in eliciting feelings of pleasure in the brain: they...
UT Austin-Led Coalition Seeks Better Pharmaceutical Treatment for Alcoholism
Are there better clinical ways to treat alcohol addiction? The National Institutes of Health seem to think so and they’re giving nearly $30 million to an organization led by the University of Texas at Austin...
Can Gene Variants Create More Targeted Opioid Addiction Treatment?
It is now generally accepted philosophy in the addiction treatment community that customized treatment plans that address each patient’s individual substance abuse history are crucial for success. A new study...
The Escalating Impact of Fentanyl
It’s a drug that many believe will be the dominant substance abuse threat of 2017. It has already contributed to a prodigious rise in the already staggering rates of heroin and opioid overdose in the United S...
The Impact of Music in Physical and Psychological Wellness
Morrissey once asked: “Does the body rule the mind or does the mind rule the body?” His ultimate conclusion was “I don’t know.” The good news is that music can have an extreme positive impact on both....
Decline In Mental Health Treatment Corresponds with Increased Suicide Rate
A report recently published by JAMA reveals a tragic, albeit unsurprising, correlation between the widespread reduction of mental health treatment resources and the collective increase in suicides across the co...
An Important Message from Recovery Unplugged Medical Director Dr. David Kramer
I’ve treated thousands of patients over my 20-year career as a doctor on the front lines of substance abuse and psychiatric illness. Recently, however, I had a heartrending experience that I feel must be shar...
Naloxone Saves Lives: A Message from Recovery Unplugged Medical Director Dr. David Kramer
I’ve treated thousands of patients in South Florida over my 20-year career as a doctor on the front lines of substance abuse and psychiatric illness. Recently, however, I had a heartrending experience that I ...
A Lesser-Discussed Threat: Synthetic Drugs and Their Impact
By now we’re all aware of the widespread devastation caused by heroin and prescription opioids. If we haven’t experienced it in our own personal lives, we’ve heard second-hand accounts of people whose liv...
Dr. David Kramer Releases White Paper on The Effects of Music in Treatment
In an effort to further illustrate the profound healing powers of music and the modernity and innovation of the Recovery Unplugged treatment model, our very own resident psychiatrist, Dr. David Kramer, has rele...
Are We All Wired for Addiction?
Last month, researchers at Texas A&M published a white paper making a decidedly bold claim: We are all wired for addiction on some level. The paper, entitled “What is Abnormal about Addiction-Related Atte...
The DSM’s Role in Defining Addiction
When an individual engages in prolonged and untreated substance abuse, it’s only a matter of time before abuse turns to addiction if there’s no action taken. The brain undergoes dramatic changes to the poin...
What Can EDM Fans’ Brains Tell Us about Addiction?
Researchers from the University of Melbourne are attempting to study the brains of fans of electronic dance music (EDM) to gain further insight into the neurobiology of craving disorders. Neuroscience PhD candi...
Texas A&M Researchers Make Significant Discovery about How Drinking Affects the Brain
Those of us that have experienced alcohol addiction, as well as those of us on the verge through prolonged abuse, understand what it’s like to simply not be able to stop. It’s like there’s some irresistib...
Researchers Suggest Using LSD to Treat Depression
This month the world got its first modern look at the brain on LSD. Decades after psychologist Timothy Leary advocated for the drug’s controlled use both in creative experimentation and mental health treatmen...
New Study Shows Effectiveness of Vivitrol to Treat Addiction
On March 31, 2016, The New England Journal of Medicine reported on a joint study of seven different universities showing the the effectiveness of Vivitrol on opioid-addicted prison patients. All test groups sho...
Inhalants: Not a Drug of the Past
It seems like a long time ago that our news broadcasts were filled with stories of teens getting in trouble for ‘huffing’ permanent markers and spray paint. Unfortunately, while these stories may not inunda...
Art Therapy Can Improve Drug Treatment Outcomes
Addiction treatment is often a combination of medical treatment, psychological treatment, behavioral modification and peer support. It isn’t an exact science, and many strategies have been used over the years...
The Narcan Debate
Up until now we have discussed the miracle ingredient in Medically Assisted Treatment (MAT)-Naloxone. One of the more common uses is in the form of Narcan. There has been much debate on the availability and all...
Addiction Stigma and Understanding
“Why the bigotry, why the stigma, why the shame when we almost all have a version of this disease? We’re all using something to deal with the pain and suffering of being human…Why are we a nation that wai...
CDC Releases Frightening Numbers about Heroin
Most of us have lost someone close to us through addiction. Our passion (just like most drug rehab centers) to help others fuels our fire to help those afflicted with addiction. That is why we are so afraid ...
Suboxone – Is it Obsolete?
Last week Recovery Unplugged spoke about Vivitrol and how it is helping many people in their recovery from substances. In the not so distant past there was a medication that promised the very same thing: Suboxo...
What is Heroin?
If you have tuned on the news lately Heroin is back in a big way. But what is Heroin? Heroin and commonly known by its street names of H, smack, boy, horse, brown, black, tar, and others is an opioidanal...
The Effects of Binge Drinking and Alcoholism
We’ve heard the term “binge drinking,” most likely attributed with college kids exploring their newfound independence. Binge drinking and excessive alcohol intake is so much more prominent than we imagine...
What is a Dissociative Disorder?
While the term may sound foreign, it is highly intertwined with drug and alcohol addiction and many times is the condition that must be treated in rehabilitation to help patients obtain sobriety. What is a diss...
The Dangers of Addiction and Pregnancy
When someone who is struggling with drug and alcohol addiction becomes pregnant, the dangers become not only prevalent to the mother, but her unborn child, too. While many people may know it is dangerous, it is...
Warning Signs of a Drug Overdose
When you suspect a friend or loved one has overdosed on drugs it can be a very scary experience. In such a tense situation, it is easy to panic and be slow to make split-second decisions that can potentially sa...
Hereditary alcoholism, is it real?
As much as people think heredity is not a factor in alcohol abuse, hereditary alcoholism does exist in the sense that some people are genetically predisposed to abusing alcohol. It all starts in the brain. The ...