Posts Tagged ‘addiction’

Data suggests drug treatment can lower US crime

Friday, May 18th, 2012

Reuters

U.S. crime statistics show illegal drugs play a central role in criminal acts, providing new evidence that tackling drugs as a public health issue could offer a powerful tool for lowering national crime rates, officials said on Thursday.

An annual drug monitoring report, released by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, also showed a decline in the use of cocaine since 2003, a sign that drug-interdiction efforts and public education campaigns may be curtailing the use of the drug’s powder and crack forms.

The rate of overall illegal drug use in the United States has declined by roughly 30 percent since 1979.

But Thursday’s report, based on thousands of arrestee interviews and drug tests, showed that on average 71 percent of men arrested in 10 U.S. metropolitan areas last year tested positive for an illegal substance at the time they were taken into custody.

The figures ranged from 64 percent of arrests in Atlanta to 81 percent in Sacramento, California, and were higher for nearly half of the collection sites since 2007.

U.S. officials held up the data as evidence to support President Barack Obama’s strategy aimed at breaking the cycle of drugs and crime by attacking substance abuse with treatment rather than jail for nonviolent offenders.

“Tackling the drug issue could go a long way in reducing our crime issues,” Gil Kerlikowske, head of the office that issued the report, told Reuters in an interview.

“These data confirm that we must address our drug problem as a public health issue, not just a criminal justice issue.”

The arrest figures included men taken into custody on more than one charge as well as those arrested in drug busts.

The data showed that on average about 23 percent of violent crimes and property crimes, including home burglaries, were committed by people who tested positive for at least one of 10 illegal drugs including marijuana, heroin and methamphetamines.

Charlotte, North Carolina, had the highest proportion of drug-related violent crime offenses at 29 percent, while New York City had the highest for drug-related property crimes at 32 percent.

DECLINE IN COCAINE USE

Cocaine was the second-most common drug found among arrestees after marijuana. But the report said cocaine use, with crack the most popular form, has declined significantly since a decade ago, dropping by half in major cities like New York and Chicago between 2000 and 2011.

The report said methamphetamine use was strongest in the West Coast cities of Sacramento and Portland, Oregon, with no evidence that its use has grown appreciably in areas east of the Mississippi River.

U.S. health officials says the link between drugs and crime is socially complex. But the effect drugs have on human behavior can seem more straightforward.

“Drugs impact things like inhibitory control. And our ability to weigh risks and consequences of certain behaviors is severely effected by drug abuse,” said Dr. Redonna Chandler of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Drug enforcement experts say the evidence strongly supports wider use of drug courts, which seek to impose treatment regimens instead of prison sentences on repeat criminals that are dependent on illegal drugs.

West Huddleston, of the Alexandria, Virginia-based National Association of Drug Court Professionals, said a convicted criminal who successfully completes a court-imposed treatment regimen is nearly 60 percent less likely to return to crime than those who go untreated.

There are more than 2,600 drug courts operating in the United States. But they reach only a fraction of drug-addicted offenders.

According to Chandler, 5 million of an estimated 7 million Americans who live under criminal justice supervision would benefit from drug treatment intervention. But only 7.6 percent actually receive treatment.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/05/17/data-suggests-drug-treatment-can-lower-us-crime/#ixzz1vEAxVqNU

Tags: addiction, crime, drug, Treatment
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Binge eating may lead to addiction-like behaviors

Saturday, May 5th, 2012

HERSHEY, Pa. — A history of binge eating — consuming large amounts of food in a short period of time — may make an individual more likely to show other addiction-like behaviors, including substance abuse, according to Penn StateCollege of Medicine researchers. In the short term, this finding may shed light on the factors that promote substance abuse, addiction and relapse. In the long term, may help clinicians treat individuals suffering from this devastating binge eating disorder.

“Drug addiction persists as a major problem in the United States,” said Patricia Sue Grigson, professor in Penn State’s Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences. “Likewise, excessive food intake, like binge eating, has become problematic. Substance-abuse and binge eating are both characterized by a loss of control over consumption. Given the common characteristics of these two types of disorders, it is not surprising that the co-occurrence of eating disorders and substance abuse disorders is high. It is unknown, however, whether loss of control in one disorder predisposes an individual to loss of control in another.”

Grigson and her colleagues found a link between bingeing on fat and the development of cocaine-seeking and -taking behaviors in rats, suggesting that conditions promoting excessive behavior toward one substance can increase the probability of excessive behavior toward another. They report their results in Behavioral Neuroscience.

The researchers used rats to test whether a history of binge eating on fat would augment addiction-like behavior toward cocaine by giving four groups of rats four different diets: normal rat chow; continuous ad lib access to an optional source of dietary fat; one hour of access to optional dietary fat daily; and one hour of access to dietary fat on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. All four groups also had unrestricted access to nutritionally complete chow and water. The researchers then assessed the cocaine-seeking and -taking behaviors.

“Fat bingeing behaviors developed in the rats with access to dietary fat on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays — the group with the most restricted access to the optional fat,” Grigson said.

This group tended to take more cocaine late in training, continued to try to get cocaine when signaled it was not available, and worked harder for cocaine as work requirements increased.

“While the underlying mechanisms are not known, one point is clear from behavioral data: A history of bingeing on fat changed the brain, physiology, or both in a manner that made these rats more likely to seek and take a drug when tested more than a month later,” Grigson said. “We must identify these predisposing neurophysiological changes.”

While the consumption of fat in and of itself did not increase the likelihood of subsequent addiction-like behavior for cocaine, the irregular binge-type manner in which the fat was eaten proved critical. Rats that had continuous access to fat consumed more fat than any other group, but were three times less likely to exhibit addiction-like behavior for cocaine than the group with access only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

“Indeed, while about 20 percent of those rats and humans exposed to cocaine will develop addiction-like behavior for the drug under normal circumstances, in our study, the probability of addiction to cocaine increased to approximately 50 (percent) for subjects with a history of having binged on fat,” Grigson said.

Future studies will look more closely at how bingeing can lead to addiction-like behaviors — whether bingeing on sugar or a mixture of sugar and fat also promotes cocaine or heroin addiction, for example, and whether bingeing on a drug, in turn, increases the likelihood of bingeing on fat.

Other participating researchers were Matthew D. Puhl and Angie M. Cason of the Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences in the Penn State College of Medicine; and Rebecca L. Corwin and Francis H.E. Wojnicki of the Penn State Department of Nutritional Sciences.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse funded this research.

Tags: addiction, binge eating, college, disorder, eating, penn, state, Treatment
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Number of painkiller-addicted newborns soars

Monday, April 30th, 2012

By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY

AP Aileen Dannelley holds her baby, Savannah. The one month old baby is being treated with methadone for withdrawal while she and her mother both fight addiction to powerful prescription painkillers.

The number of babies born addicted to the class of drugs that includes prescription painkillers has nearly tripled in the past decade, according to the first national study of its kind.

About 3.4 of every 1,000 infants born in a hospital in 2009 suffered from a type of drug withdrawal commonly seen in the babies of pregnant women who abuse narcotic pain medications, the study says. It’s published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
That’s about 13,539 infants a year, or one drug-addicted baby born every hour, says the study’s lead author, Stephen Patrick, a fellow in neonatal-perinatal medicine at the University of Michigan.

Treating drug-addicted newborns, most of whom are covered by the publicly financed Medicaid program, cost $720 million in 2009, the study says.

The country has an obligation to help these newborns, who “have made no choices around drug abuse and addiction” and are “the most vulnerable and the most blameless” members of society, says Marie Hayes, psychology professor at the University of Maine, who was not involved in the study.

Unlike in the 1980s and 1990s, when hospitals saw a surge in babies born addicted to crack cocaine, many newborns today arrive hooked on powerful prescription painkillers, such as Vicodin and Oxycontin, Patrick says. The type of withdrawal Patrick studied, called neonatal abstinence syndrome, produces different symptoms from those caused by cocaine. The syndrome also can be caused by illegal opiates, such as heroin, Patrick says, but this surge in addicted babies probably is explained by the national “epidemic” of prescription drug abuse.

The number of pregnant women who used or abused narcotic painkillers increased fivefold from 2000 to 2009, his study found. These mothers now account for 5.6 out of 1,000 hospital births a year, the study found. The findings also were presented at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Boston.

“The prevalence of drug use among pregnant women hasn’t changed since the early 2000s,” says Andreea Creanga, a researcher with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noting about 4.5% of pregnant women use illegal drugs. “But the types of drugs that women are using is changing.”

The CDC has flagged prescription painkiller abuse as a major health threat, noting that these drugs now cause more overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined. And the problem is getting worse. The death rate from overdoses in 2007 — 12 deaths per 100,000 people — was roughly three times higher than in 1991, a CDC report in November showed. Most of that increase came from prescription drugs.

Many of these mothers tell their doctors they didn’t realize prescription painkillers could harm their babies, perhaps because the drugs are technically legal, says Mark Hudak, a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics who wrote the group’s 2012 clinical report on newborn withdrawal. Other mothers are addicted when they become pregnant and simply unable to quit, he says.

Babies born in withdrawal are often born small and are at a higher risk of death than other infants, Patrick says. Doctors try to relieve the pain of surviving babies by treating them with methadone, a narcotic painkiller commonly used to treat heroin addicts. Doctors reduce the dose slowly over weeks to avoid causing sudden withdrawal symptoms, Patrick says.

Doctors and nurses sometimes can tell which babies are going through withdrawal from the hallway, without even seeing them, simply by hearing their cries, Patrick says. These babies are irritable and hard to console, with stiff, rigid muscles that won’t relax. They have tremors, seizures and breathing problems. They have trouble feeding and resist taking a bottle. They throw up frequently and produce watery diarrhea. “It’s like a colicky baby times 10,” Patrick says.

Sometimes, these babies are exposed to multiple drugs in the womb, from tobacco and alcohol to antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs, says Howard Heiman, associate chief of the neonatal intensive care unit at Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York. Researchers need to find better ways to treat drug-addicted mothers and to identify and treat addicted babies as early as possible.

Some states have been hit harder than others, Hayes says, particularly those with high rates of rural poverty, such as Maine and Kentucky. In Florida, the number of babies with withdrawal syndrome soared from 354 in 2006 to 1,374 in 2010, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. In response, Florida’s attorney general has convened a task force to address the problem of drug-addicted newborns.

Tags: addicted, addiction, babies, drug-addicted, meth, newborns, pain, pain killers
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New Breakthrough in Addiction Treatment Focuses on Disease's Effect on Brain

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Who would have guessed some of the newest options for treating the brain in one’s addiction would be medications already in use for things like narcolepsy or antidepressants? An article published by the Associated Press explains how drugs already in use might affect the brain’s addiction to certain substances, from cocaine to methamphetamines.

Through the use of drugs already in use for things like depression, alcoholism (did you know there’s already a shot out there that eases the difficulty in overcoming this addiction?) can block the effects of other drugs on the brain, effectively cutting out the need to use. Although these are trial tests to see if it really works, this step forward offers hope for millions struggling with addictions, the families caught in the crossfire and the economy stuck helping those whose use takes a toll on their health.

The article made an interesting analogy for the new discovery and addiction, saying “Think of it as if the brain were an orchestra, its circuits the violins and the piano and the brass section, all smoothly starting and stopping their parts on cue.”

The director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse Dr. Nora Volkow went on to explain: “That orchestration is disrupted in psychiatric illness,”. “There’s not a psychiatric disease that owns one particular circuit.” This is one of the most promising breakthroughs in the search for what has been thought of as a mythical goal: a cure for addiction.

This being said, most will have to wait for these drugs to be prescribed in addiction treatment. Until this clinical trial becomes active in the public, the best we can do is to work the steps, use the help available and seek aftercare to help in the motivation and direction of managing recovery on one’s own.

Tags: addiction, addiction recovery, addiction treatment, cocaine addiction, methamphetamine
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Shopping Addict Duff Comes Clean

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

It may be no biggie when the rich and famous call themselves “shopping addicts,” as Hilary Duff “jokingly” claims in this month’s issue of the shopping magazine Lucky (reported by MTV),

but what happens when the silliness of Duff’s apparently controlled addiction turns into something much more detrimental, something like Michael Jackson’s? He never learned to address his shopping habits (and apparent addiction), leaving him indefinitely in debt and struggling. Or worse, what happens when you’re not a celebrity at all, and that itching to spend a little burns more than just a mere hole in your pocket?

Addictions aren’t just for substances. Since it is a brain disease, someone prone to addiction can latch onto plenty of different venues of compulsion. As such, problems like compulsive shopping can be overlooked, seen as any number of less problematic things than what it truly is.

We don’t hear a whole lot about shopping addiction. The media primarily focuses on the biggies of drugs and alcohol, occasionally venturing deeper into things like gambling or sex addiction according to whichever celeb has openly become afflicted. I recall a couple years back to one of MTV’s “True Life” specials (click here to watch) that did highlight the problems of shopping addiction (very well, I might add) and I think programs like that could really do a lot to open up this problem to a wider audience. Shows like this help people unknowingly slipping down that path receive help, initiate intervention and begin regaining control over both finances and life.

Tags: addiction, addiction intervention, brain disease, hilary duff, shopping addiction
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As WV Senate Tackles Prescription Drug Abuse, Ambitious Business Women Battle Its Effects

Monday, March 8th, 2010

On March 2^nd West Virginia’s senate cleared a bill aimed at tackling prescription drug abuse. Modeled after New York’s program, it utilizes a national database physicians must use in order to prescribe or dispense painkillers and other drugs. Hoping to not only save the state money, but also tackle a problem robbing the nation of productive citizens left and right, bills like this have begun to emerge rapidly as numbers surface regarding just how many people die every year from prescription drug overdoses, specifically those of painkillers and mood-altering drugs like ADD/ADHD meds Ritalin and Adderall, fast becoming as common on the drug scene as pot, but wearing a much more accepted face.

The massive amount of women trying to make it big in the professional world who use as a means of staying focused and getting a leg up on the competition is particularly interesting to this growing problem. MSNBC recently published an article bringing to light the lengths women go to in order to stay ahead and the detrimental effects it has not only on their health, but also on the career they’re so intent on furthering.

Drugs like hydrocodone and vicodin rank high on the list of painkillers used, as they provide jolts of energy and provide focus. Unfortunately, they’re also incredibly difficult to quit using. As women become hooked they experience intense withdrawal, just like those using hard street drugs. Consequently, those who thought they had complete control over their lives and habits find themselves battling to stay alive.

This is quickly becoming commonplace, as the article explains, “According to IMS Health, a research firm that tracks prescription drug use, the use of stimulants has nearly tripled over the past decade,” and painkillers are no different.  Women are particularly vulnerable, as they are 55 percent more likely to be prescribed narcotics and anti-anxiety drugs, as the article points out, and with a mindset geared toward perfection, these victims quickly spiral out of control.

Addiction to painkillers like Vicodin, Norco and Oxycontin generally remains a tightly kept secret by those abusing, fearing reputation, backlash and career detriment. As the addiction takes hold, users must take more and more in order to keep the effects, teetering dangerously close to overdose and many times tumbling in. Because of its hush hush nature, many times treatment for painkiller addiction or prescription drug abuse remains neglected until it’s too late.

Hopefully with the increase in legislation, addiction and abuse will become more visible, and those who need painkiller addiction treatment will receive it. With more national media attention on this problem and popular shows like VH1’s Celebrity Rehab and A&E’s Intervention, painkiller addiction symptoms are coming to the forefront, helping those affected more easily identify and seek treatment, and in so doing, lifting the veil from this secretive world after the glass ceiling.

Tags: addiction, addiction in women, addiction intervention, medication addiction, painkiller addiction
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Addiction and Mental Health Parity explained

Monday, February 1st, 2010

With the mental health parity laws going into effect in October of 2009, the levels of health care available to those struggling from addiction or mental health issues have increased. Under the new Wellstone Parity Act, group health policies and employers must provide equal or higher coverage to addiction and mental illness as they would a physical illness, such as cancer. These new rules will make access to treatment much more available to the general public, as insurance companies have often set limits on days for addiction or mental health treatment, but put no limits on other types of hospital care. A government spokesperson said, “…the rules would benefit 111 million people in 446,400 group health plans offered by private employers, and 29 million people in 20,000 plans sponsored by state and local governments.”

The American Psychiatric Association had this to say: “Mental health parity was a major advance for the APA and for our patients living with mental illnesses,” said APA President Alan F. Schatzberg, M.D. “The APA will continue to work hard and submit the important feedback to the Administration that is necessary to make sure our patients receive the care they need.”

So what does that mean for us? Obviously, more access to addiction services bodes well for the general public. With more people gaining access to the resources to get help, one would think more people would get help. But is that the case? Will we see an uptick in treatment admissions? Our bet- probably not. Those who are unable to ask for help for themselves won’t magically be able to get help even when it’s available. That’s why we encourage families to break free from the traps of secrets, and get help for their loved ones. Reaching out and asking for help can provide access to those much-needed treatment options that may not have been available before this act was passed.

If you or someone you love need help with an addiction, call us at 877-320-0247 or visit us on the web at www.a-i-r.com.

You can also follow us on Twitter at @airecovery.

Tags: addiction, addiction intervention, addiction parity, AiR Assistance in recovery, chemical dependency, drug addiction, eating disorders, gentetics of addiction, intervention, mental health, mental health parity, mental illness, parity, recovery, recovery assistance, Recovery Assistance Program, substance abuse, Treatment, wellstone
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Innovative College Recovery Programs

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

With more and more adolescents and young adults seeking drug and alcohol treatment, there have been some distinct innovations in the recovery sector of colleges. According to research done at Yale University, adolescents and young adults are more prone to addiction due to their still-developing brains. There are nearly 50,000 college-age kids in America who are abusing alcohol or other drugs to the extent that they are unable to make it successfully through college. As a result, the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse are more and more prevalent in the world today; however, with additional resources available for young adults and more awareness allowing for earlier intervention, a good number of those young people are entering the journey of recovery at earlier ages. These earlier ages present new and different challenges in the recovery world, and college tends to be a place full of rampant triggers and challenges for a newly-recovering person. As a result, more colleges around the country are starting to develop programs specifically for people in recovery (for a complete list, check out the Recovery Schools website here).

A couple of programs stand out- in our backyard, Minneapolis, Augsburg College has their innovative StepUp program to meet the needs of the recovering community. With support groups and sobriety-specific dorms, Augsburg has some great wrap-around services for those young adults going to college for the first time, or heading back into an environment where they’ve struggled.

Texas Tech, in Lubbock, TX also has their own recovery program for students. Dr. Kitty Harris, director of Texas Tech’s Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery, had this to say about the program: “I want our students to have a true college experience. I don’t want them to feel separate. I don’t want them to feel apart from. I don’t want them to feel different. And I especially don’t want them to drink or do drugs.” This program, integrating students into the college milieu, provides new hope for students that have struggled in the past. Here’s a video about Texas Tech’s program.

However, there are some barriers before college. Should your adolescent or young adult need treatment, please contact us at 877-320-0247 or www.a-i-r.com. We also would highly recommend, for any person in recovery entering a college environment, our Recovery Assistance Program, which will provide additional accountability. When heading off to college, especially those without a recovery program for students, having the Recovery Assistance Program in place can provide a safety net for your loved one.

Tags: addiction, addiction intervention, adolescent addiction, AiR Assistance in recovery, assistance in recovery, augsburg stepup program, college, college recovery, drug addiction, intervention, recovery, recovery assistance, Recovery Assistance Program, sober college, sober in college, stepup program, substance abuse, texas tech, Treatment, young adult addiction
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Suboxone- the pluses and minuses

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Suboxone (or buprenorphin) seems to be all the rage these days. With the power of the multi-lateral corporation Reckitt Benckiser (whose exclusive license on Suboxone brought in fifteen percent of their overall revenue in 2009), a huge push is being made to medical doctors to prescribe Suboxone as a way to combat heroin use. Since Suboxone is a semi-synthetic opiate, many dangers arise from the over-prescription of this drug. While we at AiR have seen many benefits to Suboxone during the initial detoxification process, we worry about the addicts who get saddled in trading one maintenance drug for another. Now the website for Suboxone does suggest that “more than medication alone” makes for successful treatment; however- we’d like to see some facts and research behind the amount of people who seek outside therapy along with their medication management.
Here’s the main problem, directly from the Suboxone website:

“All opioids can cause physical dependence. SUBOXONE belongs to a class of opioids called “partial opioid agonists.” As a partial agonist, buprenorphine appears to produce less physical dependence, limited euphoria, and less potential for abuse compared with a full agonist, eg, heroin, oxycodone, and hydrocodone. SUBOXONE has potential for abuse and produces dependence of the opioid type with a milder withdrawal syndrome than full agonists.

When patients are ready to stop taking SUBOXONE, the dose is slowly and gradually tapered. The withdrawal symptoms of SUBOXONE are milder than those seen with a full opioid agonist and can be managed with your doctor’s supervision.”

So, basically, are we dealing with the new methadone here? It sure looks like it. We need physicians to be responsible and educated around addiction before they reach for that prescription pad. If a doc wants to use suboxone to assist in the detoxification process, then please do- just be sure to remove a patient from this opioid. Creating additional dependence, albeit on a lower-level substance, still encourages a dependence instead of a solution. Hazelden had this to say (from a CNN article earlier this year): “At Hazelden, a small proportion of patients receive anti-addiction drugs, but medical director Dr. Kevin Clark says the traditional model — based on intensive therapy and the 12 steps — is still best. ‘It is a disease of the brain, but it’s a multifaceted disease. It has a spiritual component, a behavioral component to it,’ says Clark. ‘Our experience tells us that having the network of support and recovery is what really makes the difference.’”

With the help of residential treatment, twelve-step programs, and support from a family, the chances of an addict getting into recovery skyrocket. Medication alone will never be the solution, because, at the end of the day, the drugs are only a symptom. An addict needs help outside of a pill.

For help for yourself or a loved one, please call us at 877-320-0247 or visit our main page at www.a-i-r.com.

Tags: addiction, addiction intervention, AiR Assistance in recovery, assistance in recovery, buprenorphin, chemical dependency, drug addiction, drug deaths, methadone, prescription drug abuse, Recovery Assistance Program, suboxone, substance abuse, Treatment
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Increasing Substance Abuse levels in older adults

Friday, January 15th, 2010

According to a press release by SAMHSA, treatment providers and families should be expecting a “dramatic increase” in substance abuse among adults 50 and older.The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is the US government agency faced with the goal of improving the quality and availability of prevention, treatment, and rehabilitative services for in the substance abuse and mental health fields. SAMSHA’s latest report, published on January 8th, states that services for those of the aging baby boomer generation should be expected to double by the year 2020.

“This new data has profound implications for the health and well-being of older adults who continue to abuse substances,” said Pamela S. Hyde, J.D, the SAMHSA Administrator. “These findings highlight the need for prevention programs for all ages as well as to establish improved screening and appropriate referral to treatment as part of routine health care services.”

The stats point to a rising trend in marijuana use, with 8.5% of men between 50 and 54 reporting having used marijuana in the past year.  And with a rise in prescription drug abuse (up from 1% to 5% of treatment admissions from 1997 to 2009), one can only expect that drug abuse will increase. The National Institute of Health reports that nearly 20% of adults have used prescription drugs for non medical reasons.  Dr. Gary Kennedy, director of Geriatric Psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center, stated: “We need much better support services for the number of older adults who are going to have substance abuse problems.” The New York Daily News even picked up on the story, stating that the Woodstock generation still has a tendency to get high.

So what do we do? Become better educated for prevention and awareness. Talk to your loved ones if you’re concerned about their use. Learn about the signs and symptoms of drug abuse. And when you need it, ask for help. Addiction is a disease of silence; keeping secrets keeps loved ones sick, and the only way to get better is through outside help.

If you or a loved one is struggling with addiction, please call us at 877-320-0247 or visit us on the web at www.a-i-r.com.

Also, for those in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, we will be presenting a family education series in conjunction with Hazelden on February 8th.

Tags: addiction, addiction intervention, AiR Assistance in recovery, alcohol, assistance in recovery, chemical dependency, drug addiction, intervention, older adult substance abuse, pain addiction, pain medication, prescription drug abuse, SAMHSA, substance abuse, Treatment
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