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The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is sponsoring the 23rd National Recovery Month (Recovery Month). This long-standing, national observance promotes the societal benefits of prevention, treatment, and recovery for substance use and mental disorders, celebrates people in recovery, lauds the contributions of […]

Whitney, whose name we changed to protect her privacy, sometimes has panic attacks. Her hands shake and her chest tightens. By the end of one, she’s drenched in sweat. To alleviate her worry about having another attack, she carries a prescription bottle of clonazepam, a benzodiazepine, with her everywhere she goes. The medication works fast,

Drug overdose deaths rose by close to 30% in the United States in 2020, hitting the highest number ever recorded, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday. More than 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2020, according to provisional data released by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. That’s a

Based on available data — as well as interviews with more than a dozen counterdrug officials, drug policy experts and academics — the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl has displaced heroin as the leading driver of the ongoing opioid crisis in the United States and is contributing to a deadly scramble for market-control back in Mexico.

Thursday, May 20 is the first Mental Health Action Day. You may see messages from brands, nonprofits, and cultural leaders encouraging all of us to take the first steps in getting support for our mental health. “Through the pandemic, economic and political uncertainties, continuing fight for racial justice that now more than ever felt like

Research shows that Americans are drinking more during the pandemic. Here’s why that’s troubling — and what experts suggest to avoid overdoing it. Have you found yourself drinking more during the pandemic? If the answer is “Cheers!,” you’re not alone. Adults across the country reported imbibing 14% more often in spring 2020 than the same

Champagne Problems Podcast Episode #2 We had a great conversation Steven Scanlan, M.D. who  is Board Certified in both General Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine and currently owns and runs Palm Beach Outpatient Detox in South Florida.  Dr. Scanlan is an expert in psychopharmacology, which is the study of substance-induced changes in mood, sensation, thinking, and

At this point last year, the world was reeling from the first effects of the new global pandemic. While strides have been made since then, anniversary-induced anxieties can be drudged up as people look back at the year we’ve endured. Local expert Dr. Don McGeary, of UT Health San Antonio’s psychiatry and rehabilitation medicine department,

“Being cooped up with family for weeks and months without a break can be difficult, but when excess alcohol gets mixed in, it can become a recipe for increased aggressive behavior and domestic violence,” Killgore said. “I worry about the effect on families and children.” Alcohol abuse can also affect work, he added. “Many of

Telemedicine is the process of providing health care from a distance through technology, often using videoconferencing. Telepsychiatry, a subset of telemedicine, can involve providing a range of services including psychiatric evaluations, therapy (individual therapy, group therapy, family therapy), patient education and medication management. Telepsychiatry can involve direct interaction between a psychiatrist and the patient. It